Anomaly Between Erect Posture of Humans and Their Spine Structure

In continuation of my observations, earlier posted in FB, about the apparent anomalies of Mother Nature in the design of human physiology ,  I would venture to add the following...

Is not the vertebral structure of human spine an evolutionary oversight?

It's perfectly suited for a quadruped animal or for a reptile.

Without such a structure the degree of flexibility such life forms need in order to move about and chase their prey would've been seriously impaired or even been made impossible.

 For humans with their vertical posture, such a design is a liability,  unnecessarily engendering a host of diseases due to the gravitational weight of the body parts vertically positioned above the plane of the vertebra concerned. (The padding with spongy material, namely the wonder material CARTILAGE' which is almost a SQUEEZABLE bone, on the lower and upper joints of the vertebrae, which exists now, is not enough to last a life-time. On the contrary for quadrupeds the weight of the vertical structures doesn't arise as the body is horizontal and the cartilage effectively does its function lifelong).This fact seems to have been ignored in the evolutionary process from quadruped monkeys to semi-biped gorillas and chimpanzees to fully biped homo sapiens.

To bend the upper part of the body to touch the ground, ideally humans are expected to use the hip joints (incidentally as realised by the ancient Indian sages who spelt it out in the famous Patanjali Yoga Sastra) and not the vertebrae.

So a straight heavy bone is ideal as the human spine with ribs branching from it.

In the case of an accident involving spine the extent of injury would almost be the same  in both the configurations. Perhaps  the single bone configuration scores better because of the replaceability of the bone with a steel tubing with provisions for jointing the ribs. A vertebral structure demands replacement of each vertebra with jointing to the vertebrae above and below with provisions for axial movement plus the horizontal jointing with rib bones on both sides.

 Undoubtedly in both cases the injury to the Spine is bound to be highly critical as it is the duct that the bundle of nerves known as the Spinal Chord that carry the brain signals to all parts of the body is securely ensconced...

My contention is that Nature is in the process of correcting it's evolutionary mistake. I suppose the number of vertebrae is already less than that of a 4-legged animal of same length of backbone and certainly far less than a reptile of the same lenth. 

It may take a million years for man's spine to evolve into a non-vertebral one...

Vertebral Structure Of Human Spine

 In continuation of my observations, earlier posted in FB, about the apparent anomalies of Mother Nature in the design of human physiology ,  I would venture to add the following...

Is not the vertebral structure of human spine an evolutionary oversight?

It's perfectly suited for a quadruped animal or for a reptile.

Without such a structure the degree of flexibility such life forms need in order to move about and chase their prey would've been seriously impaired or even been made impossible.

 For humans with their vertical posture, such a design is a liability,  unnecessarily engendering a host of diseases due to the gravitational weight of the body parts vertically positioned above the plane of the vertebra concerned. (The padding with spongy material, namely the wonder material CARTILAGE' which is almost a SQUEEZABLE bone, on the lower and upper joints of the vertebrae, which exists now, is not enough to last a life-time. On the contrary for quadrupeds the weight of the vertical structures doesn't arise as the body is horizontal and the cartilage effectively does its function lifelong).This fact seems to have been ignored in the evolutionary process from quadruped monkeys to semi-biped gorillas and chimpanzees to fully biped homo sapiens.

To bend the upper part of the body to touch the ground, ideally humans are expected to use the hip joints (incidentally as realised by the ancient Indian sages who spelt it out in the famous Patanjali Yoga Sastra) and not the vertebrae.

So a straight heavy bone is ideal as the human spine with ribs branching from it.

In the case of an accident involving spine the extent of injury would almost be the same  in both the configurations. Perhaps  the single bone configuration scores better because of the replaceability of the bone with a steel tubing with provisions for jointing the ribs. A vertebral structure demands replacement of each vertebra with jointing to the vertebrae above and below with provisions for axial movement plus the horizontal jointing with rib bones on both sides.

 Undoubtedly in both cases the injury to the Spine is bound to be highly critical as it is the duct that the bundle of nerves known as the Spinal Chord that carry the brain signals to all parts of the body is securely ensconced...

My contention is that Nature is in the process of correcting it's evolutionary mistake. I suppose the number of vertebrae is already less than that of a 4-legged animal of same length of backbone and certainly far less than a reptile of the same lenth. 

It may take a million years for man's spine to evolve into a non-vertebral one...

Invite ur comments🙏

Devaswam Department Administering Only Hindu Temples... Does It Suit The Concept Of Democracy?

   I have been a votary of the proposition that it is wrong that the govt, perhaps only of Kerala, takes control of the administration and the huge revenue earned, in respect of the Hindu temples in the state, through a department called Devaswam. 

This is in the scenario of letting the worshipping centres of all other religions to be managed by themselves! 

Apparently this has happened in Kerala because the rulers of the princely state prior to independence were devout Hindus and they took upon themselves the responsibility of promoting the temples. When a democratic govt took over after independence the entire administration was blindly transferred to the new dispensation! No one pointed out this anomaly, not even the Hindu intelligentia, who were apparently in slumber!

The reason why the taking over of Hindu Temple Administration by the govt is unjustifiable is mainly that it is blatantly undemocratic. The additional reason is that the party in power may not be promotive of the religious beliefs and philosophy of the Hindu traditions that govern the working of the temples and hence might go counter to the ethos of Hinduism. Thus it only becomes a huge source of revenue for the govt with  miniscule  expenditure for their maintenance. It could also turn out that the party in power may be out and out agnostic in their attitude to religions, as is the case now in Kerala with the leftist parties in power. 

One way to counter the first criticism is to take over the worshipping places of other religions as well. However the govt lacks the guts to do that. If they attempt to touch the Islamic mosques or Christian churches there would be uncontrollable bloodshed, and the govt would be kicked out  of power. Even if the govt theoretically  succeeds in such an attempt the second issue still stands valid. Hindus, however, are largely a pacifist lot and lack the initiative to take up the issue legally with the Supreme Court. So they seem to be taking the present state of affairs as their fate! 

Of late after further introspection I too feel inclined to accept the existing practice to continue. My reason is the following. Whom will the govt hand over the administration if the Supreme Court passes a verdict to put an end to the govt's control over Hindu temples? The religion has no Body which has the approval of the various Castes to represent the religion. First they will have to take a united stand to elect a Body which is competent to represent them, which is a tough issue. That will need Casteism to go! Will the majority community be able to measure up to meet the challenge? How can people discard Caste when so many benefits revolve around that? The strange thing is that those who belong to the so-called 'lower'

Castes wouldn't like others to address them by their Caste denominations (it is a punishable criminal offence!), but would hold on to their Castes to enjoy the benefits thereof! 

The reservation system based on Castes which was envisaged by our Constitution makers to be in force for the first 10 years after independence has become perennial in our Vote Bank politics! The irony is that the benefits have been mostly annexed by the creamy layers in each Caste and thus have not achieved the purpose they were intended to serve. Thus we have ended up in this unsolvable conundrum of Democracy which perhaps no other democratic country in the world is a victim of !!!

Caste System Of Hinduism

 

The single inconsistency, in my humble opinion, militating against the characteristic universalism and tolerance of Hinduism,  is unfortunately the layered 'Casteism' that it unwittingly promoted  over perhaps millennia!

Hinduism is indeed the embodiment of dharma and culture of Indians,  which unfortunately is referred to as a 'religion' ( à la Semitic Religions) from the time of the cataclysmic invasions of a few centuries ago that happened from our northwestern frontier. It existed from pre-historic times for over 5000 years in India, distinct from and beyond the restrictive semitic definition of 'religion'.

 'Casteism' by itself is, in my view, a brilliant concept  introduced to enable specialisation in specific professions by ensuring that future practitioners could learn the profession from birth, watching parents practising the profession,  within the four walls of the household. Such a possibility of INHERITING the profession alone will provide the necessary environment to attain perfection in it and to take it to its pinnacle of excellence.

Today's 'professional societies' aim at the same goal but without the possibility of INHERITING the profession, thus mitigating the opportunity that promotes excellence. 

The problem arose when the concept of Hierarchy got superimposed on Casteism, obviously due to the narrow selfish interests of a section of the society and as a sequel the liberty to change the profession at any point in future was denied.

A consequence of fundamental and far-reaching effect of such a Caste System was that the right to know about the spiritual/philosophic aspects of the Hindu culture became the  prerogative of a certain section of the society and others were denied the knowledge. The great Vedic literature, Upanishads,  the Itihasas and other spiritual texts thus remained beyond the reach of other sections of the society. 

It is only for the last few decades that an effort is on to propagate the knowledge and to grant access to the texts, thanks to the great services of Swamy Vivekananda, Swamy Chinmayananda in the beginning, and  is continued by spiritual gurus like Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, Mata Amritanandamayi, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Swamy Bhoomananda Tirtha and many others who are alive and working in present times.

 The Hindu temples are yet to take up this responsibility of interpreting the wealth of our spiritual texts to commoners and to make it possible for them to learn the great language of these texts, Sanskrit, to enable them to read and understand the texts directly.

No wonder that Hadiyas are born in the Hindu Society because the youngsters are ignorant and defenceless spiritually!

The culture of Hinduism is fundamentally secular ( not in the sense certain political parties are now preaching) and welcomes all cultures of the world to coexist with it and  welcomes the members of all religions to live and prosper in this land as it's neighbours. It has never exerted an anti-foreigner preference, though paradoxically that very same attitude has been so cruelly and unethically exploited to subjugate this great country of ours and its basic culture! If some fringe elements of that culture is acting against this basic tenet, know that it is as a natural human response to the attitude of aggression and forcible conversions directed towards it.

It's unquestionably to its credit that it so admirably withstood the incessant onslaughts by the semitic religions in the nature of forced conversions and brutal diabolic torture and extermination they unleashed on it from the time of Moghal rule and also to the additional psychological aggression through Macaulayan strategy by the British employed to instill inferiority about our culture, language and all the wealth of spiritual, philosophical, artistic, medical, scientific, astronomical and mathematical  achievements of a few thousand years! 

The testimony to its relevance today is the fact that it survives with  unquestionable validity despite the propagation of some semitic religions which took birth thousands of years later with ostensibly more and more modern concepts about God and Creation!  

The western civilizations, for the past couple of centuries, seem to have realised the lofty principles on which Indian culture is founded and are progressively welcoming it's propagation on their shores and their members are arriving in India in large numbers to attend discourses at the Ashrams of our modern-day Gurus.

'LOKA SAMASTA SUKHINO BHAVANTU !' ( May the people of the whole world flourish in Happiness, Harmony, Peace and Prosperity!) the great Upanishadic principle still continues to govern India's great indigenous culture. 

Let us not provoke that culture to discard that  universal message of the Upanishad!

Is Theory Of Evolution That Determines Our Longivity?

 Why is life impermanent on earth? What happens to so many endearing personalities after their bodies are declared lifeless. What is the state known as LIFE? Seems that Nature revels in new creations. Is it because its earlier creations are not found perfect. Is it a pursuit towards perfection?

Then why are the lives of great legends in Science/ Arts/ Spirituality etc. cut short? Maybe our criteria of perfection are not the same as Nature's. The principle of evolution of species is a pursuit towards  perfection of SPECIES in alligning with Nature. When it comes to individuals in the species ( like us homo sapiens) the pursuit is towards perfection of each individual. We have NO IDEA about Nature's criterion!!! Like we are totally ignorant about the phenomenon called LIFE.

 Yes, then considering the limited space available on earth and more importantly due to the fact that imperfections could not be allowed to coexist with more perfect creations, putting an end to individual lives is quite logical.

So, NO SENSE in feeling SAD about the 'passing away' of people who were DEAR to us... 🙏

Samskrit Language, India's Invaluable Treasure.. How To Keep It Alive

 4)Sanskrit Language, India's 

Invaluable Treasure... How To Keep It Alive

I'm 85.  I've undergone a 4-semester course on Sanskrit language a couple of years ago, conducted by Seva Bhatati. A wonderful course that familiarises you with the 'deva bhasha' fairly in-depth. The course

honours you with the title 'Kovida'. I passed in the Uththama grade.

I gave the above introduction to claim some authority over what I'm going to write below.

I deeply love the language. Perhaps it is the oldest language of the world since the Vedas and Upanishats are written in that language.

Why was Sansrit not  adopted as India's national language for communication amongst all its subjects, when all spoken Indian languages are deeply related to it having imported freely words from it ( maybe in different degrees) Even Tamil which claims to be the oldest language of India has words from Sanskrit, in a distorted form due to the former's limited number of alphabets. e. g. 'choukiyam' for 'soukhyam'.

My perception is the following. The reason for not adopting it is that its presently not a 'spoken' language of India. It was perhaps one, once upon a time, maybe before the moghals started ruling India. To learn a language the natural way is to be born in a family where it is spoken. The next preferred way is for it to be taught COMPULSORILY from at least the 1st standard. To do that we need approval from a MAJORITY of citizens across India in order to conform to our DEMOCRATIC credentials.

The reason why Sanskrit is to be taught from the 1st standard is that its GRAMMAR is extremely complex. Panini the great grammarian of Sanskrit went deep into the concept of grammar. No living language is anywhere near Sanskrit in complexity. For example

1) the division of nouns as singular, DUAL and plural. 

2) the division of all nouns as male, female and GENDERLESS. That too while refering to inanimate objects

3)The 'vibhaktis' ( 'cases')which are 8 in number being DIFFERENT depending on the gender, cluster ( singular, dual, plural) of the noun to which they are attached. This is  most DIFFICULT to learn. Needs great memory power.

4) The segregation of all verbs as 'Atmanepati' and 'Parasmepati' without a clear criterion.

5) Verb endings in the three tenses being dependent on gender, the arbitrary segregation of 'atmanepati' and 'parasmepati'.

The list above is not exhaustive.

In short one's MEMORY POWER is what makes you an expert in this language. ( The positive aspect about this onservation is that mastery of Sanskrit language increases your memory power manyfold. Perhaps those who have mastered the language are automatically protected against Alzheimers!!!)

The great authors of our numerous puranas, religious texts, Sanskrit literary texts and innumerable ancient works on different aspects of life and universe are proven intellectuals. 'Intellect ' comprises of logic and memory. The emphasis on memory implicit in mastery of Sanskrit language may be one reason for ancient India's spectacular contributions to Mathematics, Astronomy and many other fields predating by several centuries the western discoveries.

The major difficulty that we face in re-introducing Sanskrit as a spoken language of India is the intricate grammar of the language. My viewpoint is that we have not allowed the language to EVOLVE over the thousands of years it existed. Every other spoken language has EVOLVED over time to reach its present state. For instance English. Its difficult to understand Old English. If we had let Sanskrit evolve over the thousands of years it existed it would've got rid of all the unnecessary complexities enumerated earlier in this note. For example, to mention a few...

1) The verbs need not depend on the non-unitary state of the subject or its gender.

2) The 'vibhaktis' ( case) also need not also depend on the above aspects of the subject.

3) The qualifiers of nouns need not also depend on the state or gender of noun.

and so on.

In this context it may be noted that in Malayalam ( which I know well being my mothertongue ) the above 3 rules are obeyed and hence compared with most other Indian languages its grammar is extremely simple.

One big advantage though of NOT letting Sanskrit evolve is that we can understand the old scriptures/ literature EXACTLY as they were intended to convey.

Hence my recommendation is to impose Sanskrit learning for Hindus as COMPULSARY from the 1st Standard in all schools. It can be optional for those who belong to other faiths.

....Permesh Nair

Aging And The Mind

I have been introspecting for a while now about the process of aging of the mind and the transformation that is happening in me who is 78 and possibly in many of us in the same age group.

In our younger days we have been keen observers and learners of minutiae in every subject we were interested in. For instance in our school and college days we learned subjects in Science and Technology ( those who specialised in  Science and Engineering subjects, for example) intensely concentrating on every detail.

 After education once we entered our professional careers these details faded away from our minds leaving behind an overall idea of the concepts basing on which we acquired professional skills that were required to execute tasks at our workplaces. Very many things that we learned in detail depending on the demand on hand at the workplace also gradually faded away with their essence staying on in the mind.

 This seems to be  a continuous process as we encounter new situations until age catches up with us. It is understandable since there are only a finite number of neurons in our brain and they can't be ecpected to hold infinite amount of information  and they need to either discard or at least codify part of their contents in order to take in new information.

Once age catches up we don't go into the details of even the current task on hand. We gradually tend to evade tasks that need close scrutiny and intense involvement. In an organisation you leave such tasks to the younger members of the team and you do the overall supervision and control. Perhaps it is in recognition of this process of evolution of aging mind that in an organisation's hierarchy the top posts are reserved for 'senior' folks. In a family the elderly people are gradually sidetracked and relegated to responsibilities that do not need intense involvement, constant attention and acute alertness. The so-called spiritual/philosophical disposition that one develops towards the later years  is in line with this natural transformation of mind as it ages. 

This process of evolution is absolutely natural and perhaps conforms to the progressive physiological process of lowering of neural population in the brain. In the course of such evolution mind tends to gradually retract from it's basic faculties that empower it to delve deep into details which are pronounced in early years and to reshape itself by acquiring a tendency to generalise and engage itself in generalities on all its involvements. It is thus a journey from details to generalities as one ages. 

The distant gaze into the empty space that very aged people generally are seen to indulge in is perhaps a symptom of this tendency of the mind to run away from the details of the foreground scene.

The ability to come to generalisation after filtering through the details of an issue is considered to be a faculty indicative of high degree of intelligence. So in a certain sense the compulsion of aging that leads to a tendency of generalisation is up to a point a positive faculty. It becomes a sign of degradation of power of comprehension only when you start losing the faculty of detailed study. Alzheimer's in a sense is not too deviant a phenomenon when one realises that aging causes gradual withdrawal of the mind from  its basic ability to delve into details. It is a well-known fact of brain physiology that neurons die away when they are NOT being used and conversely if there is NEED for them, fresh neurons take birth to meet the requirement. So the aging gets accelerated when we are satisfied with generalities alone to the extent of shunning the details altogether. 

To reverse aging of brain, therefore, we need to deliberately engage the mind in the study of details in one or the other of our interests. Such a practice may help us to keep the Alzheimer's at bay. Hence it may be very useful for all of us to learn something new deliberately and to remain mentally active, even if it is not going to be of any mundane use to us, just to keep mentally healthy as we age.

I am therefore consciously doing that and I would urge, if you are convinced of my rationale presented above, all of you my FB friends in my age group to do the same. I'm trying to learn new things. I could also perhaps continue to teach. Hope to be able to fight the debilitating aspects of aging to some extent. 

The flooding of our lives by the modern technological gadgets like the Smart Phone is indeed a boon and we must attempt to use them intelligently and exploit it's myriad features which will not only stimulate our aging brain but also serve us as a powerful medium of interaction with today's youth through the ubiquitous social tools such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram and the like.

Another issue I'm conscious of, that is attributable to aging , is about the difficulty, (which is widely expressed ) to recall fast enough the names of familiar people, places, sometimes vocabulary etc. The reason is apparently the same, namely, shrinking of the neuron population. Again partial remedy can be found by deliberately commiting them to memory after we recall them and inventing more and more occasions to use them.

Yet another observation that has struck me is that as we age, at the emotional level, we tend to nurture the so-called higher or 'satwik' emotions such as kindness, empathy,  understanding, pardoning attitude, helping attitude, charity and so on. As Bhagavat Geeta asserts that all of Nature is the outcome of the play of 3 'Gunas' ( Tamas, Rajas and Satwa) and it is impossible to completely  get rid of them by our volition, except that a true Yogi's  effort should be to outgrow them. However, every individual has the liberty  to decide what to cultivate more in the process of his evolution. My experience is, which I believe may be the experience of a majority,  that the brain automatically tries to cultivate 'satwa' as it ages.

 ( Let me make it clear at this juncture that I'm not a  religious person in the conventional sense except that I firmly believe in the existence of a Universal Intelligence that oversees this mysterious phenomenon we know as 'life' and this infinite cosmos of matter and energy all of which obey precise laws  and tread this mysterious track of Time which has no beginning or end!!! Science has been able only to scratch on the sensorily perceptible miniscule part of this unfathomable incomprehensible entity! I also believe in the possibility of that Intelligence being generally benign to its creations, as are we to our creations, or in other words I believe it to be essentially 'satwik'. )

 While the brain tends to withdraw from details and meticulous analyses, which are functions of the left half of the brain, our attitude seems to draw from the faculties attributed to the right half such as the emotions mentioned above. Is it that the linkage mechanism connecting the two halves becomes more effective as we age?