Defines man in all his dimensions to account for human existence in the Natural World.
The term design means to make a plan, a pattern, or outline and carry out the execution by artistic arrangement in a skillful way. To produce an artistic unit, the designer will arrange the parts; details of form, color, etc., to fit into the artful scheme. Unlike an artist, the Whole Designer creates the whole scene using own imaginative power. In other words, the Whole Designer begins with the creation of Elements before putting them together.
I only want to be heard and I do not want to be seen. I speak about the relation between sound and echo, the song and the singer, the Creator, and the created.
The term ‘inventor’ is used to describe a person who devises a new contrivance. This is a post to pay tribute to Dr. Douglas Carl Engelbart who during 1968 invented the first computer ‘mouse’ and has revolutionized the manner in which people can use the electronic medium to communicate with each other, and to perform a myriad of functions with absolute ease. I am happy to acknowledge the thirty-year track record of Engelbart in predicting, designing, and implementing the future of organizational computing. The invention of ‘mouse’, a device to control the desktop computer has helped the development of interactive computer technologies. Engelbart had authored over 25 publications, generated 20 patents, including the patent for the first computer mouse. In the late 1980s the mouse became the standard way to control a desktop computer.
Rudra N Rebbapragada
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162, USA
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Spirits-of-Special-Frontier-Force/362056613878227
Published: in the HINDU, July 5, 2013.
Mouse inventor who foresaw the modern internet
AP VISIONARY: Douglas Engelbart poses with the computer mouse he designed, in this 1997 picture.
The first computer mouse was a wooden shell with metal wheels. The man behind it, tech visionary Doug Engelbart, has died at 88 after transforming the way people work, play and communicate.
The mild-mannered Engelbart had audacious ideas. Long before Apple founder Steve Jobs became famous for his dramatic presentations, Engelbart dazzled the industry at a San Francisco computer conference in 1968.
Working from his house with a homemade modem, he used his lab’s elaborate new online system to illustrate his ideas to the audience, while his staff linked in from the lab. It was the first public demonstration of the mouse and video teleconferencing, and it prompted a standing ovation.
“We will miss his genius, warmth and charm,” said Curtis R. Carlson, the CEO of Stanford Research Institute International, where Engelbart used to work. “Doug’s legacy is immense. Anyone in the world who uses a mouse or enjoys the productive benefits of a personal computer is indebted to him.”
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, when mainframe computers took up entire rooms and were fed data on punch cards, Engelbart already was envisioning a day when computers were far more intuitive to use.
One of the biggest advances was the mouse, which he developed in the 1960s and patented in 1970. The idea was way ahead of its time. The mouse didn’t become commercially available until 1984, with the release of Apple’s then—revolutionary Macintosh computer. Engelbart conceived the mouse so early in the evolution of computers that he and his colleagues didn’t profit much from it. The technology passed into the public domain in 1987, preventing him from collecting royalties on the mouse when it was in its
widest use. At least 1 billion have been sold since the mid-1980s.Now, their usage is waning as people merely swipe their finger across a
display screen.“There are only a handful of people who were as influential,” said Marc Weber, founder and curator of the Internet history program at the Computer History Museum, where Engelbart had been a fellow since 2005. “He had a complete vision of what computers could become at a very early stage.”
Among Engelbart’s other key developments in computing, along with his colleagues at SRI International and his own lab, the Augmentation Research Center, was the use of multiple windows. His lab also helped develop ARPANet computer network, the government research network that led to the Internet.
Engelbart played down the importance of his inventions, stressing instead his vision of using collaboration over computers to solve the world’s problems. “Many of those firsts came right out of the staff’s innovations even had to be explained to me before I could understand them,” he said in a biography written by his daughter.
In 1997, Engelbart won the most lucrative award for American inventors, the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. Three years later, President Bill Clinton bestowed Engelbart with the National Medal of Technology “for creating the foundations of personal computing.”
Douglas Carl Engelbart was born January 30, 1925, and studied electrical engineering, taking two years off during World War II to serve as a Navy electronics and radar technician in the Philippines. It was there that he read Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” and was inspired by the idea of a machine that would aid human cognition. Engelbart later(1955) earned his PhD. at University of California, Berkeley, but after joining the faculty, he was warned by a colleague that if he kept talking about his “wild ideas” he’d be an acting assistant professor forever. So he left for the Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International.
Engelbart is survived by his wife, Karen O’Leary Engelbart; his four children, Diana, Christina, Norman and Greda, and nine grandchildren.
The term artist is used to describe a person who works in, or is skilled in the technique of any of the fine arts, especially in painting, drawing, and sculpture. The term artistry describes the artistic ability which includes the use of imagination, a feeling for form, and a feeling for effect.
I am using the term Whole Artist to discover the person who may have used imagination to create forms to produce desired effects while the form itself lacks the cognitive abilities to generate its own form.
Plants may produce flowers of different colors while they essentially lack cognitive abilities to recognize the visual effect of the color they produce. For example, we can examine the colorful hues of Chilean flowers, Mimulus luteus, Mimulus cupreus (Red Emperor), and Mimulus variegatus.
Arielle Cooley, a researcher at the University of Michigan studied these Chilean Mimulus flowers of different colors and found that the plants make the same type of anthocyanin pigment called cyandin. The study includes Thin Layer Chromatography Analysis of petal extracts. Each flower produces red-hued anthocyanins and the yellow carotenoids. The two pigment types in combination create the fire-hydrant red spots on the yellow flowers of Mimulus luteus. Cooley concluded the observations with the remark: “Like an artist mixing simple colors of paints on a palette to achieve a specific shade, the Chilean flowers achieve their visual effect using varying proportions of red and yellow pigments.”
No single function can explain the coloration of living things. We need a comprehensive theory that predicts the lines and patterns of coloration of plants and animals. An artist’s palette containing only three properly chosen colors is entirely adequate under most circumstances to produce the various visual effects of color that is observed. The optical mechanisms involved in the production of color are complex. Coloration is a dynamic and complex characteristic and the term must be clearly distinguished from the term ‘color’ which only refers to the spectral qualities of emitted or reflected light.
It is apparent that plants, and animals have no cognitive abilities to produce the coloration by which they are recognized. The coloration displayed gives us a clue about the nature of the Whole Artist who uses imagination, has feelings for the forms created and seeks satisfaction from the visual effects that he produced.
Man must use the ability of visual perception, to visualize the Whole Artist who is at work.
Optics is the scientific study of Light and the study of Light should be concerned with the genesis, nature, properties of Light and its purpose and role in the establishment of life and interactions among living things.
The first recorded utterance of God in the Bible is, “Let there be Light.” (The Old Testament, The First Book of Moses, The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 3.)
Light is the sign of divine operation in the world of chaos and darkness. Light brings order to the world. Without a source of Light, a primary source of external energy, Life is impossible on planet Earth. Further, it can be stated that Light is essential for Life; for the synchronization of life’s living functions, and to generate the experience of peace, harmony, and tranquility in the living condition, or state.
Thus Light is associated with the experience called happiness. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” (The New Testament, The Epistle of Apostle James, Chapter 1, verse 17)
The term ‘color’ refers to the spectral qualities of emitted or reflected light. The term ‘coloration’ is a dynamic and complex characteristic that has captured human interest and attention for a long time. Human interest to coloration ranges from purely aesthetic to the rigidly pragmatic. Human interest in coloration led to biological studies by the Moravian abbot Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), the botanist who studied inherited characteristics that established the science of Genetics, using visual clues from the coloration of plant flowers.
Biological Coloration refers to the general appearance of an organism as determined by the quality and quantity of light that is reflected or emitted from its surface. This Coloration depends upon several factors:
1. The integrity and deployment of the structural units and features involved in the generation of color,
2. The color and distribution of the organism’s pigments, and the relative location of differently colored areas,
3. The shape, posture, position, and movement of the organism,
4. The quality and quantity of light striking the organism, including the seasonal light and temperature variations,
5. The psychological, behavioral, hormonal, and other physiological conditions associated with the use of color,
6. The visual capacity of the viewer.
In plants and animals, coloration serves the function of communication. Plants do not have the ability called visual perception and yet they can transmit optical signals to attract the attention of pollinators to achieve reproductive success. Coloration such as ‘advertising coloration’ may emphasize optical signals and thereby enhance communication. Organisms use such communication to modify biotic interactions with other members of their biological community. The coloration may repel, or attract another organism. However, coloration could also be used to suppress optical signals or to specifically create incorrect signals and thereby reduce communication. Thus coloration contributes to adaptive interactions; and the deceptive coloration serves to lessen detrimental or maladaptive interaction with other organisms.
Coloration may affect an organism in ways other than its interaction with other organisms. Such non optical functions of coloration include physiological roles that depend on the molecular properties (e.g., strength and type of chemical bonds) of the chemicals that create color.
Chlorophyll is a green pigment which has the exclusive ability of trapping solar energy. Other examples include, dark hair is mechanically stronger than light hair, and dark feathers resist abrasion better than light feathers. Coloration may play a role in organism’s energy budget because biochromes create color by the differential reflection and absorption of solar energy and can contribute to maintain thermal equilibrium. Color pigments like melanin work as a barrier against the harmful effects of the ultraviolet rays of Sunlight. It is the mechanism for the absorption of heat in cold environments by small cold-blooded animals. Pigments found in the eye limit the incidence of beams of light entering the eye by absorbing scattered light within the eyeball that allows greater visual acuity. Coloration or its pattern affects an animal’s own vision. Surfaces near the eye may be darkly colored to reduce reflectance that interferes with vision. Emitted light or Bioluminescence forms a portion of the coloration of some organisms. It serves as a light source in nocturnal species or in deep water marine animals such as Pinecones Fishes which have bright photophores or bioluminescent organs.
Coloration can result from accumulation of by-products of metabolic processes. The abnormal coloration called ‘jaundice’ or ‘icterus’ describes the greenish-yellow condition of the skin, urine, and eyeballs from increased amounts of bile pigments in the blood and it often indicates a diseased condition like hepatitis, a liver disorder. Similarly, Cyanosis describes a bluish or purple coloration of skin, lips, fingers, eyes, and other mucous membranes caused by lack of oxygen, the presence of desaturated hemoglobin, or abnormal hemoglobin in the blood.
Light is the source of Life. The establishment of Light on planet Earth is a creative process that uses light energy to recreate the spectral colors in the lives of individual organisms.
The Biological Coloration is the most compelling evidence of the fact of creation. Animals, and plants do not have the ability to generate colors by simply depending upon spontaneous, random, and unguided mutations. Biological Coloration requires complex synchronization of morphological appearance, biotic interactions and behavior of living organisms that share a given environment. Light is the primary source of external energy to support the existence of all living things. The principles of Physical Optics, Geometrical Optics, Physiological Optics have to operate in conjunction with Spiritual Optics to generate the experience of peace, harmony, and tranquility that is fundamental to existence.
Life is a manifestation of order to replace disorder, or confusion that could be caused if Light does not provide the stimulus called illumination that drives away darkness. It is no surprise to note that the major Biological Rhythm is called the Diurnal, or Day, or Solar Rhythm.
Light is the source of Life. The establishment of Light on planet Earth is a creative process that uses light energy to recreate the spectral colors in the lives of individual organisms.
I begin with a special tribute to Sir Isaac Newton who discovered that white light is composed of every color in the spectrum.
No single function can fully explain the coloration of living things. We need to integrate the optical, visual, physiological functions of biological coloration.
I describe the spiritual dimension of color as I am not convinced about the role of color in what is described as “Natural Selection.” Color plays an important role in every aspect of life. Most of us are familiar with coloration changes; the physiological, seasonal, age-related changes in color that are regulated by environmental stimuli such as light and temperature, coloration change due to emotions like excitement, and hormonal changes that are related to color function. Graying hair is a familiar badge of the elderly.
The brilliant colors produced by a prism is an optical phenomenon caused by diffraction or dispersion, or interference of light. However, the understanding of color involves not only physics, but physiology and psychology as well. The term ‘Optics’ describes the scientific study of light. Physical Optics is concerned with the genesis, nature, and properties of light. Geometrical Optics is concerned with the Geometry involved in the reflection and refraction of light as encountered in the study of mirror, lens, and prism. Physiological Optics is concerned with the role of light in causing visual sensation.
I add the dimension that I often describe as ‘Spiritualism’ to obtain a greater understanding of color as a function of living things. The New Testament Book of The Gospel According to Apostle John, Chapter 1, verses 3 and 4 read: ” Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” There is a direct relationship between life and light and hence there is a need to describe Spiritual Optics and know the coloration of living things as a spiritual function.
Color is a sensation that is aroused when light falls on the retina of the eye. Color is the visual effect resulting from the eye’s ability to distinguish the different wavelengths or frequencies of light. The apparent color of an object depends on the wavelength of the light that it reflects. Light may originate directly from a light source or as reflected light. Color perception depends on the different degrees to which various wavelengths of light stimulate the eye. In white light, an opaque object that reflects all wavelengths appears white and the object that absorbs all wavelengths appears black. White light is perceived as colorless as only a neutral sensation is aroused by it. Any three primary or spectral colors can be combined in various proportions to produce any other color sensation. The ‘additive mixing’ involves combining colored lights. A painter uses a process called ‘subtractive mixing’ to generate colors when pigments are combined to produce the desired visual effect. It must be noted that a strict definition of color is difficult as different observers attach different meanings. The chemist is conscious of color as a quality concerning a pigment or a dye. The psychologist describes color in terms of visual perception, and this perception is further modified by human civilization that attached meanings, qualities, feelings, moods, and other special values to the colors perceived. The physicist may describe color in terms of qualities such as the wavelength of light, its intensity or brightness, and its hue, a particular shade or tint of a given color.
Animals have distinctive color patterns that seem to play an important role to support their existence in a given ecological community that shares a common physical environment. The color may serve the purpose of protection by concealing the organism from predators or its own prey. The term ‘protective coloration’ describes coloration or color pattern that facilitates escape from observation by predators or prey. The color may help reproductive success and is used to attract mates, or to get recognized by the members of its own group. The color may constitute a warning to its natural enemies. Plants extensively use attractive colors to assist the process called pollination.
The most widespread form of coloration is called cryptic resemblance or cryptic coloration in which the coloration and pattern on the skin of the animal enables it to blend in with the coloration of its natural habitat. This kind of coloration may conceal the animal from its predator or prey and it involves the use of colors that have general resemblance with its surroundings. The advantageous resemblance of one species to another, often unrelated species or to a feature of its own habitat is predetermined by its own genetic endowment.
Coloration is an adaptive mechanism and an animal can conceal its presence by imitating the appearance of a natural object present in its environment.
Warning coloration consists of bold markings that warn predators away from inedible or poisonous animals. Mimicry is a deceptive coloration in which the animal resembles or mimic a warning-colored animal or predator.
Chameleon is famous for its ability to change its color suddenly to express anger or fright. The change is caused by movement of pigment called chromatophores within the cells.
The Snow Hare is white in winter and is Brown during Summer and Autumn.
The use of color may serve the purpose of getting recognition from other members of its own group and it may specifically attract the attention of mates during the reproductive season. Many plants use colors to aid pollination by bees and moths.
Albino describes animal or plant lacking normal pigmentation. The albino body covering such as skin, eyes, hair, and feathers lack pigment. Melanin is the pigment found in human skin, hair, and eyes. The amino acid tyrosine is required for melanin synthesis. An inherited lack of enzyme required for melanin synthesis results in one form of albinism. This defect is inherited as a recessive trait.
Biological Coloration is genetically determined and the living organism does not voluntarily select the colors it may display. Human beings could be an exception as man uses colors for purposes other than those designed by Nature for human existence.
To explore the spiritual basis of biological coloration, in my next post, I would discuss as to how living things generate colors that play a vital role in biochemical reactions such as photosynthesis, maintenance of thermal balance and other physiological functions.
THE COLORS OF SPIRITUALISM: Color plays an important role in every aspect of life. Human civilization has developed taste in color and has attached values and functions to the colors it visualizes. A sense of fitness has been acquired concerning the use of color. The spectral array of colors exhibited by a rainbow is a glorious sight that cannot be improved by the omission of one or more of its components.
GOD’S COVENANT WITH MAN :
God’s covenant with all living creatures is described in the First Book of Moses, The Old Testament, The Book of Genesis, Chapter 9, verses 12, 13, and 16. And God said, “This is the sign of the Covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a Covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the Covenant between Me and the Earth…. Whenever, the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting Covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the Earth.”
In the Bible, the rainbow is the first of the Covenant Signs. The record of Noah’s life mentions the rainbow as the Covenant Sign. The rainbow in the clouds speaks to man from God. The rainbow is the Lord’s Promise made visible in a display of colors.
Rudra N. Rebbapragada, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.,
Organization: The Spirits of Special Frontier Force.
I am pleased to share the essay, ‘Lesson from an Unsettled Boundary’, written by Manoj Joshi (a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi) that is published in India’s national newspaper ‘The Hindu’ in its edition dated April 27, 2013 with my readers. It is not a big surprise that the boundary between India and China is not settled. It should remain undecided as India cannot reconcile with People’s Republic of China’s military occupation of Tibet. India has no border with China. There is a border dispute between Tibet and China and that is an issue that could be resolved when Special Frontier Force, the military alliance/pact between the United States, India, and Tibet accomplishes its primary mission of evicting the occupier from the Land and territories of Tibet.
Service Information:
R. Rudra Narasimham, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,
Personal Numbers:MS-8466/MR-03277K. Rank: Major
Branch:Army Medical Corps/Short Service Regular Commission (1969-1972); Direct Permanent Commission (1973-1984).
Designation: Medical Officer.
Unit: Establishment No.22 (1971-1974)/South Column,Operation Eagle (1971-1972).
Organization: Special Frontier Force
Manoj Joshi – The Hindu April 27, 2013
The reality is that the Line of Actual Control between India and China is notional and has not been put down on any mutually agreed map
(The writer is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi)
In 1950, the Survey of India issued a map of India showing the political divisions of the new republic. While the border with Pakistan was defined as it is now, including the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir area, the borders with China were depicted differently. In the east, the McMahon Line was shown as the border, except in its eastern extremity, the Tirap subdivision, where the border was shown as “undefined.” In the Central sector of what is now Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the eastern part of Jammu & Kashmir, including Aksai Chin, the boundary was depicted merely by a colour wash and denoted as “boundary undefined.”
I am happy to extend my greetings to all of my readers on this festive occasion called ‘Sankranti’. In the Indian tradition, Sun is represented as personification of the Divine Energy that sustains the life of all that lives on planet Earth. Apart from being the source of primary Energy, Sun is viewed as the Source of Knowledge and Indians seek Lord Surya, the Sun God’s blessings to illuminate their inner, mental world to banish darkness called ignorance.
This would lead me to reflect about the theory of knowledge and the revolutionary change caused by Immanuel Kant in understanding our philosophic problems and procedures. In the context of our celebration of the Indian festival Sankranti, I pay a special tribute to Nicholas Copernicus (1457-1543) who laid the foundation for modern astronomy with his heliocentric theory of planetary motion which replaced the geocentric cosmological theory established by Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) of 2nd century A.D. Ptolemy’s theory placed Earth motionless at the center of the universe with all celestial bodies revolving around it. Copernican system places the Sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including Earth, revolving around it.
Copernicus caused a revolution when he discerned reflections of the Earth’s own motion in the apparent motions of the planets, and stars. To the same extent, German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) inaugurated a new era in the development of philosophical thought. He did comprehensive, and systematic work in Theory of Knowledge, Ethics, and Aesthetics.
Kant altered the nature of philosophic inquiry. He recognized the limits of the philosophical traditions of both Empiricism that stresses Experience, and Rationalism that stresses Reason. He analyzed the tradition of Rene Descartes (Rationalism) and clarified the tradition of Francis Bacon (Empiricism). Kant attempted to incorporate both Experience and Reason, without falling into the Skepticism of the empirical school and without embracing the unverifiable metaphysical structure of the rationalist school. He criticized Leibniz rationalism in his book, “Critique of Pure Reason” (1781).
In Kant’s view, objective reality is known only insofar as it conforms to the essential structure of the knowing mind. Only objects of experience or phenomena may be known. Things lying beyond experience or noumena are unknowable.
Kant stated that the human mind provides the forms and the categories that can be used to describe experience. He held the view that the problems like the existence of God, freedom, and immortality are insoluble by scientific thought.
Kant proudly asserted that he had accomplished a Copernican Revolution in philosophy. He claimed that the subject doing the knowing constitutes, to a considerable extent, the object of knowing; i.e., that knowledge is in part constituted by the mind itself which imposes its influence upon the data of experience. Hence, knowledge is the product of the knowing subject and not a simple description of an external reality. Kant accounted for the application of the mind’s principles to objects by showing that the objects conform to the mind; in knowing, it is not mind that confirms to things but things confirm to the mind.
I examine this issue for its relevance to the fundamental concern about human existence.
Man’s earthly existence is conditioned by constant change under the influence of Space and Time. To make Life happen, the existence has to be synchronized with the external events on which man has no control. While Earth is spinning at an amazing speed, man perceives Earth as a motionless object, and experiences the apparent motions of planets and stars. The speed of Earth’s motion is not compatible with human existence. The reality of Sun shining brightly in the sky all the time is not also helpful for human existence. Man needs alternating periods of light and darkness called Day, and Night. Human existence demands alternating periods of wakefulness and sleep.
To experience the physical reality called existence, man needs the influence of a powerful illusion that changes the perception of reality of this world, and universe that is constantly changing, and moving. Man exists for he cannot alter the nature of this sensory experience that generates the Celestial Journey of Sun across the heavenly dome. In Indian tradition, it is stated that the Creative Energy called “Maya” clouds man’s sense of perception of the world experience and man has no ability to overcome the Power/Force/Energy that causes the Grand Illusion.
The phenomena called ‘illusion’ is not generated by the mind. This world experience caused by ‘illusion’ has a survival value as it intends to protect man from the harsher reality of Truth. To a discerning mind it appears that man needs the guiding and regulative mechanism called Soul and Spirit to perform his living functions in a moving, and changing world. Soul establishes man’s dependence upon an external source of energy and hence Soul is always associated with the living body. The unity of man’s body and Soul could be named as the ‘God-Connection’ as this ‘Connection’ is not formulated by man’s mental, or physical work. This ‘God-Connection’ helps the Spirit to express its desire for Freedom which includes a desire to seek Freedom from the world experience called ‘Death’.
If Soul and Spirit are present in the living body that exists in the earthly, material realm, it points towards the operation of the Divine Providence in this terrestrial realm.
If God by the nature of His existence is present in the immanent realm, the problems of metaphysics such as Freedom, Immortality, and God’s existence do not belong to unknowable, transcendental realm.
I suggest that Kant is wrong in his view about the relationship between human mind, and the world of experience. Man is fortunate for things of world experience do not always confirm to the knowing mind. Man is blissfully unaware of the true or real motions of Sun and the planets of the Solar System.
SPIRITUALISM – THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM :
Pope Benedict XVI in his traditional Christmas Day Message has wished for Peace, Freedom, and Justice to the people of all nations across the World.
WHAT IS FREEDOM????
John Milton(1644) demanded, “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” British Bill of Rights(1689), French Declaration of the Rights of Man(1789), and The U.S. Bill of Rights(1791) describe Civil Liberties and Individual Freedoms. John Stuart Mill(1806-73), English Philosopher, and Economist had observed, “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” Being sovereign, means that the person, or entity acknowledge no superior. To be a sovereign shows the ability not to accept commands from anyone. In Political Science, when States are called Free and Independent, their autonomy or sovereignty means that they have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states have the right to do. The terms Freedom and Liberty are often used to describe the opposite of servitude, slavery, or bondage. It describes the act of releasing or setting free of a slave or prisoner from physical servitude or imprisonment. Freedom means the state or quality of being free from the control of some other person or some arbitrary power and it gives the person the ability to act, move, and live without hindrance or restraint. Similarly, Liberty describes Freedom from arbitrary control, confinement, and compulsion imposed by rules, regulations, laws, and traditional practices. However, Freedom does not constitute License which implies the ability to violate the usual rules, laws, or practices either by consent or as an abuse of Liberty. The purpose of Freedom is not that of imposing Anarchy which is the complete absence of government. Anarchy may lead to political disorder, lawlessness, and may contribute to disorder in various spheres of human activities, and human interactions. Freedom, and Liberty cannot be disassociated from Peace, and Justice, and equal protection of Rights of all the members of any social community or national entities. Liberty cannot be allowed to grow without limit at the expense of Justice and Order. The concept of Freedom, Liberty, and Freewill expressed in human thought and literature has very limited application in Natural Sciences. The establishment of Life on planet Earth speaks of the operation of the Laws of Nature. Life has emerged from discord, disorder, and chaos; it reflects the nature of sequential, guided, and purposeful interactions of atoms, and molecules to seek peace, harmony, and tranquility to get over the consequences of random, unguided, and spontaneous interactions which have no purpose.
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE:
It must be clearly recognized that Freedom or Liberty is a product of man’s mental imagination and it has no physical correspondence with an external reality. From the viewpoint of a scientific observer, the human subject exists without Freedom, or Independence as the subject cannot be detached from its external source of support. Freedom or Liberty is a subjective, personal experience and it cannot be tested or verified using the protocol of objective Science. In other words, man’s subjective, mental experience called Freedom, or Liberty exists if, and only if his existence is sustained by the rules, laws, and conditions imposed upon the reality called Life. Man’s status in Nature is characterized by the absence of “Independence” as it is conditioned by dependence. Man does not have “Sovereign” powers to rule or govern his own human body which comprises of independent, and functionally autonomous, individual, living cells. The Living System requires constant supply of energy from an external source and the ability to acquire this energy is independent of man’s control over his own body. Man may appear to have the freedom to choose death, and the same is not true about keeping his own existence. To live, and to perform living functions, man needs support, and man has no choice other than that of dependence. Man has the desire to exist as an independent Individual with Individuality while being attached, and while surviving on support from an external source. In Life, or Death, man needs Mercy, Grace, and Compassion of a Supreme Being who may control the source of external energy and constitute the principle called Divine Providence.
What is Soul? What is Spirit?:
Soul/Spirit is stated as the vital, animating, life principle found in all living entities. Spirit is often used to describe the moral nature of man, a specified mental, or emotional attitude that characterizes words, actions, opinions, and etc., Spirit is used to refer to the intelligent or immaterial part of man as distinguished from the human body, and mind. The term Spirit considers the possibility of the existence of an immaterial reality that is imperceptible to the organs of sense perception. The life principle displays both material and immaterial aspects. Hence, I would like to suggest that Spirit and Soul represent the two-sides of the same coin. Spirit and Soul influence human nature in two different ways. Under the influence of Spirit, man seeks his Freedom, or Independence. Spirit gives the ability to man to generate new, original, and creative thoughts that form the contents of his imagination. Man applies imagination and uses inspiration from within or without to create new, and original products. Whereas Soul is the guiding mechanism that establishes the dependent, or conditioned nature of man’s existence. The recognition of the nature of dependent existence generates an emotion or feeling called ‘Devotion’ and man learns to act in obedience of an unknown Supreme Being. The presence of ‘Devotion’ is detected in human behavior and actions that display a sense of humility and modesty. Freedom, and Dependence are the two basic elements of human nature that are perpetually in tension with one another. While the Spirit is dominant, man seeks total Freedom and expresses this Freedom to constantly manipulate the dependent nature of his conditioned existence which may include a desire to seek Freedom from Death through his works, and actions. With the help of his Soul, man totally surrenders his sense of self-pride, ego, or arrogance. His deliverance, or salvation, or liberation is entirely dependent upon the Mercy, Grace, and Compassion of his LORD God Creator.
JESUS CHRIST – THE “SPIRIT” OF FREEDOM:
Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Galatians has been called the “Magna Charta” of Christian Liberty. However, it must be noted that the essence of Christian Freedom is stated as deliverance from bondage of sin and its consequent moral corruption of human nature. Apostle Paul declares, “It is for Freedom that Christ has set us Free.”( Galatians, Chapter 5, verse 1) The Freedom advocated by Apostle Paul refers to freedom from the ceremonial laws of Jewish Old Testament customs and traditions. He demands Galatians to live as released prisoners or freed slaves and at the same time it was not an invitation to lead immoral lives. He specifically instructs that the Freedom described relates to freedom from sinful nature; “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of sinful nature.”( Galatians, Chapter 5, verse 16 ) In the Gospel according to Apostle John, Chapter 6, verse 63, Jesus describes the distinction between the Spirit and human body; “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life.” This Spiritual Liberty involves man becoming the slave of God; “But now that you have been set Free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”( The Book of ROMANS, Chapter 6, verse 22) Spiritual Liberty never condones the abuse of Liberty and there is no exemption from the exercise of individual judgment. The Book of JAMES, Chapter 2, verse 12 stipulates the Law of Liberty; “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the Law that gives freedom.” The use of Liberty and Freedom is limited by consideration of obedience of Law and acting in accordance with moral precepts as man exists in the world as a created being and not as a Sovereign or Independent entity.
I wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
Rudra N. Rebbapragada, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
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