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SAMAYASĀRA
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different sense-organs, which naturally must get coordinated by interconnections if they are to subserve the general purpost. Such interconnections of these sensory regions from the primitive nervous system form the brain of the higher organism.
Let us pursue the development of the sensory organism and the other systems in the higher organisms. All this development in the multi-cellular organism is associated with acquatic organisms. When these animals become amphibians partly living on earth and water, then there is the scope of further sensory development of hearing. The latter evolution branches off in two directions one towards the fowls of the air and the other towards the beasts of the earth.
Confining ourselves to the career of the quadrupeds we find a wonder. ful development of the nervous system and specially the brain. Examination of the brain of the lowest types of quadruped, say the rabbit, we find that the whole mass of the brain consists of the sensory centres connecting with the peripheral sensory organs, such as taste. smell, touch, sight and sound. Besides these central sensory organs and the brain, there are what are called motor regions of the body, some controlling the movements of the hind legs, some controlling the movements of the front legs and so on. When we follow the development of this brain in the mammals, we find the appearance of some brain regions which are not characterised either by sensory functions or motor functions. These areas of the brains were called silent areas, because the physiologists were not able to determine their function accurately by experiment. Later on it was discovered that these silent areas perform a very important function of coordinating the different elements of sensory awareness with appropriate mascular reactions controlling the general behaviour of the animal and these serve as the fundamental basis of the origin and development of consciousness. This hypothesis is fully corroborated when we watch the development of these silent areas in the brain surface of the mammals.
When we come to the simian type of quadrupeds, we find a critical and interesting turn in the brain development. Probably frightened by the pre-historic giants, certain quadrupeds had to take up to arboreal life by climbing up the trees and living there the major part of the time in order to preserve themselves, from the danger of the enemies below. This necessarily resulted in the liberation of the front legs which were converted „nto hands capable of grasping at things with the flexible fingers and so on.
This liberation of the front leg led to immense possibilities of future developments found in man. Beginnings of the human culture and civilisation may be traced to this critical turn in the evolution of life where the front legs changed into hands and which again led to an erect posture of the animal standing on the hind legs alone, thus assuring in the advent of man in the world.
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