Neuroscience and Karma

Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 53

Internal Forces of Life
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organism. In bumans, the pattern of nerve cells of the hypothalamus of the brain are the physical embodiments of fundamental standards. The patterns of human actions are set originally during embryonic development under the control of DNA which in itself is partly inherited and partly kārmic. These reference standards are the primal drives or the unlearned instincts. Throughout life, they generate wants and desires, influence hunger and satiety, longings and satisfactions, love and hate, revulsions and fears. Of course, these are not the only or even the main influences and one does not follow only the hypothalamus. In human life, the standards include many further subleties derived from learning and culture. In all cultures, from the most primitive to the most sopbisticated, people are continually faced with situations where they must choose what to do, what to say, what to ask for, what to buy, what to give and so on, of course their choices depend upon all sorts of individuals needs, preferences and cultural influences. Thousands of other equally powerfulinfluences, not necessarily instinctualbut learned, interact with the primal drives. They may reinforce or countermand a primal drive. But all of these are subordinate to a fundamental method of acting that is embodied in the programs of the brain. 3. Reference Standards
Every living organism acts in a directed way, each moment of its life, this is because the highly stable DNA molecules give instructions and information providing standards indicating what to do. For humans, instructions of the genes provide, during embryonic development, the system of reference standards at which to aim, e.g., the cells of the bypothalamus ensure (as we shall see in a subsequent chapter) that the right amount of food and drink are taken and the right amount is incorporated to allow the body to grow to its proper size. Throughout life, the genes continue giving instructions to the cells as to how to select the right chemical action to fare the eventualities that are likely to cause
1. For example a non-vegetarian would be delighted wbca served with, say, a well-cooked
lobster di nacr. On the other hand, a bona vegetarian would find the very sight so repulsive that he may throw up. la neither case is the lobster responsible for the result but lcarned emotional feelings.