• This forum contains old posts that have been closed. New threads and replies may not be made here. Please navigate to the relevant forum to create a new thread or post a reply.
  • Welcome to Tamil Brahmins forums.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our Free Brahmin Community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

Sanatana Dharma and its digestion - Part 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
Asrama dharma

Asrama dharma says there are four Asramas in human life. These four Asramas are defined based on how human brain development and environmental changes. If one understands these four Asramas and lives accordingly, the person will be happy all through life.

The four Asramas are Brahmacharya, Grhasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa.

Brahmacharya – Brain development and Learning


Brahma is the expanded spacetime. It is on this expanded spacetime that force-fields manifest and produce particles with energy and mass. It is also used to indicate that ‘state’ of being in a ‘clean slate’ on which creation happens.

Brahmacarya indicates this state of being a ‘clean slate’ in which lot of new learnings and ideas happens as the force-fields, particles and the universe happened on that expanded spacetime.

According to scientific studies[SUP]1[/SUP], brain growth in humans from conception to adulthood mimic the human brain evolution of millions of years. In particular, detailed studies show that the human brain regions that expand the most during infancy (after birth) and childhood are the same parts that expanded the most during evolution as humans diverged from other primates.

From birth to teenage years, there is a fourfold increase in the volume of the human brain. During this period, there are also marked improvements in motor, cognitive and perceptual abilities. It is well known that an infant’s interaction with its environment helps to sculpt inter- and intraregional connections within the cortex, eventually resulting in the highly specialized adult brain.

The relatively delayed rate of development of the human brain[SUP]2[/SUP], compared with that of other mammals makes it more susceptible to the influence of postnatal experiences, teaching and instruction.

According to scientists, extra-large helpings of social and cultural knowledge from Gurus/teachers customize the infant brain, making both babies and the species (as a whole) more adaptable and allowing for complex social institutions to develop[SUP]1[/SUP].

According to research, pure cognitive development (e.g., the ability to abstract) is established by mid-adolescence. This is the period of intense and formal learning for a person as the abstraction abilities get developed.

Hence the early stage of life till adulthood is defined as the Brahmacharya stage of life, which is the ‘clean slate’.

It is mandated that a person has to spend time in formal learning through different Gurus during this stage of life, so that the human brain which is susceptible to learning and adaptation is given an appropriate amount of knowledge.

Grhastasrama – Stable House (profession and family)


Grha-stha means a stable house. It could mean a stable way of living in terms of a family or house.

From the late teens to twenty’s, a wave of overproduction of gray matter happens in the brain, following which a process called ‘pruning’ occurs, where connections among neurons in the brain that are not used wither away, while those that are used stay (use it or lose it)[SUP]3[/SUP].

Thus late teenagers and adults can “exercise” their brains and hard-wire it for sports or playing music or mathematics or science or arts and enter a ‘stable’ professional period of life.

Also the development of the emotional component of cognition and behavior lasts well into adulthood which is associated with a marked decrease in anxiety, affective intensity, and sociability during the midlife period.

This is Grhastha asrama.

Vanaprastha – Entering a new domain of life


After sometime, our life become routine and mundane to us. In mid-life period, Our mind gets rested for most part and rusted.
We are in real risk of losing our abilities. How do we retain them till our death..?

According to science, the human brain is able to continually adapt and rewire itself. Even in old age, it can grow new neurons. Though severe mental decline is caused by disease, most age-related losses in memory or motor skills simply result from inactivity and a lack of mental exercise and stimulation. In other words, again, use it or lose it.

So as our kids grow up and move out of their Brahmachaya, we need to enter into a new Vana (domain of life). That’s the way to re-invigorate our mind and keeping it working all the time. This ensures that our mental abilities are very well maintained from mid-life period to very old age. This is the concept of Vanaprastha.

Rishis of the yore entered forest along with their spouse and experienced this new domain. They concentrated much more on the vedic rituals and practices apart from research. This helped them live long with full mental capabilities.

In modern context, the new domain could be a passion, social service, politics, entrepreneurship or a job in which we are passionate. It could be anything including trying out innovative ideas for society or more spiritual work that helps the society at large.

Sanyasa - Stress free old age


Sanyasa is the stage of life from old-age to death. Sanyasa means ‘giving up’ or ‘abandoning’. Giving up or abandoning something specific is equivalent to owning up everything.

Stress induced brain shrinkage in old age
According to science from the age of 60, human brains start shrinking[SUP]4[/SUP]. At the same time brain shrinkage in itself does not immediately cause impairment in cognitive functions and memory.

Research has shown that high levels of stress hormones when combined with shrinkage of brain results in impairment of memory and diseases like alzheimers[SUP]5[/SUP].

In other words stress at old age is a definite recipe for cognitive problems and diseases like alzheimers.

How can we beat stress at old age..?

Our dharma says ‘giving up’ or ‘abandoning’ is a way of removing stress from old age. Sankara says one should live as ‘Jeevan Maatrartha Ceshta’ (live just retaining life) in the sanyasa asrama.

Such people who have given up on wealth, relationships and consider the whole world as theirs do not suffer from any memory ailments or diseases, as they feel no stress at all. They are not stressed up any loss as loss at one point is gain at another point.

Thus Asrama Dharma is tuned to human brain development.

Sutras on Asrama Dharma

Manu prescribes people moving gradually from one Asrama to another Asrama. Some of the sutras like Vasishta dharma sutra, Gautama dharma sutra, say a Brahmachrin can move into Vanaprastha skipping the Grhastha. It is like youth dedicating their life to social service like Shankara, Abdul Kalam or Vajpayee. But this is not recommended by Manu.

Grhastha (adulthood) is the stage until which development of emotional component of cognition and behavior happens. This is well suited for a family life. Since ultimate unit of society are families, it is important for people in Vanaprastha (social service) to have experienced this Grhastha stage. That experience would help them to contribute better to a society.

Next: Sciences in Sanatana dharma



References
1. https://www.wired.com/2010/07/brain-evolution/
2. http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v2/n7/full/nrn0701_475a.html
3. http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_brain_0502.cfm
4. http://www.livestrong.com/article/161959-what-are-the-causes-of-brain-atrophy/
5. https://www.anxiety.org/stress-memory-loss-aging
6. https://now.uiowa.edu/2014/06/stress-hormone-linked-short-term-memory-loss-we-age
7. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...re-itll-affect-short-term-memory-old-age.html

-TBT
 
Grhasta period...please include Testosterone and Estrogen..both very important hormones for peak reproduction and recreation.
 
Sure. Which controls the production of testosterone..? Brain and the pituitary gland. We also know that a 'developing' brain has high receptors for estradiol and this action on brain establishes the sex differences. So it all again goes back to brain.
 
Sure. Which controls the production of testosterone..? Brain and the pituitary gland. We also know that a 'developing' brain has high receptors for estradiol and this action on brain establishes the sex differences. So it all again goes back to brain.

If I castrate a male pre pubertal he doesnt develop into a fully developed male.

Same with a female..if I remove her ovaries pre pubertal she doesnt develop into a woman.

Now even though brain is intact you still need gonads.


Even in utero its the gonadal function that primes the sexual differentiation.

So secret of life lies in nether regions!LOL..kidding.

If I remove the pancreas a person develops Diabetes type 1.

Brain still intact yet brain cant do anything to reverse that effect.

So Brain..even though sits high in the head cant do anything much if peripheral organs cease to function and to a great extent organs too depend on brain etc.

So if you ask me..nothing is King in the body..everything needs to function in concert for a perfect symphony.

Next question is..is our Manas..Buddhi etc over rated too?

When we dwell deeper it hits us right in our face that everything is finally so insignificant.

We are yet to know what is actually significant..can we ever know? If so what do we know with?

How do my questions fit into your understanding of Dharma ( I prefer to only use Dharma and omit the word Sanathana since I am yet to get any input about its Vedic usage probably due to my lack of exposure to Vedic text)
 
Last edited:
I did not mean Brain is the 'king' in comparison with other organs.

I said the Asrama dharma maps to Brain development and evolution. You had responded that harmones are important too in grhasta stage. I agreed.

I wrote that it is brain that controls the testosterone production or the receptors for estrogen. Hence my proposition was that asrama dharma is defined following the way human brain evolves and controls other organs. That does not mean other organs are less or more.

-TBT
 
Regarding your other questions, a similar thinking process happens in scriptures across sanatana dharma. The following is another Q&A I had with someone else.

Question:
What is 'mind' or 'manas'..?

Answer:

Manas is 'virtual'.

What is virtual..? In Quantum physics there is a concept called Real and Virtual. Real particles are those that satisfy energy-momentum relationship, whose speed is limited to light speeds. Virtual particles are those that do not satisfy this relationship, have no limits on their speeds.



Virtual particles are 'virtual' in the sense they don't exist. But they are needed to explain something. For eg. a proton and neutron bind together in nucleus of atoms. What binds them is called residual strong force. But this residual strong force is mediated by a 'virtual' pion. The pion does not exist there. But without this pion we can't explain how residual strong force is mediated between protons and neutrons.


Without this virtual thing, which does not exist, we can't explain how nucleus of atom is formed.

This kind of understanding may be simply a modelling gap or gap in our understanding. May be in another model this virtual thing is not required. But unfortunately the model we have today requires this virtual thing.


Nucleus of atom is 'Hrday' (or heart) and this 'Manas' is present in the 'Hrday' or heart. That is how mind is present in the 'heart'.

These atoms with 'manas' make the chemical compounds, the biological cells and this co-ordinated cell cluster/colony called 'human being'.

The manas in the human beings is inside the atoms. When brain transacts information (thoughts) as 'electric charges', 'virtual photons' are said to mediate the charges. The 'manas' is inside these transactions (thoughts).


In the same way, when we model our working of our body, we can perceive that there is something, say a 'virtual software probably' inside our 'hardware' that guides every being. A software cannot be seen but can be inferred. This software is 'virtual' in the sense we can't exactly locate where it is.. It is in the brain, it is in the heart, it is probably in every cell, it is in the interaction between cells. It seems to be distributed and virtual. Without this virtual software we can't explain the functioning of human body as this software is what gives an unique flavor and also contributes to physical evolution of body organs.


Our body is made of 'real' particles (from quantum physics perspective). But we can't explain it without bringing in this 'virtual' software that connects, co-ordinates and control. Such virtual elements are what we call as 'mind' or 'manas'.

From quantum physics to biology, the 'real' (nara) needs a 'virtual' (manas) for binding together..

Question

Please don't think that I am just writing for an argument sake.I have been reading ur articles and wondering about the level of ur understanding and continuous scientific and logical analysis of our vedic literature.

Is this 'virtual software' the karmic record which the humans bring with them and all other virtual software like manas budhi,intellect follow suit and his fate in the material world is thus determined..? Is that what is the logical explanation we derive from the scriptures...?

Answer:


I said there is a 'virtual software probably' that is distributed in our hardware.


Manas, Cetas, Citta, Buddhi, AhamkAra are some terminologies that we use and confuse.


Manas is the virtual thing that binds, that is needed without which we can't explain the Universe. But Manas is invisible. I wrote about Manas previously.


Cetas are the real particles that are visible and observable that make us and the universe.


Citta is the ability to transact information. It is what we call 'thoughts' which transact information. While manas is virtual, Citta, our thoughts are in real domain, as there is a real information transaction in our brain associated with thoughts. There is a real charge transaction or charge transport that happens in our brain associated with our thoughts. This exists in all matter and beings.


Aham-kAra is the 'internal property' that every matter and being has when they interact with another entity. Sodium has an ahamkAra. Chlorine has an ahamkAra. When they combine Sodium Chloride has another ahamkAra. Every human cell as an ahamkAra. When all these get co-ordinated by brain and react, the human being has another aham-kAra. When a human being places too much emphasis on this aham-kAra or internal property in his/her transaction with other beings, that aham-kAra becomes 'ego'.


Buddhi is the evolved ability to logically analyse the transacted information and respond. It is an evolved ability on top of thoughts.


All matter and beings leave their imprint not only on their offsprings (by inherited properties or genetics), but also on all other matter and beings around them. Our imprints are left physically on our kids through genetics (cetas, visibly), our thoughts (citta) on us and others, impact of our ego (ahamkAra) on us and others, impact of our intellect (buddhi) on us and others.


The 'Karmic record' that you are referring to is a culmination of all of these imprints that come back to us and our progeny as we all live in the same society.


****
What is Atman then..?

Atman comes from At-manas, that is extremely virtual. Manas is the virtual thing which binds the 'real' particles and beings at several levels. At-manas is extremely virtual.

We don't know the nature of it as it's physics is not defined by the laws we observe in this Universe. What it is we may partially know or we may never know.

That we don't know does not make anything insignificant. We will not know so many things at all points of time. Yet the expansion/evolution (Brahman) of this Universe is real and in the observable Universe. That's why it is said Brahman is real, jiva (life) is un-differentiated from Brahman (evolution)

As I said sanatana means coming from ancient times and hence those laws of living that are coming from ancient times and that cannot be changed are sanatana dharma.

-TBT
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest ads

Back
Top