In this conversation, I am using the term ‘Spiritual’ to define it as a biological function that can be understood by observing interactions among members of a biological or biotic community.
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. 2015 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE GIVES RECOGNITION TO CHALLENGE POSED BY BIOTIC INTERACTIONS CALLED PARASITISM.BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. 2015 NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE. DR. YOUYOU TU OF CHINA, DR. SATOSHI OMURA OF JAPAN, AND DR. WILLIAM C. CAMPBELL OF UNITED STATES.
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2015 is won by three scientists, Dr. William C. Campbell of United States, Dr. Satoshi Omura of Japan, and Dr. Youyou Tu of China. This Nobel Award recognizes importance of problems posed by ‘Parasitism’. While paying my humble tribute to these three scientists, I would like to share some information on Biotic Interactions.
Biotic Community and Biotic Interactions
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM.
A biological or biotic community consists of two or more interacting and interdependent populations of living organisms. The life of the community and of all organisms in it requires energy. No species lives in isolation from other species in a biological or biotic community. Two kinds of Biotic Interactions are described; 1. Intraspecific Biotic Interactions between members of the same species, and 2. Interspecific Biotic Interactions between members of two or more different species. Biotic Interactions may involve nutritional benefits, space in which to live, shelter, or protection, transport, or reproductive capability. Biotic Interactions are significant not only because they influence individual species but also because they constitute the principal stabilizing connective linkages among various species contained in a biotic community. Individual members of any given species in a biotic community persist in relative harmony because of Biotic Interactions despite individual gains and losses. As consequence of this web of interactions, the biotic community as a whole persists with all of its members ultimately contributing to its continuation.
Human Body as a Biotic Community
Human body consists of about 100 trillion independent, individual, living cells. Human body carries about ten times (10 times 100 trillion) as many microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract. Man has to be always recognized as a natural host of a diverse biotic community. The microbes that colonize man often perform functions beneficial to the host. Man provides microbes a protected place to live and an environment that is rich in nutrients. This mutual beneficial relationship is always present during the entire course of life after birth.
Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism
Mutualism or Symbiosis describes Biotic Interactions with mutual advantage to both or all organisms involved. It is living together of two kinds of organisms and such association is of mutual advantage. Commensalism describes Biotic Interactions that involve a close association or union between two kinds of organisms in which one is benefited by the relationship and the other is neither benefited nor harmed. The term ‘Parasite’ is used to describe a plant or animal that lives on or in an organism of another species from which it derives sustenance or protection without benefit to, and usually with harmful effects on the host. Thus Parasitism is a Biotic Interaction in which the parasite is benefited and the host is usually harmed with serious consequences. There are numerous parasites that contribute to human pain, misery, and suffering. Onchocerciasis is a fly transmitted tropical disease in which parasitic filarial worms (Genus. Onchocerca) cause tumors, skin lesions, and blindness (River Blindness). Lymphatic Filariasis is caused by another genus of roundworm or nematode. Malaria is an infectious disease, generally intermittent and recurrent, caused by Protozoans (Genus. Plasmodium) that are parasitic in human Red Blood Cells and are transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito, especially the female Anopheles. Malaria is characterized by severe chills and fever. Plasmodium parasite is a formidable enemy to man’s existence. A medical historian described the proboscis of female Anopheline Mosquito, “Down this tiny tube crept the microscopic poison which swept away two of the mightiest empires the world has ever seen.”
Spiritual Biotic Interactions
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. RED BLOOD CELLS HAVE INDIVIDUAL LIFESPANS OF SHORT DURATIONS AND THEY EXIST PERFORMING TASKS FOR THE BENEFIT OF REST OF HUMAN ORGANISM THAT HAS A LIFESPAN OF ITS OWN.
The term ‘Spiritual’ describes the nature of relationship, partnership, association, bonding, connection, or Biotic Interaction between two living entities based on characteristics such as compassion, kindness, sympathy, cooperation, voluntary assistance, mutual tolerance, voluntary subservience, functional subordination, or ‘altruism’ to provide some benefit to another member participating in the Biotic Interaction. For example, if man is viewed as a biological community of trillions of individual, independent, living cells, the person recognized as man exists because of ‘spiritual’ nature of interactions between Red Blood Cells and all other cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems of his human body.
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
Work that won Nobel Prize for Medicine 2015
By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM . FILARIAL PARASITE INVADES LYMPH VESSELS AND LYMPHOID TISSUE TO CAUSE SWELLING OF LEGS AND OTHER PARTS OF BODY. CHRONIC LEG SWELLING IS CALLED ELEPHANTIASIS.
5 October 2015
Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption People with swollen legs due to severe lymphatic filariasis
The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine has been split two ways for groundbreaking work on parasitic diseases.
The research, by William C Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Youyou Tu, has led to drugs to treat diseases affecting more than 3.4 billion people around the world.
One of them, malaria, most people have heard of. But the other two illnesses, onchocerciasis or “river blindness” and lymphatic filariasis or “elephantiasis” – both caused by roundworm parasites – are lesser known.
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. WOMAN WITH RIVER BLINDNESS CAUSED BY FILARIAL PARASITE.
Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Blindness occurs as an allergic reaction when the worms die in or near tissues of the eye
People catch these worms from bites from infected insects such as flies or mosquitoes.
Left untreated, the worms grow and multiply, causing disabling symptoms in their host.
The drug Ivermectin kills the first larval stage of the parasite – the babies of adult female worms.
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. SOME BIOTIC INTERACTIONS ARE POTENTIALLY HARMFUL TO HUMAN EXISTENCE.
Image copyright SPL Image caption Feeding flies spread the parasite
William C Campbell discovered this by studying bacteria living in soil samples obtained by Satoshi Omura from a Japanese golf course in Ito City, in the Shizuoka region.
One particular strain of bacterium, Streptomyces avermitilis, caught his eye because of its potent anti-parasitic properties. Working with drug company Merck and Co, he then set about purifying this agent.
Since 1987, Merk (MSD) has given ivermectin away free to those countries that need it most.
BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. The portrait of Irish-born William Campbell and an illustration describing his work are displayed on a screen during a press conference of the Nobel Committee to announce the winners of the 2015 Nobel Medicine Prize on October 5, 2015 at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Irish-born William Campbell, Satoshi Omura of Japan and China’s Youyou Tu won the Nobel Medicine Prize for their discoveries of treatments against parasites, the jury said. AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Image copyright SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption Drugs can cure early infection, but advanced disease is harder to treat
Last year, it donated more than 300 million doses to treat river blindness and elephantiasis.
Chinese medicine
Meanwhile, Chinese scientist Youyou Tu had been focusing her attentions in the 1960s and 70s on finding a new treatment for malaria. The staples quinine and chloroquine were failing because the parasite that causes malaria – Plasmodium falciparum – had learned how to evade their attack. Disheartened by the lack of effective drugs to tackle this mosquito-borne disease, the professor turned to traditional medicine to hunt for a new option.
She found that an extract from the sweet wormwood plant Artemisia annual was sometimes effective – but the results were inconsistent, so she went back to ancient literature, including a recipe from AD350.
Biotic interactions. Spiritualism vs Parasitism. Chinese Natural Medicine. Use of ‘Qinghao’ plant extract to cure Malaria.BIOTIC INTERACTIONS – SPIRITUALISM VS PARASITISM. DISCOVERY OF DRUG TO TREAT INFECTION CAUSED BY MALARIAL PARASITE.
This ancient document – Ge Hong’s A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies – recommended a handful of qinghao [the Chinese name for the plant extract] immersed in two litres of water, “wring out the juice and drink it all”.
Image copyright AFP/GETTY
This she did (with a few tweaks), testing it on herself as well as animals in her lab.
She said: “During the Cultural Revolution, there were no practical ways to perform clinical trials of new drugs. So, in order to help patients with malaria, my colleagues and I bravely volunteered to be the first people to take the extract.
“After ascertaining that the extract was safe for human consumption, we went to the Hainan province to test its clinical efficacy, carrying out antimalarial trials with patients,” she wrote in Nature Medicine.
Her discovery eventually led to the creation of an antimalarial drug – artemisinin – that is still relied upon today.
The World Health Organization credits the expanding access to artemisinin-based combination therapies in malaria-endemic countries as a key factor in driving down deaths in recent years.
In 2013, 392 million ACT treatment courses were procured by endemic countries – up from 11 million in 2005. But artemisinin-resistant strains of malaria are emerging.
As of February 2015, artemisinin resistance had been confirmed in five countries: Cambodia Laos Myanmar, also known as Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. And so the quest for new drugs continues.
Red Blood Cells – Altruism – Spiritualism – The New Synthesis: Unlike most cells of the human organism, mature Red Blood Cells do not have nuclei, have no mitochondria, and have no other organelles. The Red Blood Cells cannot divide and reproduce and lead a short life while they exist to support the life and survival of trillions of other cells in the body.
Defending Human Existence. The Fundamental Basis of Human Existence is not that of Man’s Intelligence or Mental Memory and Mental Functions.
To account for human existence, to face challenges to human survival, man has to identify molecules that operate various living functions. Man defends his life deploying protein molecules that recognize and respond to invasion of human body by pathogens consisting of foreign protein molecules. While learned experience provides cortical awareness of human immunological responses to attacks by pathogens, human mind is blissfully unaware of the presence of pathogens. Recognition of non-self proteins and molecules called antigens is not a mental function.
Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Cells of the Immune System recognize foreign protein molecules called Antigens and respond to their presence.MOLECULAR BASIS OF SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – IMMUNOLOGY PROVIDES UNDERSTANDING OF SELF AND NON-SELF. PROTEIN MOLECULES CALLED ANTIGENS ELICIT IMMUNE RESPONSE.
If Spirit or Soul functions as guiding mechanism, Spirit or Soul will have awareness of invasion of body by foreign antigens and body’s immunological response to such invasion. If Reticular Formation of Brain Stem, the site at which contents of Consciousness are composed, is viewed as seat of human Spirit or Soul, it has awareness of body’s invasion and response to attacks by pathogens. Immunological responses to infections trigger a stress response mediated by Hypothalamus – Pituitary – Adrenal Cortex Pathway.
Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Recognition of foreign protein molecules or antigens is not a mental function. However, Reticular Formation is involved in shaping Immune Response to Stress imposed by pathogens attacking human body.
The discovery of antibiotic-resistant Superbugs may eventually lead to better understanding of Spirit or Soul in shaping human survival while warding off invasion by pathogens.
Behind the scenes of a U.S. superbug discovery that made headlines around the world
By LENA H. SUN June 6 at 5:43 PM
Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Immunology provides the understanding of Self and Non-Self and the distinction demands recognition of Protein Molecules. Superbugs are antibiotic-resistant and pose challenge to human existence.
The Post’s Lena Sun visited Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., where scientists identified a strain of bacteria resistant to the last-resort antibiotic, Colistin. The bacteria was found in a Pennsylvania woman. Microbiologist Patrick McGann explains how his team identified the gene that gives the bacteria this resistance (Monica Akhtar,Lena Sun/The Washington Post)
Microbiologist Patrick McGann knew he had identified a dangerous germ. He just didn’t know how dangerous. In mid-May, a colleague had found a strain of E. coli bacteria from a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman that tested positive for resistance to a drug called colistin. That’s the antibiotic used when all others fail.
McGann, whose job is to prevent outbreaks of new pathogens in the U.S. military’s sprawling health-care system, wasn’t yet alarmed. Sometimes mutations occur spontaneously that make bacteria resistant to an antibiotic. It would be a completely different problem, though, if the bacteria turned out to carry a certain colistin-resistant gene called mcr-1.
But that required deeper molecular testing. McGann asked his research team at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., to do an initial test for the presence of the resistant gene. And on May 18, he got the result as he rode Metro’s Red Line back to the lab from a meeting.
Research technician Ana Ong texted him to say the strain of E. coli had tested positive for the mcr-1 gene. Stunned, McGann texted back: “You’re s—-ing me??” And then, realizing what the discovery meant, he didn’t wait for her reply. “Onto the sequencer ASAP,” he wrote back, referring to the labor-intensive, round-the-clock effort required to read the entire genetic code of the bacteria and determine how easily the gene might spread. “We had to drop everything else to get this done,” he explained later. “When [the test] came back positive, all hell broke loose.”
U.S. health officials and experts had been bracing for this moment since the gene’s discovery late last year in China. They’d hunted for mcr-1 in tens of thousands of samples from meat sources, animals and people.
And now that it’s definitively here, officials expect to find more cases — provoking even greater alarm. Immediately, the discovery in Pennsylvania gave new urgency to measures throughout the military and the federal government to determine where else the gene might be lurking and how to control its spread.
For infectious-disease experts, the nightmare scenario is for the gene to spread to bacteria that are now susceptible only to colistin. That would make them invincible to any antibiotic, unstoppable by the most lifesaving drugs of modern medicine.
‘This one popped up’
The gene mcr-1 was found first in pigs and people in China and then spread across Asia and Europe. By March, there were even more reports from France, Switzerland, Malaysia, Brazil and Argentina.
Still, the gene remains relatively rare. After the initial report from China, McGann’s team tested more than 3,000 antibiotic-resistant bacteria that had been collected from military facilities around the world. None contained the mcr-1 gene.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that drug-resistant bacteria cause 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year in the United States. Many service members wounded during the Iraq War contracted a strain of bacteria that the media later dubbed “Iraqibacter.” The normally harmless bacteria, found in soil and on skin, got into wounds and caused stubborn bloodstream infections, many of them resistant to many types of antibiotics. After about 2007, colistin was often one of the most effective treatment options available, McGann said. That’s one reason the Army created the Multidrug-resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN) in 2009; McGann is its chief of molecular research and diagnostics. Researchers say the detection of colistin-resistant bacteria in the Pennsylvania woman was a result of this strong surveillance system — but also sheer luck.
McGann got the initial call about a resistant E. coli sample from Kurt Schaecher, chief of the infectious-diseases laboratory at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The hospital has the reference lab for about 100 military facilities, which regularly send it drug-resistant organisms.
Schaecher, who had just started in the job, was troubled by the number of reports coming in from around the world about the mcr-1 gene. Testing for colistin resistance was not routinely done in the lab, but he thought it would be prudent to start.
On May 12, he pulled out six of the lab’s most recent samples to test for resistance to colistin. The next day, the results were back. “And lo and behold, this one popped up,” he recalled, referring to the Pennsylvania sample.
He immediately alerted McGann. Both men were very surprised, Schaecher said. They didn’t know why the bacteria weren’t killed by colistin — it could have been a spontaneous mutation rather than the mcr-1 gene. McGann’s team went straight to Bethesda to collect the sample for more testing. Once McGann’s lab detected the gene on May 18, he alerted Schaecher and began fully sequencing the bacterium’s genome.
‘A NEEDLE IN A STACK OF NEEDLES’‘
Sequencing would tell everyone where the gene was located. Was it on the bacterium’s single chromosome? Or in a much more troubling spot, on something called a plasmid, a mobile piece of DNA that exists outside the chromosome?
If the gene were on the chromosome, that wouldn’t be so bad. The bacterium could pass the resistance only to its progeny, limiting the spread. But finding the gene on the plasmid would be much, much worse. Plasmids can transfer their genes to other bacteria, McGann said, even strains that aren’t closely related. The technical term for this ability is “promiscuity.”
The sequencing process took several days. The researchers had to extract the DNA from the bacteria and set up the sequencing machines that would read the entire genome and determine not only what genes were in the organism, but also if there were plasmids and what kind.
By 9 p.m. on May 20, they were ready to proceed. They ran the same test on two machines. One sequencer is less accurate but takes about eight hours. The other, larger sequencer is more accurate but takes 72 hours. By the following day, early results confirmed that the gene was fully present and was most likely on a plasmid. Barely 24 hours later, another researcher had confirmed that the mcr-1 gene was present “on a promiscuous plasmid,” McGann said. The final verification took until May 23. “It was like finding a needle in a stack of needles in another stack of needles,” Schaecher recalled.
McGann likened plasmids to cars that can carry a gene and transport it to other bacteria. Some plasmids can transfer those genes more readily than others. “This one moved pretty well,” he said. “Not quite a Fiat, more like a BMW.”
Even as the patient was being treated — her bacteria, while resistant to colistin, were sensitive to other drugs — researchers began to notify colleagues in the Defense Department and other government agencies. They alerted the CDC as well as the Health and Human Services and Agriculture departments that a superbug capable of spreading colistin resistance far and wide had finally surfaced in a person in the United States.
Some officials have complained that they should have been informed sooner. McGann said it would have been imprudent to send an alert before results were completely confirmed. Around the same time, he, Schaecher and the research team submitted a paper about their findings to a medical journal. The editor, Yohei Doi, an infectious-disease doctor at the University of Pittsburgh, raced to get it reviewed.
The paper was published May 26, and the discovery made headlines around the world.
These are the top superbug threats in the U.S.
THE WHITE HOUSE HAS MADE THE GERMS ARE SERIOUS PRIORITY
Urgent threat. According to the White House plan to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacea, CRE, is one of the country’s most urgent threats. Forty-four states have had at least one type of confirmed CREcase, which are resistant to nearly all antibiotics including last-resort drugs. CDC
Meanwhile, another surveillance system that includes the CDC, the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration has also been searching for the gene in bacteria collected from food animals, meat sources and people. Scientists have scoured more than 44,000 samples of salmonella bacteria and 9,000 samples of E. coli and Shigella bacteria.
That search is how the USDA scientists recently found the gene in a sample from a pig intestine. It also was in a strain of E. coli, and also on a plasmid. The USDA is working to determine the sample’s origin.
The strains and plasmids appear to be different, McGann said. That suggests that the gene is circulating through at least two — and possibly more — routes within the United States.
McGann said he learned about the mcr-1 gene in the pig sample only when his team notified government officials about its own finding. U.S. officials haven’t provided details about when the animal sample was found or why information about it wasn’t disclosed earlier.
Public health officials are most worried about the colistin-resistant gene spreading to a family of superbugs known as CRE, for carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, which the CDC has called one of the country’s most urgent public health threats. In some instances, CRE kills up to 50 percent of patients who become infected. Colistin is increasingly the last-resort drug to treat patients with such infections.
Already, doctors have been forced to rely on colistin as a last-line defense for many drug-resistant infections. Colistin, more than half a century old, is otherwise rarely used in human medicine because it can cause severe kidney damage.
The drug is not used in animals in the United States, but in Europe it has been widely used in veterinary medicine for decades to treat and prevent infection. In May, the European Medicines Agency recommended limiting its use in animals to halt the spread of resistance. It’s also widely used in farm animals in China.
The Army’s MRSN system receives 400 to 500 samples of multidrug-resistant organisms each month, primarily from its facilities around the world. About half are MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, bacteria resistant to many antibiotics that can cause a variety of problems, including skin infections and bloodstream infections. Another third are E. coli, and less than 1 percent are CRE.
The new information about the Pennsylvania woman’s colistin-resistant bacteria means McGann and his team can do more targeted searching in the repository of organisms. They’ve already scoured an additional 6,000 samples without again finding the gene.
This summer, all military services will be expected to begin providing the repository system with multidrug-resistant organisms. By contrast, the national antibiotic resistance surveillance system that the CDC, USDA and FDA operate collectively serves all civilian hospitals in the country. It covers a far larger patient population and collects thousands of pathogen samples for each of the 15 antibiotic-resistant bacteria that the CDC has deemed to be urgent or serious threats.
Until now, the resistance testing has taken place at the CDC. But late last year, Congress approved $160 million in additional funding to boost the Obama administration’s antibiotic-resistance detection efforts. As a result, the agency plans to start funding state health departments this fall to do improved testing for antimicrobial resistance. That will include colistin.
Lena H. Sun is a national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on health.
Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Stress and Immune System. Body recognizes threat posed by foreign protein molecules or antigens that elicit immune response.
The molecules and processes responsible for energy acquisition, energy manipulation, growth and reproduction are basically similar in all life-forms. To understand life, consideration must be given to describe the molecules that determine its structure and to the ways in which molecules are organized. The Molecular Basis of Spirituality describes the organization of molecules that is responsible for the coordination of living functions and living activities of life-forms. Spiritualism involves the capacity or capability to organize molecules to establish the reality of biological existence by any life-form. I find the characteristics called ‘Spiritualism’ or ‘Spirituality’ in the functional organization of those Molecules that establish the ‘existence’ of a living entity.
Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Recognition of foreign protein molecules or antigens is not a mental function. However, Reticular Formation is involved in shaping Immune Response to Stress imposed by pathogens attacking human body.
To understand the concept of Spiritualism as a functional relationship that generates the experience of Peace, Harmony and Tranquility in the human living condition, we must know the nature of biotic interaction called Parasitism that causes Disease. Millions of human lives have perished due to the scourge of Infectious Diseases that afflict humankind.
Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria pose danger because of their ability to synthesize Protein Molecules.Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Superbugs such as Staphylococcus. aureus (MRSA) pose danger because of their ability to synthesize Protein Molecules.Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Recognition of Protein Molecules plays a central role in defending body from attacks by Pathogens.Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Body’s Defense against invasion by pathogens requires recognition of protein molecules involved in virulence and drug resistance. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Defense against Superbugs demands knowing Molecular Basis of Life. Escherichia coli.Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Immunology provides understanding of Life at Molecular Level. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Dangers posed by Superbugs will lead to better understanding of Molecules that defend Life and Molecules causing Disease.Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Superbugs pose danger and burden on account of drug resistance which involves deployment of Protein Molecules.Molecular Basis of Spirituality Science. Defending Life against dangers posed by Superbugs involves recognition of their Protein Molecules.
The purpose and goal of Spiritualism or Spirituality is that of generating Peace, Harmony, Tranquility and Equilibrium in all functional relationships within the Individual and between members of the Biotic or Biological Community. The disease, the disability, the morbidity, and the deaths caused by Infectious Agents demonstrate the consequences of Biotic Interactions called Parasitism. The functional organization of a variety of Molecules that formulate the phenomenon of ‘Existence’ is attributable to the ground substance found inside the Living, Complete Cell. The pathogens have no such functional organizational capacity or capability. In my analysis, the Spirit or Soul represents the ‘Knower’ of the functions and is the operating principle of the molecular organization underlying the phenomenon of ‘Existence’. The protoplasm, the ground substance, or the corporeal material of lifeforms is the ‘spiritual’ basis of Existence.
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
DEFENDING HUMAN EXISTENCE – NATURE OF HUMAN IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALITY IS REVEALED BY HUMAN DEFENSE MECHANISMS.
The Discovery of the Hepatitis C Virus and my reflections on the Molecular Basis of Spiritual Interactions
The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2020 goes to discoverers of hepatitis C
By Nicoletta Lanese LIVE SCIENCE
Three scientists won the 2020 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that can cause chronic inflammation of the liver, leading to severe scarring and cancer.
There are two main forms of hepatitis. One form is an acute disease caused by Hepatitis A virus that is transmitted by contaminated water or food. The other form is caused by Hepatitis B virus or Hepatitis C virus (this year’s Nobel prize). This form of blood-borne hepatitis is often a chronic disease that may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
The researchers Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice “made seminal discoveries that led to the identification of a novel virus, hepatitis C virus,” the Nobel Committee wrote in a statement. Two other forms of viral hepatitis — hepatitis A and B — had already been discovered at the time, but most cases of chronic hepatitis remained unexplained, they noted.
Summary of the discoveries awarded by this year’s Nobel prize. The methodical studies of transfusion-associated hepatitis by Harvey J. Alter demonstrated that an unknown virus was a common cause of chronic hepatitis. Michael Houghton used an untested strategy to isolate the genome of the new virus that was named Hepatitis C virus. Charles M. Rice provided the final evidence showing that Hepatitis C virus alone could cause hepatitis.
“The discovery of hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives,” the committee wrote. The scientists’ award-winning work took place between the 1970s and 1990s, and enabled doctors to screen patients’ blood for the virus and cure many of the disease, Science Magazine reported.
The word “hepatitis” derives from the Greek words for “liver” and “inflammation,” and in addition to hepatitis viruses, the condition can arise from alcohol and drug use, bacterial infections, parasites and autoimmune disorders where the immune system attacks the liver, Live Science previously reported. Hepatitis A and E typically cause short-term illness and are transmitted through food or water contaminated with fecal matter. Hepatitis B and C, on the other hand, can lead to chronic infections and are transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids.
Physician and geneticist Baruch Blumberg won the 1976 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for first identifying hepatitis B, a discovery that led to both diagnostic tests for the virus and a successful vaccine, the committee wrote. However, even after this discovery, many cases of chronic hepatitis continued to crop up in patients who received blood transfusions, hinting that a second blood-borne virus might also cause the disease.
Alter found that the illness, which he called “non-A, non-B” hepatitis, could be transmitted from humans to chimpanzees through blood and had the characteristics of a virus. Houghton later led work to clone the virus and named it hepatitis C. Rice examined the virus’s genetic material, known as RNA, and performed genetic engineering experiments to learn how the pathogen causes hepatitis in chimps and humans. These experiments revealed that some forms of the virus do not cause disease, but an “active” form with specific genetic characteristics does.
Collectively, the three scientists’ discoveries led to the development of highly sensitive blood tests and antiviral drugs for hepatitis C; the new treatments can cure about 95% of hepatitis C patients, Science Magazine reported. “For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population,” the Nobel Committee wrote.
That said, about 71 million people still live with chronic hepatitis C infections, worldwide, and the World Health Organization estimates that 400,000 people died of the disease in 2016, according to Science Magazine.
A big problem is “getting drugs to people and places where they desperately need them,” John McLauchlan, a professor of viral hepatitis at the University of Glasgow, told The Associated Press, noting that the disease primarily affects poor populations and people who use drugs.
The Discovery of the Hepatitis C Virus. From Left to Right, Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice, the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2020.
Harvey J. Alter was born in 1935 in New York. He received his medical degree at the University of Rochester Medical School, and trained in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital and at the University Hospitals of Seattle. In 1961, he joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a clinical associate. He spent several years at Georgetown University before returning to NIH in 1969 to join the Clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine as a senior investigator.
Michael Houghton was born in the United Kingdom. He received his PhD degree in 1977 from King’s College London. He joined G. D. Searle & Company before moving to Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, California in 1982. He relocated to University of Alberta in 2010 and is currently a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology and the Li Ka Shing Professor of Virology at the University of Alberta where he is also Director of the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute.
Charles M. Rice was born in 1952 in Sacramento. He received his PhD degree in 1981 from the California Institute of Technology where he also trained as a postdoctoral fellow between 1981-1985. He established his research group at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis in 1986 and became full Professor in 1995. Since 2001 he has been Professor at the Rockefeller University, New York. During 2001-2018 he was the Scientific and Executive Director, Center for the Study of Hepatitis C at Rockefeller University where he remains active.
Viroids and Virusoids are the smallest and simplest form of all recognized Viruses and Self-replicating Molecules.They lack the protective shell of protein coat that most other Viruses have.
Spiritualism – The Molecular Basis of Spirituality:
I am using the term ‘Spiritualism’ to describe a commonsense approach to religion and God by rational interpretation of verified information provided by Science.
The molecules and processes responsible for energy acquisition, energy manipulation, growth and reproduction are basically similar in all life-forms. To understand life, consideration must be given to describe the molecules that determine its structure and to the ways in which molecules are organized. The Molecular Basis of Spirituality describes the organization of molecules that is responsible for the coordination of living functions and living activities of life-forms. Spiritualism involves the capacity or capability to organize molecules to establish the reality of biological existence by any life-form. To explain the Molecular Basis of Spirituality, I would begin with the simplest life-forms that we know.
The Founders of Virology – The Study of Viruses:
Dmitri Ivanovsky( Dmitri Iosifovich Iwanowski ), Russian Botanist in 1892, discovered the filterable nature of a very tiny agent that causes Tobacco Mosaic Disease.Martinus Beijerinck, the Dutch Microbiologist in 1898 named the mysterious infectious agent that causes Tobacco Mosaic Disease as ‘VIRUS’.
I am glad to pay my respectful tribute to Dmitri Ivanovsky, Russian Botanist, and to Martinus Beijerinck, the Dutch Microbiologist, the founders of Virology, the Study of Viruses. Ivanovsky studied the Tobacco Mosaic Disease during 1892. By conducting experiments he had demonstrated that the disease is caused by a filterable agent smaller than bacteria. In 1898, Beijerinck independently replicated Ivanovsky’s experiments and found that the infectious agent could only reproduce by infecting leaves of the Tobacco plant. He named the mysterious infectious agent as Tobacco Mosaic Virus- the first Virus recognized.
Ivanovsky studied the Tobacco Mosaic Disease during 1892. By conducting experiments he had demonstrated that the disease is caused by a filterable agent smaller than bacteria. In 1898, Beijerinck independently replicated Ivanovsky’s experiments and found that the infectious agent could only reproduce by infecting leaves of the Tobacco plant. He named the mysterious infectious agent as Tobacco Mosaic Virus- the first Virus recognized.
The Study of Viruses, Virions, Viroids, and Virusoids:
Virus is a complex, molecular life-form that blurs the boundaries of living and non-living material.
Viruses are small masses of material (100 – 2,000 angstrom), complex molecular life-forms that blur the boundaries of living and non-living material. Most Viruses are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. They are extremely small and can only be seen with an electron microscope. As compared to light microscope, electron microscope can increase magnification from 1,000 – 2,000 diameters to around 300, 000 diameters. Viruses are 1,000 times more plentiful in water than originally suspected and hence Viruses could be the most numerous life-forms on Earth. Many hundreds of different types of Viruses exist and all of them need living cells to serve them as hosts. Viruses can only complete their life cycles as parasites as they reproduce only within the cells of their hosts, upon which they depend for many of their fundamental life processes. While many Viruses are harmless to their hosts, certain Viruses are responsible for important diseases of humans, animals, and plants. Many Viruses are known to man by the specific disease entities that they cause: Smallpox, Chickenpox, Measles, Mumps, Yellow fever, Polio myelitis, Rabies, Influenza, and the Common Cold. All of us without any exception would get the chance of experiencing the bouts of one or the other Viral infections.
The DNA of Herpes Virus particle is enclosed by an icosahedral(20-sided) shell of 162 protein units, or capsomers, and by an outer spiked lipoprotein envelope. It causes infectious diseases in man like Chickenpox and Shingles.
A complete virus particle or Virion consists of one molecule of Nucleic Acid, single or double-stranded, either DNA or RNA depending on the specific Virus. It has a protein coat called Capsid which consists of a specific number of protein molecules or Capsomers in a definitive arrangement. In some Viruses, the outer coat has lipid(fat) and carbohydrate. The protein coat helps the survival of the Virus while it exists outside a living cell. The protein coat is also concerned with the mechanisms by which the Virus enters and infects the host cell.
To understand the concept of Spiritualism as a functional relationship that generates the experience of Peace, Harmony and Tranquility in the human living condition, we must know the nature of biotic interaction called Parasitism that causes Disease. Millions of human lives have perished due to the scourge of Viral Diseases that afflict humankind. This Retrovirus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) is responsible for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS.
During the stage of its life cycle, when the Virus is free and infectious, the virus particle or Virion is inert, and does not carry out the usual functions of a living entity, such as reproduction or growth in numbers. The propagation of a Virus requires the internal environment of a complete cell, including its biochemical machinery. The Virus loses the protein coat upon entry into a cell, after which the genetic material of the Virus reproduces using materials made by the host cell. The Virus leaves the host cell surrounded by the protein coat, the characteristics of these protein molecules are determined by the genes in the Virus, but the protein molecules are synthesized by the host cell. Viruses are often described as “naked genes” which have discarded all other attributes of complete cells. The Virion or virus particle contains the knowledge or biological information that is needed for its replication. However, to perform that reproductive function, a Virus needs the host cell’s chemical energy, and protein-and nucleic-acid synthesizing ability.
Viroids and Virusoids are the smallest and simplest form of all recognized Viruses and Self-replicating Molecules.They lack the protective shell of protein coat that most other Viruses have.
Viroids and Virusoids are the smallest and simplest form of all recognized Viruses and Self-replicating Molecules. Viroids are composed of nothing more than a single circular strand of genetic material and cause major disease in plants. Since Viroids lack the protective shell of protein, they do not even spread easily from one cell or plant to another. The genetic material of Viroid is RNA which has a length of only a few hundred ribonucletids (200-400). Viroids are described as molecules of “naked RNA” that are significantly smaller than the genome of the smallest Virus. They are also called ‘subviral particles’. Viroids/Virusoids “infect” other Viruses, and use the replication process of the host Virus to replicate themselves instead. Viroids are responsible for a number of serious diseases of economically important plants like the Coconut Palm and Chrysanthemums. Episomes are pieces of self-replicating genetic molecules found in some bacterial cells. These are similar to Viruses except for the fact that they only reproduce themselves when their host cells do, whereas Viruses reproduce themselves hundreds of times and often generate the signs and symptoms of the infectious disease they cause in the host.
RNA Molecule as Genetic Material:
The only human disease caused by a Viroid is HEPATITIS D. The Viroid is enclosed in Hepatitis B Virus Capsid. Viroids use different strategies for encouraging host Viruses/cells to replicate its RNA molecule.
The RNA-containing Viruses are unique among living systems. They use RNA as their primary genetic material. Retroviruses produce the enzyme called RNA-directed DNA Polymerase or Reverse Transcriptase, which can make a DNA molecule from the Viral RNA molecule. This DNA molecule formed from RNA then serves as the principal genetic molecule within the infected, host cell. Retrovirus uses a life process that is termed ‘reverse transcription’. Two Retroviruses are associated with human leukemia which are Cancer of T-cells. The Retrovirus known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV is responsible for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS.
The Nucleic Acid Molecule – The Essence and Existence of Life:
The Influenza Virus has the ability to cause pandemic (world-wide)infection of humans. The pandemic of 1918 is estimated to have killed 21-22 million people worldwide. The Virus got its name from the word “INFLUENCE” from an observation made more than 400 years ago that epidemics of respiratory illness occurred under the “influence” of planets and other astrological events. The term ‘spiritualism’ or ‘spirituality’ does not describe the ‘essence’ or character of this Viral Nucleic Acid Molecule.
Nucleic Acids are organic substances that are characteristic of all living things. These organic molecules are not found in nature except as components or products of organisms. They are called macromolecules; molecules of molecular weight greater than 10,000 daltons or 10,000 times the weight of a Hydrogen atom. These molecules are long chains or polymers that consist of chains of smaller units called monomers. Each Nucleic Acid chain is composed of subunits called nucleotides, each of which is composed of a specific sugar molecule( Deoxyribose or Ribose ), a molecule of Phosphoric Acid, and a molecule of one of four organic bases: Adenine(A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), and Thymine (T). The two chief types of Nucleic Acid are DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid), and RNA (Ribonucleic Acid). DNA contains the sugar deoxyribose and RNA contains the sugar ribose, and the base Uracil (U) instead of Thymine (T). The specific sequences of nucleotides constitute the genetic information of the life-form. Each three-nucleotide sequence specifies one particular amino acid. The long sequences of nucleotides thus correspond to the sequences of amino acids in the proteins that are synthesized. In order to be expressed as protein, the genetic information is carried to the protein-synthesizing machinery called Ribosomes found in the cytoplasm of the cell. Forms of RNA mediate this process and are important in the expression of the genetic code contained in the DNA for the synthesis of proteins. Although the triplet nucleotide code seems to be universal, the actual sequences of the nucleotides vary according to the species and individual organism.
The Nucleic Acid Molecules, DNA/RNA is the substance of heredity; it carries the ‘essence’ or character of an organism from one generation to next generation. But, in the study of Viruses we have found that this ‘essence’ is not displayed until its ‘existence’ is supported and is established in a complete living cell. The Nucleic Acid Molecules do not have the capacity or capability of acquiring energy from their external environment. The Virion or virus particle is inert until it finds a host cell to establish its life as a living thing. The Nucleic Acid Molecules are important to establish the ‘essence’ of an organism and I find the characteristics called ‘Spiritualism’ or ‘Spirituality’ in the functional organization of those Molecules that establish the ‘existence’ of a living entity.
The Molecular Basis of Spirituality:
Smallpox or Variola was one of the worst scourges ever to afflict human beings. The Smallpox Vaccine developed by Dr. Edward Jenner, British Surgeon in 1796 was the first successful Immunization against any Infectious Disease or Agent. In October 1979, the World Health Organization(WHO) declared that the world is Smallpox Free. Spiritualism and Spirituality seek to establish Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in all functional Biotic Interactions within the Individual and within the Biotic or Biological Community.
To understand the concept of Spiritualism as a functional relationship that generates the experience of Peace, Harmony and Tranquility in the human living condition, we must know the nature of biotic interaction called Parasitism that causes Disease. Millions of human lives have perished due to the scourge of Viral Diseases that afflict humankind.
The purpose and goal of Spiritualism or Spirituality is that of generating Peace, Harmony, Tranquility and Equilibrium in all functional relationships within the Individual and between members of the Biotic or Biological Community. The disease, the disability, the morbidity, and the deaths caused by Viral infections demonstrate the consequences of Biotic Interactions called Parasitism. The functional organization of a variety of Molecules that formulate the phenomenon of ‘Existence’ is attributable to the ground substance found inside the Living, Complete Cell. The viral particles have no such functional organizational capacity or capability. In my analysis, the Spirit or Soul represents the ‘Knower’ of the functions and is the operating principle of the molecular organization underlying the phenomenon of ‘Existence’. The protoplasm, the ground substance, or the corporeal material of lifeforms is the ‘spiritual’ basis of Existence.
Adenosine Tri Phosphate or ATP is a Nucleotide; the monomeric unit of Nucleic Acid,contains a Purine or Nitrogenous base called Adenosine, a Sugar called Ribose and three Phosphate groups.In most Chemical Reactions of all cells in which transfer of energy occurs, the nucleotide ATP is involved. It functions as a Coenzyme in many enzyme-catalyzed reactions and helps in the performance of chemical, electrical, and osmotic work in animals, plants, and microorganisms.
Spirituality Science – Molecular Basis of Spiritual Nature
Life is possible for there are Laws of Conservation, and Law of Definite Proportions that determines Chemical Composition of Biomolecules that operate all living functions.
1. I am asking readers to explore ‘Spiritual Nature’ by careful study of information provided by Natural Science.
2. Living Things are essentially composed of Matter. Chemical Molecules of Life have to be studied to understand behavior exhibited by Living Things such as Plants, and Animals which includes Man.
3. Life is possible for there are Laws of Conservation, and Law of Definite Proportions that determines Chemical Composition of Biomolecules that operate all living functions.
Life is possible for there are Laws of Conservation, and Law of Definite Proportions that determines Chemical Composition of Biomolecules that operate all living functions.
4. Most Molecular and Cellular Biologists study bacterial cells to study complex Metabolic Pathways involved in performance of living functions.
Life is possible for there are Laws of Conservation, and Law of Definite Proportions that determines Chemical Composition of Biomolecules that operate all living functions.
5. There is no surprise to find Science using this information to synthesize hormones used by Man using bacteria.
6. There is an Unchanging Spiritual Nature common to all Living Things. Man cannot acquire “Higher” Nature through listening to religious preachings. In the same way, Man cannot alter or “Lower” his Nature by listening to religious preachings. There can be several good reasons to study Scriptures like Torah, Bible, Quran, The Bhagavad Gita, and others. For God created Man with predetermined Nature using Unchanging Laws, Man can only seek to know his True or Real Nature by submission to God’s Will.
8. You cannot change Nature without changing its Essence. Salt derives its taste from Chemical Elements Sodium and Chlorine combined in Definite Proportions. Good, Passionate, and Ignorant people experience the same taste as they have no ability to change or alter the Chemical Composition of Chemical Compound called Salt.
Life is possible for there are Laws of Conservation, and Law of Definite Proportions that determines Chemical Composition of Biomolecules that operate all living functions.
9. Both Good and Evil people perform the same kind of living functions for Life always operates on the basis of Spiritual Nature formulated by Unchanging Laws.
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971.
Life is possible for there are Laws of Conservation, and Law of Definite Proportions that determines Chemical Composition of Biomolecules that operate all living functions.
National Chemistry Week October 17-23, 2021. The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
National Chemistry Week (NCW) is a public awareness campaign that promotes the value of chemistry in everyday life. Celebrate National Chemistry Week 2021 October 17–23, with the theme, “Fast or Slow Chemistry Makes it Go.”
The Father of Modern Chemistry – Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), French Chemist and Physicist. He discovered the Composition of Water Molecule and of various other Organic Compounds.
In celebration of the National Chemistry Week, I invite my readers to explore Matter, Chemical Elements, and Chemical Compounds that are important for understanding Life and Spirituality.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual Connection between Energy and Life. The Laws of Thermodynamics are important unifying principles of Biology. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Spiritual Optics accounts for the capacity of photoreception and the term Spiritual Light refers to the creation of Light by God to begin the designing of Matter described by Physics and Chemistry.
Matter – Chemical Elements and Chemical Compounds:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Henning Brand, the discovery of Phosphorus.
Henning Brand (c. 1630-c. 1710), German Alchemist who discovered Phosphorus during c.1669 or 1674. I describe Chemistry as The Science of Spiritual Interactions as Matter is created with a Purpose.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Robert Boyle, the Father of Chemistry.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691). The Father of Chemistry. Anglo-Irish Physicist and Chemist who separated the Science of Chemistry from Alchemy. He gave the first precise definitions of a Chemical Element, a Chemical Reaction, and Chemical Analysis. He discovered Boyle’s Law (Gas Laws).
All ‘Matter’ is composed of fundamental materials called Chemical Elements. A substance that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by ordinary chemical processes is by definition an Element. There are about 88 ‘naturally’ occurring Elements, and about 20 Elements are used in measurable amounts by most living organisms. Phosphorus is an essential Element to all Life as it is a component of DNA and RNA that make up the genetic material of all cells and control reproduction of both the cell and the organism. Phosphorus is part of the energy storage and utilization system at the cellular level. In addition, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Iron, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Cobalt, Cadmium, Copper, Manganese, Zinc, Molybdenum, Boron, Sodium, Chlorine, Fluorine, Iodine, Sulfur, and Chromium are all essential to one form of life or another. Elements can combine with one another to form a wide variety of more complex substances called Chemical Compounds. A Chemical Compound is a substance in which two or more Elements are joined by Chemical Bonds. A Chemical Compound can be created or broken down by means of a Chemical Reaction but not by mechanical or physical separation techniques. It helps to make the distinction between Mixture and Compound. Most naturally occurring Matter represents Physical Mixtures of Chemical Compounds that could be separated using simple physical techniques. While the number of known Elements is small, the number of possible Compounds is almost ‘infinite’; perhaps a million or more Chemical Compounds are known to exist. When two or more Elements combine to form a Compound, they lose their separate identities, and the product called Chemical Compound has characteristics quite different from those of the constituent Elements. For example, the Common Salt or Sodium Chloride is a combination of the highly reactive metallic element Sodium (Na) and the poisonous gas Chlorine (Cl). The unique taste and flavor imparted by Salt cannot be discovered by studying the physical and chemical properties of Sodium or Chlorine. Elements in Compounds always are combined in a definite proportion. For instance, a molecule of Water is always made up of two Hydrogen (H) atoms and one Oxygen (O) atom. Again, I would like to pay attention to the fact of two gaseous elements, Hydrogen, and Oxygen with quite different physical and chemical properties can combine to form the Compound Water which has altogether different properties from either Hydrogen or Oxygen. The simple, pure, original, and sweet taste imparted by Fresh Water cannot be discovered in its constituent Elements. I have mentioned that the Element Phosphorus is basic to all Life. Phosphorus is discovered in c.1674 by Hennig Brand. It is an extremely poisonous, yellow to white, waxy, solid substance. When exposed to air, Phosphorus ignites spontaneously. Some of the commercial uses of Phosphorus include the making of detergents, toxic nerve gases and explosives. We have to learn to make the distinction between Chemical Elements and Chemical Compounds and apply this understanding to know the nature of the relationship between things. Calcium Phosphate is the principal material found in bones and teeth. Adenosine triphosphate or ATP is the fundamental energy source in living things. It is very understandable that all Matter is composed of units called Atoms and the physical structure of Atom is well-known. We have to be very careful and avoid deriving understanding about Life and Living Matter from the descriptive knowledge derived from Quantum Physics. To understand the nature of living experience, we need Chemical Molecules and Chemical Compounds whose qualities and characteristics may not be discovered from the study of Nuclear Physics. The phenomenon of creating and breaking down Chemical Compounds in living organisms is known as Metabolism. A Chemical Compound’s smallest units are Molecules and Ions. A Molecule can exist in the free state and still retain the characteristics of the Element or Compound; a Molecule can be formed by an Element when it consists of one Atom, or two, or more similar Atoms; a Molecule can be formed by a Compound when it consists of two or more different Atoms. The term ‘Ion’ is used to describe an Atom or Molecule bearing an electric charge as a result of having a number of negative electrons unequal to the number of positive protons in its nuclei. ‘Ionization’ is the process that describes the formation of ‘Ions’ from neutral Atoms or Molecules. ‘Ions’ that are positively charged are known as ‘Cations’, and that are negatively charged are known as ‘Anions’. Simple ‘Ions’ consist of a single charged Atom; double, triple, or even higher positive or negative charges are possible. Oxidation of Hydrogen removes its single electron and gives H+ or cationic Hydrogen which contains no electrons and it has a nucleus which is composed of one proton. This cationic Hydrogen plays a particularly important role in the Acid-Base Chemistry of the human organism with many reactions exchanging protons between soluble molecules. The internal environment of a living cell includes Hydrogen, Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Chloride, Sulfate, Phosphate and several organic acid ‘Ions’. The chemical events collectively called ‘Metabolism’ require the concentration of Hydrogen Ions and electrolytes to remain within narrow limits in the tissue cells and in the fluid which bathes them. The term ‘pH’ or ‘Acidity’ is a measure of the Hydrogen Ion concentration and a reading level of 7 indicates ‘Neutral’. Human life is possible only if the Hydrogen Ion concentration of body fluid is kept within a narrow range. In health, a blood Hydrogen Ion concentration of 36 – 44 nmol/Liter or pH level of 7.37 – 7.45 is maintained by several closely integrated but widely differing mechanisms.
THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS OF LIFE:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Henry Cavendish, the discovery of Hydrogen.
HENRY CAVENDISH (1731-1810), British Chemist and Physicist noted for his discovery of Hydrogen, a gaseous Element during 1766. French Chemist Lavoisier named the gas Hydrogen in 1783. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and it is the major fuel in fusion reactions of the Sun. However, this gas in its free state is very rare in our planet Earth.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Hydrogen is the most abundant Element in the Universe.
Hydrogen, the most abundant Element in the universe is present in its diatomic, molecular form. Hydrogen is important for the formation of Stars. In the above photo image, NGC 604, a giant region of ionized Hydrogen in the Triangulum Galaxy is seen.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Hydrogen makes up most of the mass ( over 90%) of the universe and about 75 % of natural Matter by number of Atoms. Naturally occurring atomic Hydrogen is rare on Earth because Hydrogen readily forms covalent Compounds with most Elements. Hydrogen is present in the Water Molecule and in most Organic Compounds found in living organisms. Hydrogen forms a vast variety of Compounds with Carbon that are called Hydrocarbons.
To understand Life, we have to know about Hydrogen as it is the fuel that Sun expends in its role as the Cosmic source of Energy that supports the biological existence of all terrestrial organisms. The man exists on the surface of planet Earth, not on account of the merit of his physical, or mental work and effort. The man has no direct access to this source of energy produced from Hydrogen fuel. If Hydrogen is important to support the existence of Life, we have to understand the nature of ‘Spiritual Interactions’. Secondly, Hydrogen is important as it is required to form the Water Molecule. However, Oxygen, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, is the most abundant Element at the surface of the Earth. In the terrestrial environment, Oxygen accounts for about half of the mass of the Earth’s crust, 89% of the mass of the oceans, and 23% of the mass of the atmosphere or 21% of its volume. Oxygen makes up about two-thirds of the human body. It is a vital substance which supports vital functions. Among Chemical Elements used by the human body, Oxygen has the highest electronegativity and electron affinity. Oxygen can form ‘Anion’ with a double negative charge by accepting electrons from a donor like Hydrogen. Most of the Earth’s rocks and soils are principally compounds of Oxygen with Silicon and other metals. It is well understood that most organisms depend on Oxygen to sustain their biological processes. Biological Oxidation-Reduction Reactions are ultimately the sources of energy for the higher plants and animals. While speaking about the importance of Oxygen in the biosphere, we must recognize that Oxygen is responsible for natural decomposition of all organic material. Waste products from the activity of the living organisms, dead plants and animals decompose or oxidized through the agency of microorganisms. Thus, Oxygen plays a key role both in its support of important processes of Life and Death. Organic decay and decomposition are of fundamental importance for Life to renew itself and to be reborn and to cause rebirth. The study of ‘Spiritual Interactions’ must include the study of Life and Death.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Joseph Priestley, the discovery of Oxygen.
Joseph Priestley and Karl Scheel were the first to isolate the gaseous Element during 1773-74 which was named by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier as Oxygen. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, and is the most abundant Element found on planet Earth.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Oxygen makes up about 90% of Water, two-thirds of the human body, and 20% by volume of Air. Normal atmospheric Oxygen is a diatomic Molecule.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
The common Chemical Reaction in which Oxygen unites with another substance is called Oxidation. Combustion or rapid oxidation, the burning of s substance may generate light and heat. The process called Oxidation need not involve the generation of light and heat. Oxygen itself does not burn. The Respiration of plants and animals is a form of Oxidation that is essential to the liberation of the energy stored in such food materials as Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins. Oxygen is necessary to sustain Metabolism which primarily involves the Oxidation-Reduction Chemical Reactions. If the Oxygen concentration were to drop to about half its value in the atmosphere, humans could no longer survive. The loss of Oxygen is critical as the human body has no means of storing Oxygen. Because the human body stores no Oxygen, any interference with breathing and ventilation that lasts more than a few minutes can cause Death.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Dr. Daniel Rutherford discovered Nitrogen in 1772.
Dr Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819), Professor of Medicine & Botany, Edinburgh University, Scotland, discovered Nitrogen in 1772. Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish in England, and Carl W. Scheele in Sweden also get credit for the discovery of Nitrogen. The French Chemist Antoine Lavoisier proved that it is an Element.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
On planet Earth, Nitrogen, the most abundant uncombined Element occurs as the diatomic molecule. Atmospheric air is 78.06% Nitrogen gas by volume. Nitrogen is an important component of Protoplasm or Living Matter. It is very remarkable to note that one type of organic molecule with a nitrogenous base plays a variety of roles in support of living functions.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Adenosine triphosphate or ATP, a Chemical Molecule generated by the activities of Living Things.
Adenosine triphosphate or ATP is a Nucleotide; the monomeric unit of Nucleic Acid, contains a Purine or Nitrogenous base called Adenosine, a Sugar called Ribose and three Phosphate groups. In most Chemical Reactions of all cells in which transfer of energy occurs, the nucleotide ATP is involved. It functions as a Coenzyme in many enzyme-catalyzed reactions and helps in the performance of chemical, electrical, and osmotic work in animals, plants, and microorganisms.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions. Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate or cAMP, the “Second Messenger.”
Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate or cAMP is formed from ATP by the catalytic action of the enzyme Adenyl Cyclase. It controls many important functions in the cell including the ability of the cell to generate electrical impulses and is called “Second Messenger.” It is responsible for the intracellular mediation of hormonal effects on various cellular processes; e.g., Lipid Metabolism, Membrane Transport by opening Ion Channels, and Cell Reproduction.
All living organisms need organic nitrogen compounds such as Proteins, Vitamins like Thiamine and Riboflavin. In nature, Nitrogen from the air is ‘fixed’ by some bacteria and plants. It is then made available to all organisms through ‘Nitrogen Cycle’.
The nonmetallic Element, Carbon is known to man since ancient times. Organic Chemistry is the study of Carbon Compounds. All living organisms contain Carbon Compounds and hence Carbon is the central Element in the Compounds of which organisms are composed. The Carbon Element found in all living organisms is primarily derived from Carbon Dioxide found in atmospheric air or dissolved in water. It occurs both free and combined form in nature and makes up about 1% of the volume of dry air. Carbon Dioxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas. It is the raw material for Photosynthesis in green plants and is a product of animal respiration and of the decay of organic matter. It can cause Death by suffocation if inhaled in large amounts. If this Chemical Compound Carbon Dioxide, a gas that has the potential to cause Death, can impart ‘SWEETNESS’ to a substance that we recognize as ‘SUGAR’, it speaks about the potency that I describe as ‘Spiritual Interaction’ between the Elements of Life.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Plants incorporate Carbon into Carbohydrates and other complex organic molecules by means of Photosynthesis. During Respiration or Cellular Oxidation, living organisms combine Oxygen with portions of Carbohydrate molecule, releasing Carbon in the form of Carbon dioxide and water.
Water Molecules are the simplest and most abundant of all the Molecules found in the living cell. The simplest forms of Life such as the Virus particles may exist as Molecules of Nucleic Acids and need living cells for their replication. Most Chemical Reactions inside the living cell require the aqueous medium. Cells contain 70 to 80% Water. Cell Chemistry involves the study of Reactions in aqueous solutions. But, much of the Water in Cells is not ordinary Water; it is found ‘structured’ in shells surrounding macromolecules, especially proteins. The activities inside the Cell are separated and take place inside compartments that are regulated. It is important to know that most of the Water inside the living Cell is structured and the Chemistry of the living Cell demands separation of events at Molecular level.
National Chemistry Week October 18-24, 2020. The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), French Chemist and Physicist. He discovered the Composition of Water Molecule and of various other Organic Compounds.
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), French Chemist and Physicist. He discovered the Composition of Water Molecule and of various other Organic Compounds.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Water Molecule looks very simple and yet it plays a mysterious role inside all living cells. It is essential to Life and its propagation. Its Spiritual nature is revealed by its pure, original, and sweet taste it imparts apart from its role as a Chemical Compound. It is the main mode of transport of many Elements that are needed by the living organisms. Water is the Agent that leaches Nutrient Elements and Compounds from rocks and soils and makes them available for use by plants, and animals.
THE CYCLICAL FLOW OF TIME:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
SUN, THE COSMIC SOURCE OF ENERGY SHINES ALL THE TIME. IT IS APPARENTLY AN UNCHANGING EVENT. HOW DOES THE MAN MEASURE HIS TIME?
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
The Flow of Time is measured as the duration of the interval between two events; Time exists for man and other living organisms as the measure of the period of duration from Sunrise to Sunset that causes an environmental change; the alternating periods of Light (DAY) and Darkness (NIGHT). Earth’s Rotational Spin transforms the instant called ‘FUTURE’ into an instant called ‘PAST’ without giving the man any choice to know the instant called ‘PRESENT’. Earth’s Revolution brings Seasons that man experiences at regular and constant intervals of Time while the man simply exists on the surface of planet Earth with no physical experience of Earth’s Motions through Space.
Things in Nature change with Time. Does Time exert a ‘FORCE’ entirely of its own to change things in Nature? If Time is viewed as a ‘FORCE’, or ‘POWER’, who controls this Force or Power and what are the Laws that operate this Force or Power? The Clocks and Calendars that man has invented create the illusion that we live in a world of mathematically measured segments of Time. Sir Isaac Newton (1687) stated that the flow of Time is absolute. Time is looked upon as a flow like a river: It “flows equably without relation to anything external.” Herman Minkowski, a Mathematician, added Time as the Fourth Dimension of three-dimensional Space. Time is seen as a dimension like Height and Width and it gives meaning to events and the order in which they occur. In 1905, while postulating the Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein observed that the measurement of Time is affected by the motion of the observer and hence it is not absolute. Gravity affects both Time and Light. The measurement of Time is affected by the gravitational field of each celestial body. The experience of Time on this planet is an illusion, a false experience and it may not be an absolute experience. Physicists tend to describe Time and Space as the building blocks of this universe. In the context of understanding the relationship between Time and Life, we will be forced to see Time in the internal Biological Clocks that keep all living entities in ‘sync’ with Nature.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
The Biological Clock: Every Living System behaves as if it contains a highly dependable ‘CLOCK’. It is a self-sustained internal timing mechanism that controls the ability of an organism to synchronize its existence with events in its internal and external environment. Such Time-Dependent variability in Function is called a Biological Rhythm.
All living things have in their nature a plan for their own dissolution and have the ability to use some unique Time-Dependent biological mechanism that is indissociable from life itself. Biological Rhythms represent the periodic biological fluctuation in an organism that corresponds to and is in response to periodic environmental change. Biological Clock in the man measures Time as the Solar Day, the period of Earth’s Rotational Spin relative to the Sun. Such Biological Rhythms that occur once a Day are called Circadian ( Latin Circa: About, Di: Day ), Solar Day, Diel, Daily, or Diurnal (Day-Active) Rhythm. The Rhythm is synchronized with an external Time-giving stimulus. Within the 24-Hour Cycle, a person usually sleeps approximately 8 hours and is awake 16 hours. For the health and the well-being of the man, the daily alteration of Sleep and Wakefulness is important to maintain optimal physiological functions.The man is conditioned to exist under the influence of Time which is operated on planet Earth by its Rotation on its own axis.
THE CYCLICAL FLOW OF LIFE, MATTER, AND ENERGY:
All living organisms depend on about 20 naturally occurring Chemical Elements. In order for Life to survive, these Elements must be constantly recycled in forms that plants and animals can use. Nutrient Cycle is the term used to describe the natural processes that keep all the Chemical Elements needed to support Life circulating within the Biosphere or Ecosphere. The far-reaching nature of Nutrient Cycles reveal the Interactions between Time, Life, Death, and Rebirth. Life continues using the process called Rebirth. Death is an important requirement to regenerate Life. The dissolution of individual living entities under the influence of Time is a prerequisite for Renewal of Life and the propagation of Life over the limits imposed by Time.
THE WATER OR HYDROLOGIC CYCLE:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
The Water Cycle or Hydrologic Cycle is necessary to the operation of all Nutrient Cycles. The energy for the transportation of Water Molecules is provided by the Sun and it is the Fundamental Basis for all other Time-Life Spiritual Interactions.
Water is important to all life forms for its role in the control of environmental conditions and as it is the main mode of transport of many nutrients; it is the agent that leaches nutrients from rocks and soils and make them available for further use by living organisms.
THE CARBON CYCLE:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
The Carbon Cycle clearly illustrates the complexity of relationships involved in the processes of Recycling Nutrient Elements in Nature. Life depends on the interwoven and interdependent relationships of green plants and animals, supplemented by the activities of bacteria, and the constant transport of nutrients within the Ecosystem and within organisms.
The Carbon Cycle describes the exchange of Carbon between living organisms and non-living environment. To maintain Life, an organism not only repairs or replaces ( or both ) its structures by a constant supply of the materials of which it is composed but also keep its life processes in operation by a steady supply of energy. Living Systems must be supplied energy on a continual basis. Once spent, the energy for Life cannot be replenished except by further exposure of green plants to Sunlight. The Chemical Elements of Life are continually recycled by such processes as Photosynthesis and Respiration.
THE OXYGEN CYCLE:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Photosynthesis and Respiration are complementary functions and drive the Oxygen Cycle. Oxygen is necessary to sustain Metabolism. Oxygen is also important and is responsible for natural decomposition of organic material, waste products of Metabolism, oxidative decomposition of dead plants and animals through the agency of microorganisms.
Oxygen is equally important for Life and Death as Death must be accompanied by decay and decomposition of organic material to release the Nutrient Elements for further use by other living organisms.
THE NITROGEN CYCLE:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
All living organisms participate in the Nitrogen Cycle. It includes the processes and Chemical Reactions involved in producing organic Nitrogen from inorganic Nitrogen and subsequently breaking down organic Nitrogen back to the inorganic form.
The Nitrogen Cycle begins when atmospheric Nitrogen and Hydrogen combine to form Ammonia in a process called Ammonification. The Nitrogen Compounds are made available to plants which combine them with the products of Photosynthesis to form Amino Acids, which are the basic components of Plant Proteins. Animals eat plant Proteins, break them down into Amino Acids during the process of digestion, and recombine them to form their own particular forms of Proteins in order to build tissues and organs of their bodies. A thorough breakdown of waste products, death and decay, help organic Nitrogen compounds to reenter environment.
THE PHOSPHORUS CYCLE:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Phosphorus recycles more slowly than other Nutrient Elements. Phosphates are taken up by the roots of green plants and used in organic synthesis. They are passed to animals through ‘Food Chains’. Ultimately, Phosphates are released to the soil through bacterial and fungal decomposition after the death of an animal.
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
We need to make the distinction between the Chemical Element Phosphorus and Phosphate the Chemical Compound that supports Life. The Phosphate mineral found in the rocks may have taken millions of years before it became available to plant Life.
ECOLOGY – LIFE AND DEATH SPIRITUAL INTERACTIONS:
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Life depends on the interwoven and interdependent relationships between living organisms and the environment. No organism leads a truly independent existence of its own. Each organism lives by either consuming other organisms or the products from other organisms. In a Biological Community, Life and Death have a relationship which has a Spiritual Basis.
Ecology describes the movement of Chemical Elements and Chemical Molecules in nature because of the interrelationships and interconnectedness of organisms that form the ‘Food Chains’. This flow has a cyclical pattern and Life and Death could be described as two stages in this exchange of material and energy between the living and non-living environment. Greek philosopher Heraclitus ( c. 535 B.C. – c. 475 B.C.) held that there is no permanent Reality except the Reality of Change. His famous maxim: “You cannot step twice in the same River.” I beg to differ from his view. The permanent Reality describes the unchanging Spiritual Nature of a Chemical Molecule that supports Life and Existence. Water Molecule came into its existence billions of years ago and it still retains its unique and distinctive properties and is entirely unaffected by the influence of Time while it undergoes both physical and chemical changes in its Interactions. I seek to describe Spirituality in the unchanging nature of Chemical Molecules that operate the dynamic events of both Life and Death. If Life involves a series of Chemical Reactions such as the Redox or Oxidation-Reduction Chemical Reactions, the same dynamic process continues into Death causing changes to promote Regeneration, Rejuvenation, Renewal, and Rebirth. Spirit could be defined as the Dynamic Force that promotes Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in the material transformations of Life and Death.
What is Matter? and What is Spirit? What is the Color of Money? If materialism is about the influence of material wealth, I would like to use the Power/Force/Energy called Money to talk about Life and Death. The Laws of Conservation are applicable to both the living, and the non-living matter. Hence, it can be stated that “Life can neither be created nor destroyed.” If any person can refute my claim using valid, scientific information, I would offer the person a US $1,000 bill as a reward
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
The Chemical Basis of Life and Spirituality. Chemistry is the Science of Spiritual Interactions.
Aristotle – born 384 BC and died 322 BC. His Metaphysics brings about the convergence of Philosophy, Religion, and Science. Who am I? The Science of Man.
It gives me pleasure to dedicate this blog post to the memory of Aristotle, the Father of Highest Science, First Philosophy, and Theology.
Aristotle – born 384 BC and died 322 BC. His Metaphysics brings about the convergence of Philosophy, Religion, and Science.
Aristotle surveyed the whole field of human knowledge as it was known in his day. He was at the Athenian Academy of Plato for 20 years. In 335 BC, he opened the Lyceum in Athens, a Center for speculation and research in every department of human inquiry. He became an authority for all philosophers, especially in Logic and in Natural Sciences. Logic, the theory of formal truth and validity originated in reflections on the practice of Dialectic introduced by Plato.
For scientific knowledge, we need to know the governing principles of a subject and deduction from these principles provides not only the knowledge that something is true but also the reason as to why it is true. Aristotle is recognized as the Father of Science and he defined Science as a deductive system based on evident axioms.
Aristotle’s Metaphysics – First Philosophy, Highest Science, and Theology:
Aristotle – born 384 BC and died 322 BC. His Metaphysics brings about the convergence of Philosophy, Religion, and Science. Who am I? The Science of Man
What a great Scene in the history of Man? If Plato and Aristotle come together, Reason and Faith also come together. The Scene at the Athenian Academy of Plato depicts the confluence of Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and Plato’s Dialectic describe a method of inquiry that deals with the nature and relation of things – What each is, how it differs from others, what common qualities all have, to what kind each belongs, and in what rank each stands in its kind and whether its being is real-being, and how many beings there are, and how many non-beings to be distinguished from beings.
Metaphysics is concerned with the primary axioms, the universal principles applicable to all existence, and the transcendental properties of being. Aristotle claimed, “There is a Science which investigates being as being and the attributes which belong to being in virtue of its own nature.” The First Philosophy described by Aristotle speculates about being and its subject matter includes all existing things as existing, and involves not only the question how anything which exists, exists( i.e., the properties of being ) but also the question whether certain things, whose existence can be questioned, do in fact exist. In the words of Francis Bacon, we can make a distinction between Physics and Metaphysics. Bacon stated that Physics inquires into efficient and material causes; Metaphysics inquires into formal and final causes. For Aristotle, Science means the demonstration of universal and necessary conclusions from self-evident principles. The modern conception of Science is that it represents knowledge founded upon experiment and extended observation. For example, Isaac Newton in his book ‘Optics’ proposed to explain the properties of Light by using reason and experiments.
Man’s Essence – ‘Know Thyself’:
What is Man’s Essence? This tradition of Knowing Oneself is a longer tradition than any other Science. Socrates tells his friends gathered in the prison cell where he is to drink the hemlock, “True philosophers are ever seeking to release the Soul and are always occupied in the practice of dying.”
What is Man’s Essence? This tradition of Knowing Oneself is a longer tradition than any other Science. Socrates tells his friends gathered in the prison cell where he is to drink the hemlock, “True philosophers are ever seeking to release the Soul and are always occupied in the practice of dying.”
The tradition of knowing oneself is the oldest established tradition in the history of man and it is a longer tradition than any other science. “Know Thyself” describes a study in which the Knower and the Known are One; the object of the Science is the Nature of the Scientist. In the Indian tradition, “Purusha” is the Man or the Knower, and his body or “Kshetra” is the object of Inquiry, and the Knowledge that is discovered is known as “Kshetra Jnana.”
Aristotle – Natural Science and The Science of Soul:
What is Soul? can Science investigate or inquire about the existence of Soul? Does this organism, known as Amoeba proteus has a Soul? What is its animating Principle?
What is Soul? can Science investigate or inquire about the existence of Soul? Does this organism, known as Amoeba proteus has a Soul? What is its animating Principle?
The Soul is the vital principle which moves and animates all life. Aristotle describes corporeal substances are composite of two principles; 1. Form and 2. Matter. What is called matter is a potentiality, what is called form is an actuality. In the above image of Amoeba proteus, its matter is constituted by its protoplasm, the living substance, and its actuality is recognized by the scientist when he observes its form. The existence of Amoeba proteus is known to man as it is made of two principles, the form, and the matter. The Natural Sciences are concerned with natural objects that are characterized by the fact that they are subject to change. Change is, therefore, the basic phenomenon. Matter and Forms are the Material and the Formal Cause respectively, of what comes to be. Aristotle distinguishes four kinds of Causes. For example, a Building or a Thing comes into being because of the Builder, or the Creator known as Efficient Cause. Formal Cause describes the Structure by virtue of which it is the Building or the Thing. Material Cause describes the matter such as stones or wood that has received the Structure. The end or purpose for which the structure, the Building or the Thing exists is known as the Final Cause. A building or a house provides a place of safety for the man who lives there. The purpose or the end of a life form is to sustain its state of living.
Aristotle calls the forms of living things as “Souls”. “The soul is in some sense the principle of animal life.” As per Aristotle, “the study of the Soul falls within the Science of Nature.” The Greek inquiry into the soul extends beyond man, to all living things. So, it is relevant to investigate or inquire about the Soul that describes the Form known to us as Amoeba proteus.
Aristotle’s Treatise – “On the Soul”: The Establishment of Spirituality Science: The Confluence of Inspired Knowledge, Speculative Knowledge, and Inferential Knowledge:
Lord Rama and Spirituality Science. The Lord provides inspired knowledge, philosophy provides the speculative knowledge and Medical Science and other Natural Sciences provide the inferential knowledge to explore and investigate the connection between man and his Creator.
Lord Rama and Spirituality Science. The Lord provides inspired knowledge, philosophy provides the speculative knowledge and Medical Science and other Natural Sciences provide the inferential knowledge to explore and investigate the connection between man and his Creator.
For Aristotle, the Soul rather than Man is the object of Science. He described three kinds of Souls: 1. Vegetative (plants), 2. Sensitive (animals), and 3. Rational (human beings). He believed that the Soul is merely a set of defining features. He did not regard the Body and the Soul as two separate things that mysteriously combine to form an organism. If Soul is defined as the Immortal part of Man as distinguished from his Body, that kind of definition would suggest that Man is composed of two kinds of substances; a corporeal substance, and a non-corporeal substance. In my discussion on this subject, I tend to agree with Aristotle and suggest that Man is composed of one kind of substance and Man may not be divided into Body and Soul. However, I would like to discuss the issue of Man’s Essence, his Identity, and Individuality in relation to Soul after this review of Aristotle’s ideas about material and immaterial substances. Aristotle tells us that to understand Substance, it would be necessary to consider immaterial substantial forms, like Soul and God. Only then can Man understand what it is to be a Substance, and what it is to Exist. He further described two parts of Man’s Soul; the intellectual virtue corresponds to the rational part of the Soul, and the moral virtues such as justice, courage, and generosity belong to the irrational part of the Soul which is subject to reason and has reasonable desires and feelings. I divide Man into two categories and these are, 1.’The Self’ and 2. ‘The Knowing-Self’. The first category describes Man as a Physical, Mental, and Social Being, and the second category describes Man as a Moral, Rational, Spiritual, and Created Being. The study of Metaphysics eventually becomes the study of immaterial substance, immortality, and God.
Spirituality Science – The Convergence of Religion, Philosophy, and Science:
The Bhagavad Gita is the source of Inspired Knowledge, my internal reflection is the source of Speculative Knowledge, and the Medical Science and Natural Science is the source of Inferential Knowledge to establish Spirituality Science as a method of Inquiry to investigate man’s relationship, partnership, association, and connection with his Creator.
The Bhagavad Gita is the source of Inspired Knowledge, my internal reflection is the source of Speculative Knowledge, and the Medical Science and Natural Science is the source of Inferential Knowledge to establish Spirituality Science as a method of Inquiry to investigate man’s relationship, partnership, association, and connection with his Creator.
Aristotle tried to define and establish a branch of Science which contributes Wisdom to deal with the first causes and the principles of all things. “There are other theoretical sciences, such as Physics and Mathematics which investigate causes or deal with principles, but they do not reach to the highest causes or first principles, nor do they take all things in their most universal aspect as the object of their inquiry. Physics deals with material things in motion, and the Mathematician investigates abstractions.” Aristotle claimed that Mathematics could be certain without telling us anything about Reality. He states that “If there is something which is eternal and immovable and separated from matter, clearly the knowledge of it belongs to a theoretical science not, however to Physics nor to Mathematics, but to science prior to both.” He gives two names to the highest of theoretical sciences. He denominated it both from the position it occupies in relation to all other disciplines and in terms of the kind of substance which it alone investigates. A substance which is formed by Nature will be explored by Natural Science. If there is an immovable, immutable, immaterial, or eternal substance, the Science of that substance is the highest Science and it deserves to be called “Theology” as well as “First Philosophy”.
I propose to study and investigate the immaterial substance or principle and name the Science of that Substance as “Spirituality Science.” If Divine is present everywhere at the same time, the Divine is present in both material and immaterial substances.
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S., Class of April 1970.
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Aging vs Longevity. Reflections on Life and Death
What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual dimension of Life and Death.
Spirituality Science – Aging and Longevity:
SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – AGING AND LONGEVITY: BLAISE PASCAL (1623-62), FRENCH SCIENTIST, MATHEMATICIAN, AND RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHER FOUNDED THE MODERN THEORY OF PROBABILITY AND IN PHYSICS, DISCOVERED PASCAL’S LAW BY CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS IN THE EQUILIBRIUM OF FLUIDS THAT LED TO INVENTIONS OF HYDRAULIC PRESS, HYDRAULIC JACK, AND HYDRAULIC ELEVATOR. HIS MENTAL CONCEPTS ARE LIVING GIVING A DIMENSION TO THE CONCEPT OF LONGEVITY.
I pay my tribute to Blaise Pascal who shared his views about man and human nature; “Man is a nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between Nothing and Everything. Since he is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are helplessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which he was made, and the Infinite in which he swallowed up.” Since man exists as a Mortal Being, man has a natural tendency to investigate the Beginning of Life and the End of Life and seek a better understanding of the natural processes liking Aging that propels man to travel and reach the destination termed ‘Death’ without any choice. Aging is a widespread biological phenomenon and all living things display a natural tendency towards a decline of biological functions and a time-related disability to adapt to metabolic stress. At the same time, I ask my readers to note that the ‘Protoplasm’, the living substance that makes up both the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm appears to be potentially immortal. The term ‘Longevity’, the length or duration of a life or lives, must be interpreted in the context of the potential ability of Protoplasm to survive while individual members of species take birth, live, and die after a period of time. The term Life-Span describes the longest period of time that a typical individual can be expected to live. Similarly, Lifetime is the period of time that someone lives, or that something lasts, functions, or is in effect. Human beings have the unique ability to use their Lifetime to create a legacy that can endure giving an aura of immortality to that specific human individual who may have finished his or her mortal existence.
The Phenomenon of Longevity:
SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – AGING AND LONGEVITY: THIS IMAGE OF DIVIDING YEAST CELLS DESCRIBES A REAL POTENTIAL IMMORTALITY IN SIMPLE ORGANISMS THAT ARE SINGLE-CELLED AND REPRODUCE BY ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION CALLED FISSION.
The concept of Life-Span implies that there is an individual whose existence has a definite beginning and end. Within the Phylum Protozoa, organisms that consist of a single cell, are numerous species that reproduce by fission which is a form of asexual reproduction in which the parent organism divides into two or more approximately equal parts, each becoming an independent individual. In such organisms where it is not easy to establish the beginning and end of an individual organism, the growth seems to continue indefinitely and a potential immortality can be observed. In organisms that use sexual reproduction, the limits of the life-span of each species appear to be determined by ‘Heredity’ which refers to the transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring by means of genes in the chromosomes. Each individual member of any given species has a life-span during which something of that individual lasts when transmitted to offspring as heritable information. The term heredity and the Laws of Inheritance and the Science called Genetics will have validity if, and only if some biological characteristics survive in spite of the death of any individual member of a species. It is very interesting to observe that there are several species of living things which have continuously lived for exceptionally long periods of time retaining their species-specific identity. Such organisms can be claimed to be immortal as they appear to be fully capable of surviving indefinitely. This faculty has been attributed to some insects, some simpler forms of invertebrate marine life (such as Tube Worms, Jellyfish, Clams, and Lobsters), certain fishes and reptiles which appear to be capable of unlimited growth. As the complexity of an organism increases, the internal changes associated with the aging process contribute to senescence and death of the organism. Even under the most favorable external conditions, there is a predetermined age beyond which a given individual of a species may not be able to survive. The Maximum Life-Span is often an estimate based on the longest lived organism of its species that is known to date. The Average Life-Span is a statistical concept that is derived by the analysis of mortality data for populations of each species. The Average Life-Span is related to Life Expectancy, the statistically probable length of time that a typical individual of any given species can be expected to live. Life Expectancy varies as it depends on the changing death rate over a period of time. Even species that have very slow-growing rates can experience higher than natural death rates due to external factors and may even face the threat of total extinction.
Aging vs Longevity. Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Monad: I would like to describe the fertilized Egg Cell or Human Ovum called Zygote as a “Whole Monad.” The entire human organism including the mind, and body is derived by the multiplication of this Single Cell, Single Unit, or Single Element. It is ‘Whole’ for it has Spirit or Soul that establishes the structural and functional harmony between the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems of the human being.
The issue of Life-Span of plants and trees and of Human Life-Span need special consideration. In all animals, where the organism is formed by sexual reproduction, the beginning of life is defined by the formation of the fertilized egg cell or zygote. Very often, physical birth is considered to be the beginning of the Life-Span. The end or death of an organism is reflected in its inability to support its structural and functional organization that gives it a distinctive physical identity. This generation of Life by the union of an egg and sperm is a most remarkable event. In the entire Animal and Plant Kingdom where the organisms achieve reproduction sexually, the Generative Mechanism remains the same and is unchanged over millions of years. This Generative Potential of Sexual Reproduction is unaltered and it describes a most creative process that is involved in the beginning of all living creatures. In my analysis, the immutability of Life’s beginning is dependent on the Unchanging Principle called Soul or Spirit.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Aging vs Longevity. Sequoia sempevirens. The man has officially designated this tree as the State Tree of California State. What is the connection between Man and Plants or Trees? What is the corporeal substance shared or common to all living entities?
The Living Things are composites of 1. Form, and 2. Matter. There are many living things that live with the same ‘form’ or morphological appearance while experiencing the aging process that defines the mortal dimension of Life. The term ‘extinction’ refers to the complete disappearance of a living form from the natural world. However, the phenomenon of extinction cannot be easily applied to the Living Matter which has the faculty of propagating itself either by using the mechanism called Reproduction or the power called Nutrition which involves the ability of a Living Thing to consume Matter provided by other Living Things to renew or regenerate or rebuild its own Living Matter.
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Aging vs Longevity.
80th Independence Day of India – Whole Measurement of Life Journey
Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Naya Bharat, Nation First, Always First.Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Naya Bharat, Nation First, Always First.
Bharat, India is celebrating its 80th Independence Day, Azadi ka Mahotsav on Saturday, August 15, 2026. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Rajghat and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi as the celebrations started. The prime minister then proceeded to the Red Fort where he remembered those who laid their lives for India’s Independence.
Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Naya Bharat, Nation First, Always First.
Indian Independence – A Measure of My Life
The Celebration of First Independence Day of Bharat, India on August 15, 1947. I record major events of my life in relation to India’s independence on August 15, 1947. The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948 and my life’s journey became associated with the story of this young nation.
I record major events of my life in relation to India’s independence on August 15, 1947. The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948 and my life’s journey became associated with the story of this young nation.
25th INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY MEDAL – 1972
Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Nation First, Always First. 25th Independence Anniversary Medal. Indian Independence-A Measure of my Life.
This medal was awarded to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Indian independence in 1972. The medal was awarded to all members of the armed forces, paramilitary forces, and police forces who were serving on 15 August 1972. This medal gives me an opportunity to remember the twenty-fifth year of my life. I was then serving in Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment on deputation from the Indian Army in the rank of a Captain and was posted at a Unit called Delta or D-Sector located in the North-East Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh. We all had a very good reason to rejoice on that day. India scored a major victory in the India-Pakistan War of 1971 and we took pride in the fact that we had a role in shaping that epic event in India’s military history.
Operation Eagle 1971-72-The Chittagong Hill Tracts – Liberation War of Bangladesh:
Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2025. Bharat, India Celebrates 79th Independence Day. Nation First, Always First. Operation Eagle 1971-1972. THE MILITARY VICTORY IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS-THE CELEBRATION OF 25th INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARYBharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Nation First, Always First. Operation Eagle 1971-72,the India-Pakistan War of 1971 and the Liberation of Bangladesh are very significant achievements of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. As I was then serving in Special Frontier Force, Establishment 22 (now the Vikas Regiment) under the Cabinet Secretariat, I had direct and personal understanding of Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy initiatives. She approved our military Operation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In the conduct of this clandestine military operation, we faced a very critical moment and it demanded the Prime Minister’s approval for deploying aircraft in enemy territory, a decision that she alone can make. While awaiting her decision, I carried out a difficult war casualty evacuation mission to overcome the challenge posed by the lack of airlift facility. The importance of this situation could be understood as it required the Prime Minister’s intervention. I am now asking the Government of India to recognize my GALLANT response in enemy’s territory without any concern for my personal safety.Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Nation First, Always First. Lieutenant Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands (December 1985 to December 1989) – Lieutenant General TS Oberoi, PVSM, VrC., former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Headquarters Southern Command, Pune, former Inspector General, Special Frontier Force, former Commandant, Headquarters Establishment No. 22. He is the tall person in this photo wearing dark brown turban. I knew him since 1971. Under his able leadership, the Liberation of Bangladesh commenced during November 1971. Apart from his military wisdom, he took a good care of all men under his Command. While I was proceeding to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he individually greeted all the members of my team and delayed the departure of aircraft to make sure that a hot breakfast was served to all the men boarding the aircraft. He paid personal attention to all the aspects of the military mission to secure the well-being of men apart from achieving success in accomplishing the military task. The sense of warmth he radiated is easily felt when we meet him in person. His grandson provided me the link to this photo. Photo Credit – Trishna-Ajay-Picasa Web Album.Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day.Naya Bharat. Nation First, Always First. The remarks made by Lieutenant Colonel B K Narayan of Special Frontier Force on May 13, 1972 in my Annual Confidential Report for 1971-72 are as follows:”A very conscientious and Tough MO who worked hard during the Bangladesh Ops. He did very well and showed Maturity which was beyond the call of duty. I have recommended this Officer for a gallantry award for which he deserves eminently. He is physically Tough and cheerful. Is a fresh entrant with less than 2 years of Service and yet he displayed capability and confidence.Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Naya Bharat. Nation First, Always First. Operation Eagle 1971/72. Remarks of Former Inspector General of Special Frontier Force, Lieutenant General T S Oberoi, PVSM, VrC, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief,Headquarters Southern Command Pune 411001.He remarked about my participation in the India-Pakistan War of 1971.
Dr. R. R. Narasimham (Rebbapragada Rudranarasimham), B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Personal Number. MR-03277K , Rank. Major, Branch. Army Medical Corps/Direct Permanent Regular Commission
Personal Number. MS-8466, Rank. Captain, Branch. Army Medical Corps/Short Service Regular Commission
Medical Officer, South Column, Operation Eagle
Headquarters Establishment No. 22 C/O 56 APO
Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2026. Bharat, India Celebrates 80th Independence Day. Naya Bharat, Nation First, Always First.Bharat Darshan. Friday, August 15, 2025. Bharat, India celebrates 79th Independence Day. Naya Bharat. Nation First, Always First. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the National Flag hoisting Ceremony at Red Fort, New Delhi, India. Bharat Darshan. August 15, 2025. Bharat, India Celebrates 79th Independence Day. Nation First, Always First. President Droupadi Murmu addressed the Nation on the eve of the Independence Day Celebration. Operation Sindoor will go down in history as an example in humanity’s fight against terrorism.
An All-Inclusive perspective on human existence on the surface of planet Earth.
What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual dimension of designing the Solar System and the designing of the Living Systems.
A Pound of Foolishness is better than a Penny of Wisdom:
What is Reality? The Golden Gate Bridge is real, Pacific Ocean is real, Sun is real. The Sunset is not real. Can man experience the Reality? How would Reality impact the man’s existence?
The social scientist Bruno Latour, from France’s “Institut d’ Etudes Politiques de Paris” was in New Delhi, India and spoke about what it means to be modern with Deep K Datta-Ray of Times of India. In essence, I support his view and there is a need for a new approach; the use of irrational belief and not that of scientific rational belief. I suggest that a Pound of Foolish or irrational belief is better than a Penny of Wisdom or rational belief. The conditioned nature of human existence leaves me with no choice other than that of being Penny Wise and Pound Foolish.
Can Science Provide the Experience of Reality?
Rational vs Irrational Belief. Pencil in Water Illusion. Can Science influence the nature of Perception? The Perception of bent Pencil is caused by the properties of Light rays. Science can only explain the reason for this Optical Illusion. Science has no Power to eliminate the Illusion. The only way man can experience the Reality of this Pencil would be that of changing the State of Pencil’s Conditioned Existence. It is easy to remove the Pencil from Water and experience the Reality. But, can Man remove himself from his Conditioned Existence and experience Reality?
It would be totally irrational to believe that Science must provide the experience called Reality. Science is not Power/Force/Energy which operates the natural world. Science provides information to understand things and it has no power or force to influence things. Science may reveal the understanding of the nature of Reality and such revelation is of no use in the context of human existence on planet Earth as man lives because of illusion he experiences of the world and the universe in which he exists.
The Reality of Earth’s Motion:
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Rational vs Irrational Belief. Man is constituted as a Rational Being. Ma cannot experience the reality of this world.
The speed of earth’s motion can be described in two ways; 1. The Angular Speed: The earth rotates 360 degrees in 24 hours and the speed is 1,000 miles/hour. 2. The Linear Speed: The distance earth travels is 584 million miles per year. The Linear Speed of earth is 66, 660 miles/hour.
Science may explain the fact of the speed of a point on the surface of the earth but cannot force man to experience the Reality of that Speed. Man exists on the surface of earth without ever experiencing the Reality of earth’s true motions. There is no physical experience of this basic Reality. There is no direct mental experience of this fundamental Reality. The man may intellectually visualize this Reality by understanding the facts explained by Science. If human brain and body is constantly engaged by the fact of earth’s motions, the Reality of earth’s Angular Speed and Linear Speed, man would immediately experience a mental breakdown and would not be able to function as a living organism. Just think about the sense of fear, anxiety generated by a brief event like earthquake. The Subjective Reality of man’s Physical Existence on the surface of earth is sustained, is supported, and is protected by a Fundamental Force called Gravitation. Because of the operation of Gravitational Force, man is virtually saved from any experience of earth’s motions. Man only experiences the environmental changes caused by earth’s motions. Further, this Subjective Reality of man’s Physical Existence is governed by a Force/Power/Energy that imposes the “Great Grand Illusion” generating the experience of Sun’s apparent movement across the sky. Science explains the Reality of Sun’s motion at a speed of 155 miles/second. But, man exists on the surface of earth with no physical or mental experience of Sun’s true or real motion. What man experiences is the apparent motion of Sun and experiences Sunrise and Sunset. Science may explain the Reality and teach us the fact of Sun shining with brightness all the time. Man has invented stories and has created folk tales about Sun’s Journey in the Sky. The Reality described by Science does not govern human existence. The biological activities, the Biological Rhythms (Circadian/Diurnal/Solar Rhythms) are synchronized with the experience of Illusion and not that of Scientific Reality.
Biological Clock and Man’s Life Journey:
Rational vs Irrational Belief. The man’s existence on the surface of planet Earth and the duration of his life’s journey is measured by the internal Biological Clock. The time duration is measured by the alternating periods of Light and Darkness, the experience of Day and Night, the experience of Sunrise and Sunset which drives the Biological Rhythm. In Reality, the Sun is shining with brightness at all times during the entire length of man’s life journey. Man gets no chance to experience that Reality and the Biological Clock is not influenced by that Reality of Sun shining at all the hours of man’s earthly existence.
Man cannot exist on the surface of physical earth if he has direct body or mental experience of the Reality explained by rational Scientific Belief. The very nature of human existence in this vast universe can not be rationally understood. There is no evidence to suggest that Life could be discovered in other parts of our universe. There is no chance that Man will find an opportunity to leave the Solar System and find a Home in a different part of the universe. Man has no control over the structure and organization of the universe. Man has no choice other than that of accepting the conditioned nature of his energy dependent existence with no other place to call as Home. Rational beliefs have no role and do not define the status of man in nature and in the universe. It is more likely that man’s existence could be supported by an irrational belief in Ultimate Reality, which operates the Power/Force/Energy which delivers Mercy/Grace/Compassion to spread a veil of Illusion to defend man from the direct physical or mental experience of Reality of the Universe in which man lives. Man can only exist in this Universe if he does not directly experience the Reality of this Universe. Man’s earthly existence is defended by Illusion and Science has no Power to provide man a chance to experience the Reality which is hidden by Illusion.
Rational vs Irrational Belief. Man can only exist in this Universe if he does not directly experience the Reality of this Universe. Man’s earthly existence is defended by Illusion and Science has no Power to provide man a chance to experience the Reality which is hidden by Illusion.
The social scientist Bruno Latour , from France’s Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), was in New Delhi and spoke about what it means to be modern with Deep K Datta-Ray .
Why do you argue that Western Europe has never been modern?
The only shibboleth the West has is science. It is the premise of modernity and it defines itself as a rationality capable of, indeed requiring separation from politics, religion and really, society. Modernisation is to work towards this.
A move away from the pre-modern, which is a period of embroilment and entanglement of everything but when one looks at the practice of science in a laboratory, as i did, this division is revealed as false.
Scientists are very much entangled in their culture and this culture is not pristine, untouched by other cultures and practices. The real history of Europe therefore is one of a constant interaction, a mixing of Peoples, various cultures and the material.
What does this mean for our understanding of what the modern world actually is, how institutions thought of as quintessentially modern function?
There’s very little on how today’s world actually functions. Instead there is the official story of modernization. Meanwhile, there is a prominent discourse in India about modernization.
My argument is that the baseline for understanding modernity requires interrogation, which destabilizes expectations of what a modernising society should do.
Traditionally, the moderns criticised the supposedly archaic, symbolised by the East. Everyone wanted to become modern – but my work demonstrates that being modern was never as clear as presumed. So, when India begins to modernise what happens?
There is a double instability – of an uncertain baseline and then what happens when that is implemented in a society far away and especially in an institutional setting and in an area so close to the state such as governance. So there has to be more work on this.
This is especially important because there are so many more people here, it is possible to have institutions of a different complexion altogether, of alternative ways instituted here. India is a reservoir of alternative interpretations of what the global is and these ways of viewing the world need to be exposed.
Could it also be said that the idea of a universalizing ‘modern’ rationality is not necessarily European but became dominant in Europe?
For that there has to be more work on the non-western world. Regardless of place, there have to be thicker descriptions of practice, of what the modern world actually is, how do banks work for instance, because all we have is the utopian description of how modernity functions. The dream of utopia killed descriptive work because the focus was on a universalizing rationality, not how rationality actually plays out in practice. It should be clear that I’m not saying the East is somehow different, exotic. If one looks at the works of Newton to Einstein they were never scientists in the way modernity understands the term.
What are the implications of this type of work on politics?
Well, politics cannot keep to the scientific ideal quite simply because science in practice meant our moving from the country to the city and getting progressively disconnected from nature. But now one cannot discuss anything without thinking of the whole. Science was supposed to take us out of the cosmos and into a universalizing rationality but that has produced all sorts of problems which are being corrected today by new approaches which are reminiscent of the non-modern, such as the politics of nature. This is a cosmological approach, one that ties in everything to make a decision.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. Rational vs Irrational Belief. In matters of faith and belief, a Pound of Foolishness is Better than a Penny of Wisdom
Plants synthesize chemical molecules that can be recognized by their smell, scent, odor, fragrance, aroma, and flavor.
What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual dimension of biological coloration and the synthesis of chemical molecules by plants.
Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic:
The Magic of Creation can be interpreted from an understanding of Photochemistry and Phytochemistry. Photochemistry provides information about light and matter interactions in the material world where the living things survive using directly, or indirectly the energy trapped by photosynthetic organisms. Phytochemistry provides information about the creation, or the synthesis of chemical molecules by plants which are not endowed with organs of special sensation.
The Magic of Creation is experienced by man who has the faculties of special sensation such as vision, olfaction (smell), and taste. Plants create chemical molecules that have the ability to provide the stimulus to cause a sensation that man can easily recognize. The fact of Creation can be recognized by knowing the color, the odor, the smell, the scent, the fragrance, the aroma, the flavor, and the taste of chemical molecules synthesized by plants.
The Theory of Evolution tries to explain changes in the morphological appearances of organisms which exist under the influence of time. But, the fact of existence of life can only be explained by the unchanging creative mechanisms that operate the Laws of Phytochemistry. We have witnessed changes in the appearances of organisms while the nature, and composition of chemical molecules essentially remains the same, and the same oxidation-reduction chemical reactions operate during the life and death of organisms. For example, the unchanging chemical composition of water molecule makes possible the creation of a wide variety of other chemical molecules to establish biodiversity.
Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: The Water Molecule can exist in three different physical conditions such as liquid, solid, and gas. But, it maintains the same chemical composition, and displays unchanging behavior without being influenced by changing times. In essence, it is the same chemical compound that existed in all living things of the past, and the present.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: The chemical equations for operation of life, and death are essentially the same and have not changed under the influence of time.
The Magic of Creation:
The detection of chemical molecules that stimulate the smell or olfaction sensation plays an important role in the survival of most animals. Smell is used for identifying and evaluating food, finding predators or prey, marking territory, and to stimulate reproductive activity. In several human traditions, the importance of smell, scent, odor, fragrance, and aroma is recognized and is glorified.
Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: In Roman mythology, Goddess Flora is recognized as the Goddess of Flowers and the Floral Fragrance.
Seven odors such as sweaty, spermous, fishy, malty, urinous, and musky have been described as primary odors. The genetic and molecular analysis of the mechanisms of olfaction are researched by Linda Brown Buck, and Richard Axel who published a paper in 1991 identifying 1,000 G-protein coupled receptors used for olfaction.
Olfaction is an ancient sensory system allowing an organism to detect chemicals in its environment. The first step in odor transduction is mediated by binding odorants to olfactory receptors (ORs) which belong to the heptahelical G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily. Mammalian ORs are disposed in clusters on virtually all chromosomes. They are encoded by the largest multigene family (∼1000 members) in the genome of mammals and Caenorhabditis elegans, whereas Drosophila contains only 60 genes. Each OR specifically recognizes a set of odorous molecules that share common molecular features. In mammals, signal transduces through the G-protein-dependent signal pathway in the olfactory sensory neurons that synapse ultimately in the glomeruli of the olfactory bulb, and is finally processed in higher brain structures. The expression of a given OR conditions neuron and glomerulus choices. To date, the processes which monitor OR expression and axon wiring have emerged but are not completely elucidated.
Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Linda Brown Buck(born-1947), American scientist received the 2004 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her work on Olfactory Receptors.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Richard Axel(born 1946), American scientist received the 2004 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research on Olfactory receptors.
There could be 1,000 genes for Olfactory receptors which may detect the size, and shape of molecules and compose information for further recognition as a specific smell or odor. The word smell, or odor can be used as a general term to describe the quality or the characteristic perceived through the olfactory sense. Smell or odor suggests the presence or existence of something. The term scent refers to the emanation from the thing that is smelled. Scent could be faint, but it is a pervasive smell that gives a clue that could be tracked or followed. Odor is a heavier emanation and is often more clearly recognized. Smell or odor could be pleasant or unpleasant. Several descriptive terms are used to make the distinction between sensations that are appealing or offending. Fragrance is an agreeable, sweet smell, or pleasant odor. Aroma is a pleasant spicy odor. Perfume is relatively strong but usually pleasant smell that is natural, or manufactured. Bouquet is the fragrance of wine or brandy, and is also used to describe the characteristic aroma of a bunch of cut flowers. The term Redolence describes rich, pleasant combination of smells The term stink, or stench describe offending, or repulsive odors emanated by decaying organic materials. The term musty odor describes stale, moldy smell, and denotes the lack of freshness.
Plants create a combination of colors, smells, odors, fragrances, and aromas by synthesizing a variety of chemical molecules even while they lack the specific sensory abilities to recognize the characteristics of those molecules.
The seeds of Chenopodium quinoa (marketed as Quinoa Flakes), when boiled release Spermous(Semen-like) odor and it is a very remarkable coincidence between the odor generated by a plant and the glands of human male reproductive system.
The seeds of Chenopodium quinoa (marketed as Quinoa Flakes, when boiled release Spermous(Semen-like) odor and it is a very remarkable coincidence between the odor generated by a plant and the glands of human male reproductive system.
Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Cinnamomum camphora. The smell called Camphor is derived from Sanskrit word “Karpurah” which is strong and penetrating, and stimulating.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: The sweet floral fragrance of Rose is known to man since prehistoric times. It is a favorite flower in many lands.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Pogostemon cablin or Patchouli is known for its strong smell and is used in Aroma Therapy.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Patchouli is known for its musky, sensuous odor.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Oncidium or Redolence Orchid is known for its rich, pleasant combination of smells called heavenly scent.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Nyctanthes arbor – tristis, Night Jasmine. In Indian tradition, a legend describes that this tree was stolen from a celestial garden and was planted on earth to provide the pleasure of enjoying its fragrant flowers to Lord Krishna’s queen.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Mentha piperita known for its aromatic, fragrant foliage.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Nicotiana tabacum, a native of Americas. is known for the fine tobacco aroma of its cured leaves.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Hibiscus abelmoschus is known for its musky fragrance and the seeds are used in making perfume.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: The aroma of wine is described as Bouquet.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Capsicum longum is known for its fruits which impart a piercing, burning, biting, and painful sensation associated with pungent odor.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Titan Arum, a native of Sumatra, Indonesia is known for its extremely offensive corpse-like stinky odor.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Pisum sativum. The sweetness of fresh, garden peas can be instantly recognized and is cultivated by man for thousands of years.Whole Dude – Whole Designer – Whole Magic: Chenopodium quinoa. The seeds when boiled release Spermous(Semen-like) odor and it is a very remarkable coincidence between the odor generated by a plant and the glands of human male reproductive system.
Plants synthesize chemical molecules that can be recognized by their smell, scent, odor, fragrance, aroma, and flavor. The sensory recognition or perception of smell or odor indicates the presence of something; the something that I recognize is that of the operation of Divine Providence called Mercy, Grace, and Compassion.
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
Plants synthesize chemical molecules that can be recognized by their smell, scent, odor, fragrance, aroma, and flavor.Plants synthesize chemical molecules that can be recognized by their smell, scent, odor, fragrance, aroma, and flavor.
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. What is Spirit? What is Life?
What it is to be a Substance? and What it is to Exist? We need to establish knowledge about the man and the world on a firm basis and the information it provides must be tested for its accuracy and consistency with an external reality. We have to make the fundamental distinction between the living and the non-living matter. The scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced the materialistic position concerning the basic similarity of organic living and inorganic physical matter. The man is viewed as a product of natural evolution and is thought to be subject to the same laws of Physics and Chemistry or mechanistic principles.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the concept of Spiritual Optics, the Spiritual Connection between Energy and Life. The Laws of Thermodynamics are important unifying principles of Biology. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Spiritual Optics accounts for the capacity of photoreception and the term Spiritual Light refers to the creation of Light by God to begin the designing of Matter, and the designing of Living Matter which lives by consuming Matter called Food which is created by the use of a creative mechanism called Photosynthesis. The Substance called Food describes the activities of Life.
Whole Dude – Whole Designer -Whole Spirit
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. What is Spirit? What is Life?
Life depends on a virtually uninterrupted supply of materials or matter for its metabolism. If the word Spirit or Soul is defined as the vital, animating principle found in all living things, we need to understand the relationship between Matter and Spirit. The concern about the importance of matter is often ridiculed as Materialism, and man is often directed to value Spiritualism where the point of emphasis is man’s direct relationship with God. The separation of Matter and Spirit as two distinct entities will not help us to understand the reality of human existence. Man has to know that there is no disunity between Matter and Spirit. If Spirit is the medium of direct relationship between man and God, the nature of this medium is discovered from the nature of matter that man consumes as food and drink to establish his life. Food always represents the activities of the Living Things and hence the Source of Food and the Source of Life share a Common Source of Origin.
What is Manna? What is it? Is it Food?
Whole Dude-Whole Designer-Whole Spirit: What is Manna? What is it? Is it Food? Manna is described as a special substance provided to the Hebrews during the exodus from Egypt. The name is of uncertain meaning. This substance or matter called Manna saved the lives of Hebrews and specifically protected them from hunger and thirst, the two primary sensations that reveal man’s dependence upon physical matter for his conditioned existence. Its miraculous delivery from heaven shows the nature of relationship between man, matter, spirit, and God.
The Old Testament Book of Exodus (Chapter 4, verse 4) and the Book of Numbers (Chapter 11, verse 9) describe “Manna” coming with the dew, and may have collected in dewdrops. It was white, of delicious flavor, and resembled the seed of coriander, and it was both tasty, and nourishing. Being seed like in form, it had to be ground and was used in making bread. As soon as other food was available, the miraculous supply of Manna ceased (The Book of Joshua, Chapter 5, verse 12). No known substance meets the description of this food material. The Bible makes it certain that Manna came as a temporary provision and Hebrew writers described it as “corn from heaven”, bread from heaven, and as “angels’ bread.” However, I see its importance from the statement made by Jesus to make a distinction between physical matter, and Spirit or Spiritual Matter.
God is the Source of Life with Matter and Spirit:
Whole Dude-Whole Designer-Whole Spirit: God has absolute Life in Himself and is the source of all Life. If God is uncreated, Life is Eternal, Immortal, Imperishable, Indestructible, Immutable, Immovable, and is uncreated. The Gospel According to Apostle John, Chapter 5, verse 26 states:”For as the Father has Life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have Life in Himself.” It must be noted that Spirit inhabits the entire body and is not limited to some unknown area of brain, or heart. Spirit belongs to both flesh, and blood. The condition called “Death” is a variable condition like the dimensions of Matter, Energy, Space, and Time, the building blocks used in the plan and in the design of all things present in the universe.
Life is a complex concept with varied shades of meaning. It may denote physical or natural life. The term Life is often used to describe the actions, or experiences, the activities, and the relations that make up Life. If Spirit is the vital principle of Life, or Breath of Life, God has infused Spirit into the substance of man making him a living Soul. This Spirit inhabits the entire body of the person and makes man a Spiritual being. The Old Testament Book of Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 7 proclaims: “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The problem of physical death, the period of man’s earthly existence, and the duration of man’s lifetime has to be explained taking into account the imperishable nature of Matter and the Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy. Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, who was described as a leading Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin. He came to Jesus by night and the conversation is reported in the New Testament Book of John, Chapter 3, verses 1 to 21. He instructed him: “Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit”(verses 5 and 6) and made Nicodemus aware of his need by announcing the necessity of a new birth in order “to see the Kingdom of God.” The man is constituted as a Spiritual being and due to the intervention of sin, the man has become ignorant of his own true, or real spiritual nature. To save himself from the burden imposed by sin, the man has to be infused with Spirit and Jesus says that man who is born, must experience rebirth. Jesus further explains this relation between Matter and Spirit in the Book of John, Chapter 6, in several verses(25-69). In verse 35 Jesus declares: “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus clearly recognizes that Matter and Spirit serve the same function, the function of supporting Life in two different dimensions. Jesus is the source of Life and Spirit and that Spirit inhabits His entire body, in flesh and blood, and is not limited to a secret hiding place in either mind or heart. The Old Testament Book of Leviticus, Chapter 17, verse 14 states: “because the life of every creature is its blood.” If Life is associated with blood, Spirit is also associated with blood. In John 6:63, Jesus states: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life.” Man who faces the burden of sin called Death, is required to infuse himself with Spirit, and the source of this Spirit is the Word that was spoken.
The Living Waters – The Satiation of Hunger and Thirst – The Experience of Joy:
Whole Dude-Whole Designer-Whole Spirit: The Concept of Living Waters. Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well near the village of Sychar. Apparently, Jesus was thirsty like any other human being and had asked the woman to serve Him water and carefully explained as to how the physical matter or substance called water can become the “Living Waters” in both physical Life and Spiritual Life. Water is physical matter and is the most important chemical molecule of all physical Life. And in a similar manner, when infused with Spirit, it becomes the source for eternal Life. The satisfaction of both physical, and Spiritual hunger and thirst is experienced by man.
It is very easy to understand the experience called thirst. Hunger and Thirst are the symptoms that define the nature of man’s conditioned existence. The conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well near the village of Sychar is reported in the New Testament Book of John, Chapter 4, verses 4 to 42. It is abundantly clear that the nature of Spirit can be understood from the nature of Matter as both of them have a role in providing sustenance to man and maintain his Life. To fetch water from a well, man needs tools like a rope, and a cistern. Similarly, man needs the tools called Faith and Belief to insert or to infuse, or imbibe Spirit into his mind, heart, and body and gain access to eternal Life. Just like the rope, and the cistern, to quench Spiritual Thirst, and to feed Spiritual Hunger, man needs tools called Faith and Belief.
When man’s thirst, and hunger are fully satisfied, the satiated person gets the experience called Contentment. When Spiritual Thirst, and Spiritual Hunger are satiated, man gets the experience called Joy. The human experience called Joy is as real as the experience of hunger and thirst.
Whole Dude-Whole Designer-Whole Spirit: What is Spirit? What is Life? Matter and Spirit Relationship: The Living Waters: The New Testament, The Gospel According to John, Chapter 3, verse#5 , Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and the Spirit.” Water is physical matter but it is derived from an Infinite Substance called God and hence it can be a source of eternal Life.
In my analysis, Matter, and Spirit work together to establish man’s relationship with God. For God is the only unchangeable, or eternal reality; wherever man is, in Life or in Death, God will be there. If this relationship pertains to a matter of Faith and Belief, The Old Testament Book of Psalms, The Book of King David, Psalm 16, verse 10 gives the Hope:
“Because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy one see decay.”
Life means the experience of Peace, Harmony, Tranquility, Hope, Fear, Love, Joy, and Wisdom. The problem of Death is experienced as a Fear as Death means the inability to have the subjective experiences associated with Life. But, man does not exist in the physical world because of the abilities of his physical, or mental work. Man exists because of the nature of Matter, and Spirit and this nature is only an extension of the Divine Nature.
What is Matter? and What is Spirit? What is the Color of Money? If materialism is about the influence of material wealth, I would like to use the Power/Force/Energy called Money to talk about Life and Death. The Laws of Conservation are applicable to both the living, and the non-living matter. Hence, it can be stated that “Life can neither be created nor destroyed.” If any person can refute my claim using valid, scientific information, I would offer the person a US $1,000 bill as a reward
Dr. Rudranarasimham, Rebbapragada, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Father’s Name: R. Suryanarayana Murty
Sri Venkateswara University, M.B.B.S. Class of April, 1970
Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Medical Registration Number: AMC5282; Date of Registration: September 16, 1971
The Material Basis of Spirituality Science. What is Spirit? What is Life?
Whole Dude - Whole Spirituality 
