, wrote Einstein and ever since then, it's imprinted in popular imagination that energy occupies a prime position in the universe that we live in. But that's physics. In an extraordinary new book, The Vital Question , Nick Lane, researcher and lecturer in evolutionary biochemistry argues that, rather than information being the fundamental currency of transmission in biological processes, it's actually energy.
In a tour de force of creative visualisation, the author takes the reader by the hand into the inner workings of cellular energy exchange involving food, photon gradients and ATP.
The sense given by these descriptions is that: 'As above, so below' , an axiom of Fluddian hermetic alchemy and given a modern restatement by Neil Shubin as 'The Universe Within'. For all intents and purposes the biological cell is a mini- universe, where analogous energy processes to those going on in the macro universe, play out.
As science makes it's halting way along the path of discovery, checking and then rechecking her steps, she may arrive at the destination only to discover that it is already occupied by others who came up by a different route. 'Not fair!' may be her objection, 'You're supposed to have your feet tied together like this as you walk; and certainly no wings allowed'.
There's an ancient hymn called the 'Purusha Sukta' from the Rig Veda, the world's first 'scientific treatise' in so far as it gives the detailed methods for reproducing an 'experiment', in which it is declared that the universe is created from 'yagnya'.
Briefly stated 'yagnya' means sacrifice, in which fire is the prime mover and is so important as to acquire the status of a god, named Agni in the rig veda ( the word 'ignite' likely a derivative of this).
Yagnya is the process of consumption where there is a consumer(representing fire) and something is consumed. When viewed like this it is easy to understand how this process may be all-pervasive; covering a day in the life of a star in inter-galactic space, to the ups and downs of the global economy, to how well you're digesting that bowl of pasta you had for lunch.
On the subject of lunch, it's for no small reason that in Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine, the state of an individual's health and vitality is directly correlated with the strength of their 'digestive fire' ('fire in the belly').
In the final chapters of Nick Lane's book there's speculation about human ageing and the limits of longevity. Again, in Ayurveda, yagnya is the key*.
* see National
Institute of Health - Concept of Ageing in Ayurveda)
Fire Worship down the Ages
Ever since early
humans discovered that by rubbing two sticks together you could start
a nice blaze which could be used to cook the sunday roast – the
hind quarter of a woolly mammoth; not to mention, keeping your
semi-detached cave warm on blustery winter nights , frightening off
the odd sabre-tooth tiger and giving the kids some fun and laughter
by making shadow animals on the cave walls; humans have developed a
healthy respect for fire.
So much so that , when
we first learnt to write grafitti, the first thing we wrote about was
a hymn in praise of fire . This came to be called the Rik Veda and
fire, now raised to the level of a god, was called ‘Agni’ .
Notice how we’ve held on to this name down the millennia. The word
‘ignite’ still means to spark a fire.
The hymns in the Rik
Veda included, amongst many verses in praise of the fire god Agni,
this particular verse:
Most rich in
heroes, glorious.”
This advice was taken
seriously by many cultures of the ancient world , particularly the
Greek , Persian and Indus valley civilizations who developed the
injunction into a formalised ritual complete with a set of standard
operating procedures.
As with all good things
that spread far and wide , variations on a theme crept in and soon
the praise of sacred fire included the concept of burnt offering and
sacrifice .
Clearly there must have
been something in it because it withstood the test of time and
survives in India today . The practice is called variously , yagnya,
homa , havan and has a place in Indian life, particularly during
auspicious undertakings such as marriages, starting a business or
seeking ongoing prosperity for a business or in family life.
When economists look
into why the Indian economy is galloping along while many other world
economies are not doing so well , they might , in secret curiosity,
try correlating the prevalence of the practice of havans with GDP
growth.
But isn’t this
specifically a hindu religious practice?
Maybe, but not
necessarily so; for two reasons.
Firstly, tracing the
practice back through it’s antecedents, it has clearly been around
longer than the set of practices recognised to be specifically hindu
practices ,
Secondly, as any one
will tell you who is still lucky enough to live in home that has a
roaring open fire during winter months , there is a psychosomatic
buzz to be had from these creature comfort far more basic to our
human nature than religious affiliation. Abraham Maslow alluded to
this with his pyramid of human needs.
