The Jaina Doctrine of Karma And The Science Of Genetics: Parapsychology

The parapsychology comes closer to find the answer as to what is behind genes? They claim that we have unconscious mind and a subconscious mind. As per Jainism unconscious mind is karmaśarīra and the sub-conscious mind is taijasa śarīra (leśyā and bhāva from taijasa śarīra). They talk about things that are controlled by other than the senses. They talk about ESP (Extra Sensory Perception). They talk about telepathy (sending thoughts/feelings from one person to another), Clairvoyance, (awakeness of objects, things without use of senses), pre-recognition (knowledge of future events) and psychokinesis (mind over matter). We say there are avadhi jñāna (knowledge limited by area, time and feelings), manaḥparyava jñāna (knowledge of other's thoughts) and kevala jñāna (perfect knowledge). These three knowledges are not dependant on our senses and mind. Karma śarīra and its effect on our soul are behind every thing. Similarly karma śarīra is behind genes also. ^[11]

Thirty five years ago when the science of genetics was still in its infancy in the west, my "God gene" (read spiritual hunger) became active and I found myself in India Sitting at the feet of a great Mahātmā. His view of spiritual practice as a preparation for enlightenment was based on the idea of burning out or exhausting the traces of karma (read soul genes) that has accumulated in the casual body (read DNA). I don't know where the first references to the God gene appear in Vedic literature but the idea is certainly many thousand years old. The DNA that the west has been investigating and is meant to contain the "God gene" among others, it is known as the karma śarīra or the casual body in Vedantic literature. It is called casual because, like the DNA, it is the cause of the psyche and the motivating force behind action. The genes themselves are referred to as vāsanās or saṁskāras. The way the casual body manages the vāsanās is similar to the way the DNA is thought to manage the genes. The Vāsanās explain how psychic material passes through time, survives then death of the physical and comes to generate new life. The Vāsanās are responsible for psychological as well as physical traits. In fact, the search for the ultimate building blocks of life is a search for its cause the Vāsanās are the genes for genes; they are the link between non-material unmanifest consciousness (called spirit or God in the west) the source of life, and its subtlest manifestation, the DNA which contains the genes. Although it has discovered the DNA and its genetic material. Western science will discover the vāsanās, except by inference because its epistemology is ultimately based on sense data; the Vāsanās are much subtler than the senses. ^[12]

India's reputation as the world's super power is well deserved. Long before the 'west' as we know it embarked on the enquiry into the nature of the material world that is now modern science the Vedic seers had developed a method called "yoga" that allowed them to transcend the mind and therefore observed extremely subtle phenomena, that the senses cannot record. As a result of this they were able to understand the DNA and the genes. In spite of perhaps because of its success in understanding the material world, western science is burdened with an undeserved proud regarding its achievements. It would not take kindly to the idea that another civilization on it regards as primitive owing to its lack of water seal toilets and other material amenities. Could have understood something as subtle and important as genetics, not to mention the science of God, long before it even existed.^[13]

The limitation of the experimental scientific approach to God are evident in geneticist Dr. Hamer's statement, "I think we follow the basic law of nature, which is that we are a bunch of chemical reactions running around in a bag. Perhaps, but the real question is: What or who is the chemist? Because chemicals are insentient they do not react on their own.....although they appear to do so. A conscious agent is required to make life. The very scientists who are 'investigating the DNA among other things are conscious beings and no instrument can validate their existence.....because it is self evident that human beings are conscious, it does not make a mirror to know that we have eyes even though the eyes cannot see themselves. And it is quite clear from simple observations that the creation too is conscious.^[14]

The article considered other relevant research on the relationship between the functions of the brain and spiritual state (combination of soul and karma śarīra) - "The deeper that people descend into meditation or prayer the more active the frontal lobe and the limbic system become. The frontal lobe is the seat of concentration and attention: the limbic system is where powerful feelings, including rapture are processed. This is being done by specific genes. More revealing is the fact that at the same time these regions flash to life, another important region the parietal lobe at the back of the brain - goes dim. It is this lobe that orients the individual in time and space. Take it offline and the boundaries of the self fall away, creating the feeling of being at one with the universe. Combine that with what is going on in the other two lobes. and you can put together a profound religious experience. The most interesting idea in this statement is the idea of taking a portion of brain offline. This is done by specific genes. All that is needed is to substitute the word mind or brain and this is fundamentally the same idea as that of a great of second century BC Indian yogi Pātañjali "Yoga is the removal of the thoughts in the mind". He says it is taking the brain off line. When you clear the mind Pātañjali says "the seer shines in all its glory. In other words you have a profound religious experience. You can also have a profound religious experience without taking any thing offline or removing the thoughts in the mind. If consciousness is every where, informing everything every second how unreasonable is it to assume that revelation (Ākāśavāṇī) is a daily and universal phenomenon.^[15]