LIFE DEFINED

              The most curious aspect of life, probably, is that it can be lived and experienced but difficult, almost impossible, to define. The early human beings realized that the world could be divided into two categories of entities namely animate or living and inanimate or nonliving. Intense observations on these two categories led them to draw certain essential differences between the two.  However, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) the legendary Greek philosopher believed that such clear cut distinctions were not possible in nature. Despite intense scientific investigations and observations even modern scientists agree with Aristotle in that it is indeed difficult to arrive at a close distinction between living and nonliving, although it is easy to distinguish an animal as living and a stone as nonliving on a cursory observation.

       All definitions of life in modern science are concerned with the properties of life rather than the principle called life. Accordingly physiologists define life as any system capable of eating, metabolising, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, and reproducing and constantly responding to external stimuli.  Metabolically life is the property of any object surrounded by a definite boundary and capable of exchanging materials with its surroundings. A single celled amoeba and a bacterium are examples of such systems. Biochemically life subsists in cellular systems containing both nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins (enzymes). A geneticist may define life as something that belongs to systems which are able to perform complex transformations of organic molecules, construct copies of themselves from raw materials and are capable of evolutionary changes through natural selection. However, all these descriptions fall short of the actual definition of the principle that makes a system living and performing.

       Indian sages recognised this life principle as Atman which is the “unborn, eternal, everlasting entity that never perishes when the body ceases to exist” (Katha Upanishad, 2.18). The same is expressed in the Bhagavad Gīta as well (2.20). It is that principle which enlivens all organ systems of organisms: “It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech indeed of the speech, the breath of the breath, and the eye of the eye” (Kena Upanishad, 1.2). “It moves (when the organism moves); it does not move (because it is everywhere); it is far away (as it is beyond the comprehension of common intellect), yet it is so near (as it is within every living thing); it is the eternal spirit of everything that we know” (Īṡāvāsya Upanishad, 5). However, ‘life’ is such a phenomenon “which has no definite shape, neither beginning nor end” (Bhagavad  Gīta, 15.3). Although it is true that life has no definite shape or structure, it assumes the structure of the body through which it is expressed. It may appear as a minute bacterium or as a big blue whale which can easily accommodate a full grown elephant in its belly. It may manifest as small as an alga or as a giant peepal or redwood tree. In other words life manifests itself in innumerable shapes and sizes and numbers as animals, trees, shrubs, grasses and a host of other forms, both ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate;’ it may also express itself through emotions, thoughts and feelings. However, “when it is existing in a living body or departing from it (at the time of death) this principle cannot be comprehended through ordinary means of perception, but only through the eye of wisdom” (Bhagavad Gīta, 15.10). It is beyond the comprehension of the sensory system of human beings, but could be experienced by super sensory perception through yogic practices. All ancient Indian scriptures vouch for the fact that the principle of life is eternal entity without a beginning or end and is not destroyed along with the destruction of the body. One interesting aspect of life is that various words in different ancient languages used to denote life has something related to breathing. The etymological roots of ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ mean ‘breath’ in many antique languages. The words used for ‘soul’ in Sanskrit (atman), Greek (psyche) and Latin (anima) all mean ‘breath.’ The same is true for the word for ‘spirit’; in Latin (spiritus), in Greek (pneuma) and in Hebrew (rwab) all meaning ‘breath.’ Of course, breathing is the immediate visible expression of life in a living organism.