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Vol. No. XVII, No. 4
existence of the soul distinct from the body is not merely a concept but a metaphysical reality.
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Basic Biological Principles
According to biology, living organism is qualitatively distinct from the non-living matter. Functioning of the former is governed by some unique biological laws. The essence of living organism is the set of principles determining the transmission of genetic information from one generation to the next.
Living organisms are composed of the same constituents as the rest of the earth, but it possesses, besides free will, which is the characteristic of life, all of the following attributes: organization, excitability, conductivity, contractility, metabolism, growth and reproduction. One or more of these, but not all, may be possessed also by non-living matter.
Vitality and Homeostasis
In its composition, a living organism contains no special element but is mainly made up of some 16 of the 92 elements that occur naturally on the earth. Not only are these elements a very special set but they are combined together to make molecules more complicated than any others known in the universe. Biologists do not accept that living depends upon a non-physical soul or spirit but they agree that a vital force is produced by these unique large molecules, i.e. they are organized into living organisms which are not closed systems in equilibrium, but in a steady state of interchange with the external environment maintained by continual intake of fuel and expenditure of energy. Thus, carbon which is the most common constituent of food stuffs, goes through the stomach and intestines into the blood and from there to a muscle where it is burnt to give energy when the muscle contracts. In a couple of hours after eating, it will be breathed out of the lungs as carbon dioxide. This process of self-maintenance is called homeostasis. It is not a static condition but a dynamic equilibrium. In most parts of the body, there is a rapid turnover in many tissues and even the cells themselves are continually replaced by new ones. And yet, as all these interchanges go on, the integrity of the whole organism is preserved. Thus the process of homeostasis, which consists, as it were, of a continual death and rebirth, is the essential property of life. A vital force or vitality is the principle at work, which prevents the dissolution of the body inspite of continual expending of energy. End of vitality results in death.
Survival/Samjñās
Living involves using information to make choices between
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