Sunday, 6 December 2015

Cyclicity of life and death

Sine Graph

On meticulously examining a Sine/cosine graph, one realizes how it just carries on from one crest to trough and then to subsequent crest, rising from the abscissa (x-axis) to its highest point, and then descending to its nadir, intersecting abscissa in between. This pattern goes on. The highest and lowest points have a limit but there is no such condition on X-axis. Similar patterns are observed in the physical world too. The hot air, upon heating, rises from the equator and reaches the tropopause. It then starts to cool and sink down at the tropics, only to rise again from the sub-tropical region and finally sink at the polar region, thereby regulating the temperature of earth. 



The theory of Geographical Cycle of Erosion propounded by W.M. Davis and later tweaked by Walther Penck, presents a similar viewpoint for land forms existing on earth. It is hard to believe that the formation and destruction of such huge land forms is also a function of structure, process and time. They emanate from mother earth due to internal tectonic disturbances and keep uplifting till the highest point. Once the highest point is reached then denudation starts. No matter how humongous the structure is, it gets converted into a peneplain, though it takes millions of years.


There are many such examples apart from the ones above. Now this brings to central idea of this blog. Do life and death also follow a similar pattern? Our sages have been talking about the cycle of reincarnation since ages. We take birth as a little child who struggles to learn and adapt to this world. Then we reach the best phase of our life, the youth. We are young, active and all ready to face myriad challenges of this world. Gradually we again start losing strength and turn senile. We struggle again to adapt with the world. And then one fine day we depart leaving all the sorrows behind. Is it not similar to the Sine graph? Rising from a given point to achieve great heights, and then again falling to the same point later in time? The only thing that is not certain is - do we rise again? 


Let's assume the theory of reincarnation to be true and that we return to this world (may be in a different form), to again live yet another life cycle. But why do people talk of getting rid of this cycle? Why do they want their soul to finally coalesce into the soul of the almighty? Is it not like desiring the whole earth to turn into a featureless peneplain? Come on I want to see the mountains too. The Sine graph doesn't stop. The air doesn't stop its continuous process of rising and sinking. Yes, I agree, there are hitches and glitches at times, but then who wants to shut the whole process?


What happens when your soul meets the soul of the creator? I mean, what's next? Is it the end? There has to be another task. There is no point in ending your cycle of life if you don't have anything else to do? One cannot just wait till eternity (after submitting his soul) for time to end, not knowing, whether time actually ends. Is it not scary? I don't want to get rid of this cycle, if there is nothing else to do after that. I rather prefer taking birth again and again without breaking this continuum to perform my tasks in every birth.  

On the other hand, there has to be an end as well. Till how long can we keep taking birth to struggle again at the same place? If the non-monotonic Sine graph keeps repeating the same unhindered cycles over and over again, isn't that in itself the monotony of the graph? What is the culmination point? What is the ultimate end? Is there an end? After we have performed all the performable tasks (in millions of births), are we to repeat them? Is there any answer to these questions?



I don't know whether I'll ever find answers on the cyclicity of life and death. But one thing that I am sure about is that nature is certainly based on a lot of patterns. If you still don't believe me, start from observing days and nights, the pattern of seasons and then move on to moon and its changing shapes. Even answers to many complex questions of mathematics can be easily found out just by observing the number patterns. You will soon start believing my idea of cyclicity. But the fundamental question still remains- Can the cyclicity of life and death be proved?








3 comments:

  1. Remember one of my geography teacher used to say that the final stage of the evolution of a personality is where when he finds the same patterns and rules in different areas of life. Seems like its just what you have pulled off . a graph that is applicable in physics, geography ,life and death. Nice thought.

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    Replies
    1. I remember that class and we just cannot forget that teacher. His inter and multidisciplinary approach has definitely some role here.

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  2. Remember one of my geography teacher used to say that the final stage of the evolution of a personality is where when he finds the same patterns and rules in different areas of life. Seems like its just what you have pulled off . a graph that is applicable in physics, geography ,life and death. Nice thought.

    ReplyDelete