Are we just a bunch of chemicals?
Are we just a bunch of chemicals? What ever action that we do, including love, hate, and anger is nothing but due to some chemicals released in the brain? This is what at least some prominent scientists seem to be thinking and bringing out theories in support of their work. I don’t think so. It may be a fact that chemicals are produced in the brain and the body but, we are more than just some chemicals. The consciousness or the life symptoms we display are due to the presence of a spiritual spark called Soul. As explained by Srila Prabhupad in Bhagavad Gita 13.34,
yatha prakasayaty ekah
kritsnam lokam imam ravih
kshetram kshetri tatha kritsnam
prakasayati bharata
As the sun alone illuminates this entire universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.
Thus consciousness is the proof of the presence of the soul, as sunshine or light is the proof of the presence of the sun. When the soul is present in the body, there is consciousness all over the body, and as soon as the soul has passed from the body there is no more consciousness. This can be easily understood by any intelligent man. Therefore consciousness is not a product of the combinations of matter. It is the symptom of the living entity.
Further more, it is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam:
yasyatma-buddhihkuṇape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhīḥkalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhī
ḥyat tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
janeṣu abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13]
As explained in Ayurveda, this body is a combination of tridhatuka – Kapha, Pita and Vata (Mucus, Bile and Air). Kunape means a bag. So, this body is a body of bones, flesh, urine and many other things. So, anyone who considers himself to be this bag of tridhatuka, Bhagavatham says is as good as a Gokharah – cow or an animal.
One cannot manufacture a living entity by combination of bones, flesh, blood, urine and stool. That is not possible. Even though they are given some ingredients like these bones, flesh, stool, urine, a human being cannot be manufactured. Then, if we are not able to create a body with these chemicals, why do we think that we are this body?
As soon as the spirit soul goes out of this body, it is nothing but bones, flesh and urine and stool and it has to be thrown away. In every society, as soon as the man is dead… So, while he was living, he was acting so nicely, so intelligently. Now as soon as the soul is gone, immediately everything is gone. So do you think it is a combination of bones and flesh? Any sane man will accept it? If you say that something is wanting for giving impetus of birth of life in this body, therefore the body’s called dead, that is not a fact. Because after this body’s dead, after the soul is gone out of the body, innumerable microbes will come out, decomposition. You cannot say the ingredients which give impetus to generation of life that is lacking. It is not lacking. Because it is not lacking, therefore millions of other microbes are coming out. That is not a fact, that this is the ingredient of life substance. There are so many arguments.
Once a Professior Kotovsky in Moscow answered Srila Prabhupad like this “Swamijī, after death, then everything finished.”
But, Bhagavad Gita explains that the Spirit Soul is eternal and after death, the soul simply transmigrates to another body. So, the body which we are seeing is gross body. Just like shirt and coat. Within your coat, there is shirt, and within your shirt, there is a body. Similarly, the pure soul is covered by shirt and coat. The shirt is mind, intelligence and false ego. False ego means that the wrong conception that “I am matter. I am something, product of this material world.” This wrong conception makes me localized. Because I have taken my birth in India, therefore I think myself as Indian. But, this is only a designation, to think that we are Indian or Australian etc. Thus, we may have different bodies. Like our dress but, they have nothing to do with our real identity. Our real identity is that of a pure soul. I think..I will stop here for today…You are free to comment and post your thoughts on this subject and I will be happy to read and discuss.
