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Bhagavai 7:7:150-154
- 591 :Backster are worth mentioning. The sensation-mechanism of plants has become the subject matter of scientific investigations.
The word 'prabhu' has been used for 'the five-sensed rational beings' who experience the sensations due to ignorance and also due to mental faculty, the former being due to the deficiency of the power of knowledge, while the latter due to the deficiency of the practical application of power. Semantics akāma-nikaraņa—(i) that which is due to lack of attention, or which happen in the state of ignorance. (ii) what happens due to the lack of media of knowledge. prakāma-nikarana—it is due to mental faculty; in spite of a developed mind, that which takes place on account of the incapability of knowledge and action.
In the present context, the word, kāma means knowledge which is one of the sixteen synonyms of prajñāna (mental faculty) given in Aitareya Upanișad. Though the meaning 'desire' of the word kāma is most popular, in the present context it seems to be quite irrelevant. Here, the most appropriate meaning should be knowledge'. Thus, akāma-nikarana would mean due to ignorance', and prakāma-nikarana as 'due to intelligence'.
Abhayadevasūri explains akāma as lack of desire' and prakāma as deep desire'? maggao--it is a desī word which means 'on backside'. The Marathi word māge has the same meaning. prabhu-one who is able to know on account of being possessed of mental faculty.
1. Thānam, 10.105-107. 2. Bha. 19.14; 20.3-6. 3. Ibid., 14.63. 4. Article in Tīrthankara (monthly), Jan 86, by Dr. Avadhesha Sharma, "The plants and trees, not only
sense the feelings of people coming in their vicinity, but also are effected by them. Prof. Vogel has proved through experiments that the plants become fully terrorized by the mere thought of a person to uproot or destroy them. In order to prove this, he, with the help of his friend Vivian Wiley, designed an experiment. For this, they selected two plants kept in the flower-pots. Both of them kept these flower-pots in their respective bed-rooms. Whenever Mr. Vogel would go in his bed-room, he would go near the plant and cherish in his mind good feelings and auspicious thoughts about it. On the other hand, Ms. Wiley, while entered into bed-room, would approach the plant with a thought of uprooting and destroying it. Whenever they rose up in the morning, they would repeat the same thoughts in their mind respectively.
After a month, when the plants were examined, the one in the Vogel's room flourished well, while the other one which was in Wiley's room started to become wither after becoming dry, although both were treated with similar kind of manure and water.
Thinking that it might be a mere coincidence, both the friends experimented again for one month, but this time with exactly contradictory feelings to the previous ones. At the end of experiment they were astonished to see that Mr. Vogel's plant started withering away this time, while Ms. Wiley's plant flourished.
After these long experiments, Mr. Vogel undertook some more experiments. He connected a plant in his laboratory with a sophisticated machine (a polygraph) which sould measure the changes in the internal structure of the plants through the electrical vibrations. After making the connection
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