The Cosmic Law

PRELIMINARY
‘Nature’ is one of those words in English vocabulary that has the most multifarious and often overlapping renderings. Nature can be material as Aristotle defines it as the primary matter, shapeless and unchangeable from its own potency, of which any natural object consists or from which it is produced. He further explained that the primary and proper meaning of Nature is the essence of things, which have in themselves (qua themselves) a principle of motion. 1 (Aristotle’s Metaphysics, pg 8.ed trans John Warrington. Everyman’s Library. Dent: London. 1966).
Nature is a totality of ‘things that are and that are not’, observed John Scotus Eriugena the Irish philosopher. Things that are perceived by the senses or are penetrable by the intellect are the things that are, while objects that transcend the power of the intellect are things that are not. This fails to define Nature exhaustively, because Nature is not only the natural world but also spiritual. So Eriugena clarified that Nature, which creates and is not created is God himself who is the cause of all things but is Himself without cause.2 Interestingly this observation associates Eriugena’s ‘Nature ‘with the ‘Purusa’ of Samkhya. Examining the varied manifestations of ‘Nature’ Heraclitus remarked, ‘Nature loves to hide itself.’3 (HERACLITUS The Complete Fragments. Translation and Commentary and The Greek text. William Harris, Prof. Emeritus Middlebury College).
Indeed the mysteries of Nature added to it a sublimity urging philosophers like Spinoza to look at ‘Nature and ‘God’ as interchangeable terms. God or Nature is a free and originating cause, and the only free, because the only self-creating cause (Natura Naturans). Nature/God is conceived as manifesting itself both as unique creator and the unique creation (Natura Naturata) in the same way as Supreme Soul Purushottama and the Supreme Nature Para Prakriti are identified in Indian philosophy. “Know this to be the womb of all beings; I am the birth of the whole world and so too its dissolution.”4 (The Gita 7. VI)
It is generally believed that man became religious long before he became a philosopher, where religion is a state of mind evoked by awe, wonder, humbleness, dependence and acceptance towards a force whose existence one can always experience but cannot explain then Nature is the first object of worship. This is marked in ‘Animism’, (anima meaning breath or soul) the oldest known religion dating back to the Palaeolithic age, which believes that everything existing in Nature possess a soul. Significant to our study is the animistic worldview where humans are considered a denizen of Nature rather than superior to or separate from it. There was no man-nature divide. Animism is basically Nature worship, the objects of worship being local trees, stones, springs etc.
As man progressed from hunter-gatherer to food –grower, he allocated souls to crops and interestingly agricultural people all over the world developed elaborate ceremonies to worship the corn deity. (Onam, Nabanna, Bihu), In India she is ‘Lakshmi’ the corn mother, goddess of abundance, in classical Europe Ceres and Demeter.
To sow your seed
Go naked; strip to plough and strip to reap,
If you would harvest all Demeter's yield
In season. Thus each crop will come in turn,
And later, you will not be found in need,
And forced to beg from other men, and get
No help. (Hesiod, Works and Days (trans. Dorothea Wender)
With the advent of universal religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism these Nature Gods lost their importance in almost all countries (especially Western), but India has been able to sustain the effects of such change.
A summary remark of the above views is- God and Nature is identical.
The Romantics might not have directly contributed to the above view but they established an oneness with Nature and looked upon Nature not as something external but an extension of their own persona. Thus Coleridge made had this genuine feeling… “In looking at objects of Nature while I am thinking as at yonder moon, dim, glimmering through the windowpane, I seem rather to be seeking for something within me that already and forever exists, than observing anything new.(Coleridge Appreciations pg 73 as in Nature , Walter Pater )
The advancement of science has changed our orientation towards Nature and it pointed not so much towards the Divine as towards ascertainable laws of the universe.19th century philosopher J.S.Mill gives very basic definitions of Nature- (i) it either denotes the entire system of things with their aggregate of all their properties or (ii) it denotes things as they would be apart from human intervention.5 (On Nature; Ethics ed Peter Singer, OUP, 1994 pg 273). Hence Nature can represent, following definition (i) a whole workhouse of activity, actions, reactions and relations a continuous process of making and becoming, or (ii) refer to the general realm of various types of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects – the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth, and the matter and energy of which all these things are composed. It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness – wild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention. (Information from Wikipedia,). Nothing however suggests ‘sacred Nature’. The general argument is that given the knowledge we have of the natural world and the technique to intrude and interfere in with the course of natural events it is no longer possible to look upon Nature as sacred. Sacredness imposes certain restrictions; this is entailed in the very definition of ‘sacred’. So if we regard Nature as sacred we should treat it as having intrinsic worth exempt from ‘swapping’ of every kind. Keeping this in the backdrop, we enter the central theme of this chapter, - the Indian view of Nature, with a brief historical examination of the different philosophical schools. An assessment from such a study will, we hope lay the foundation of a value-based ethics of the environment.
The Indian Concept of Nature
I am come neigh to thee with balms, to give thee rest and keep thee safe.
I bring thee blessed strength; I drive thy weakening malady away (R.V. 10. 137.4)
The Indian attitude towards Nature is reverential will be evident as we proceed with our discussion. As an introductory I like to mention that appreciating Nature from the Indian aspect requires respect for the primal energy of life, always young and potent. It focuses on a relationship with the vital force from which everything issues and into which they return. “As from the blazing fire in thousand ways similar sparks proceed, so are produced living souls of various kinds from the indestructible and they also return to Him”(Taittareya Upanishad 2.1.1)
The most important characteristic of Indian philosophy is the manifestation of the Divine through Nature. “This world with all its changing appearances is but the manifestation of the supreme soul. From him are produced life mind and all the organs, ether air, light, the water, (and) the earth, the support of all”. (Taitt 2.1.3.). The reaction, which existed in the Palaeolithic age found continuation in the Indus –Saraswati civilization. Seals discovered in the Indus Saraswati basin bear evidence to this fact. The seal showing a nude female figure, head downward and legs stretched upwards, with a plant issuing out of her womb," may be a proto-type of Aditi/Lajja Gauri the personification of all the reproductive energies. Thus we are Nature’s children and all our tradition s and religious paraphernalia are Nature-centric Thus we are born of “The Holy Pair, of wondrous power, …These Heaven and Earth … Widely –capacious Pair, mighty, that never fail, the Father and the Mother keep all creatures safe”(RV 1.160.1-2). From this it is clear that we have a filial bonding with Nature and are duty bound towards its protection and preservation We protect nature as we would protect our child and respect her as we would respect our parents.
Egbert Richter-Ush
To acquire the most comprehensive Indian viewpoint on Nature we will concentrate on the following
Rta the cosmic law
Sristi cosmology
Panchabhutas the five eternal elements
Ahimsa non-injury
Rta the cosmic law
Do we not sense an undetectable but well-established pattern governing our life? Childhood, youth, old age and finally death is a course set for everything, animate and inanimate; the river runs to the sea, day follows night and night day, the moon changes its phase at a regular and fixed interval causing the rise and fall of tides suggesting that all these events have been pre- planned and set to motion irreversibly. Does this not suggest that the whole frame of this Universe is pervaded by a subtle power that initiates, processes and oversees all the proceedings of this huge workshop? Scientists like Einstein was convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe - a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive. [c. Dukas and Hoffman] His [the scientist's] religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. [The World As I See It]. http://members.aol.com/heraklit1/einstein.htm
Appropriate to the harmony they observed in the external world and in the happenings within them (as part of the same world), the Rig Vedic philosophers accepted a law to which everything would be subject. This law in the form of a Universal Order they termed ‘Rta’. It is the personification of that power of regulation and conservation that some refer to as Nature and some God.
Indian philosophy has recognized in Nature the essence of all that move and move not Nature have its own set of rules in accordance with which it operates. These are pre-existing settled order by which earth is to look upon Heaven, plants that blossom and bear seed, streams are spread across the field and the matchless lightning flash in the sky. – This is the established Law, the Rta; the pre-existing settled order into which we are born. Its uniqueness lies not only in ordaining but inducing harmony into the natural system. What could have been cacophony, Rta like an expert ‘opera-conductor’ translates it into the music of the Universe.
Einstein believed that the laws of Nature determine everything- it determines for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust – we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
The focus of Natural law upheld by Rta is on the ‘entire’ universe and not on separate sections as it would disturb the balance and generate disharmony. It indicates a unity relentlessly striving for the preservation and continued maintenance and progressing towards perfection. That ‘One’ who in the unborn’s image hath stablished and fixed firm the world and its six regions is Rta (R.V. 1.164.6.)
Rta is sacred because it is eternal, Universal and unconditionally binding. Etymologically derived from the root ‘re ‘, it denotes fixed proper, right, fit, apt, suitable direction or course to be followed and truth.. (According to Bergaigne’s interpretation In ‘Vedic Religion’)
Rta functions as (a) the course of Nature or the regular or general order of the Universe; it is the wheel with twelve spokes (ratha-chakra) that eternally rotates around the Heavens. It does not wear out –in it rest the world of being. (R.V. 1 164.2).
(b). Rta is the norm or standard of all our actions. “To him who keeps the Law, both old and young, thou givest happiness and energy that he may live
(c) The social and ethical code of behaviour, restrain ing us from breaking the cords: ‘with this petition we strive to gain the powers of our forefathers.’(R.V. 1.89.3.) What would otherwise be mere external causal events, unconnected with unaffected by human thought and action has through this all-encompassing Rta made everything connected and involved. This has laid the foundation of a value attitude towards oneself and others.
. The events of the natural world are sequential, which again indicates the existence of a law or frame. So, ‘when the fair the Bright is come with her white offspring (dawn) to her the Dark one hath resigned her dwelling. Night sent away for Savitar’s uprising hath yielded up a birthplace for the Morning”. (R.V. 1.113.2,) This imparts the important message that Nature has place for every shade and every form, to suppress or interfere with it is to destabilize her. The relatedness between man and Nature, which is the essence of Indian environmental philosophy, is explicable through this Law of natural harmony Personified as the ‘Eternal Herdsman’, who never stumbles, approaching by his pathways and departing. He clothed with gathered and diffusive splendour within the worlds continuously travels. (R.V. 1.164.31). The interrelatedness and interdependence, a precondition to deal with this present crisis is in Nature and we have to realize it. This cosmic law speaks of a ‘whole’, of a unity and ‘Rta’ is indicative of this universal concord.
This is the Divine law, but ‘divinity’ does not indicate origin in a God, designated by a substantive even less by a proper noun .It is divine not because it was handed down, as the Ten Commandments’ were by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, but because it belongs to the nature of things. ‘Rta’, expresses the essence of man and of the other members of Nature, and the way they fit together. It is divine because it expresses the profound structures of a permanent natural order.
This Law, to which we are referring can bring up the question that we are simply cogs in a huge wheel moving because we are so arranged? An answer could be, “Whatever law of thine O God, Varuna, as we are men,
Day after day we violate.
Give us not as a prey to death, to be destroyed by thee in wrath,
To thy fierce anger when displeased.” (R.V. 1. 25.1-2). This passage is a suggestion to the contrary. If ‘Rta’ would be so compelling the option of violating it would not, I believe arise.
About this Law of Nature the Egyptians were aware; they observed regularity in the movements of natural objects. Every evening the lunar bark (moon) emerged out of Hades by the same door through which ‘Ra’ (sun) had passed through in the morning and as it rose in the horizon, the star lamp dotted over the firmament appeared one by one giving light here and there like a camp-fire in a distant army. . Each month, they noticed, there was a fortnight of youth and growing splendour followed by a fortnight of agony and ever-increasing pallor. The moon was born to die and died to be born again, twelve times in a year (ref, Dawn of Civilization: Egypt and Chaldaaea, Maspero.G London: SPCK 1892 pg 93-94). This universal order was in command of ‘Maat’ goddess of Truth, Balance, and Order. Owing to this connectedness among events in the natural world it was possible they argued, to predict the yearly inundation of the Nile.
The Greeks attributed Themis as mankind’s instructor of the divine law and order along with the traditional rules of conduct. She was the voice (themistes) who first inculcated the primal laws of justice and morality, such as the precepts of piety, the rules of hospitality, good governance, conduct of assembly, and pious offerings to the gods. . Unlike the word nomos, the term was not usually used to describe laws of human decree. Themis is the personification of the order of things established by law, custom, and equity.( Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. 298 ff London: William Heinemann, 1913) consequently that he who does not justly perform his appointed duty may appear as a violator of the whole order of the universe. (Conford, F.M.From Religion to Philosophy, Harper Brothers, New York, 1957,pg12.)
Having noticed that the invisible and the visible worlds are subject to a Law or Order, in accordance with which the black earth bears wheat and barley, and the trees are laden with fruits, and the sheep bring forth and fail not, and the sea gives store of fish, the Prophet Zorathushtra applied to this Order the name ‘Asha Vahishta’, the Best Order, or the Highest Righteousness This order is the essence of the Divine Ahura Mazda, the all-good Beneficent Immortal equivalent to Eternal and all out of his good guidance, the people prosper.. ‘Asha’ is that arrangement in consonance with which the Natural scenario has been fashioned. (The Religion of the Good Life; Zoroastrianism, pg 66 Rustom Merancularasani, London). Referring to ‘ the Religion of the Chinese’, (Jan Jacob Maria de Grout) Rta is the ‘Tao’ the order and the way of the Cosmos Heaven and Earth began from this ‘Tao’ who It regulates the diurnal and annual ‘revolutions of the heavens’, and the two powers of light and darkness, summer and winter, heat and cold, birth and death, male and female, in and out. “It represents all that is correct, normal or right (ching or twan) in the universe; it does indeed never deviate from its course. It consequently includes all correct and righteous dealings of men and spirits, which alone promote universal happiness and life. (Jan Jacob Maria de Grout, The Religion of the Chinese. Macmillan, N.York.1910.pg, 174). When all things obey the laws of the Tao, they will form a harmonious whole and the universe will become an integrated organism Humans follow the Tao, by behaving ‘naturally’, the way they are intended to behave according to the law.
The ancient Mesopotamians believed in a universal law like other civilizations of that period. Goddess Ishtare, who is the light of the world …the light of heaven, who is supreme in might, exalted above all Gods. “Upon her are subject the laws of the earth and the laws of heaven,
The laws of the temple and the shrines,
The laws of the private apartments and the secret chambers
Where is the place where thy name is not?
Where is the spot where thy commandments are not known? (Ancient Mesopotamia; Literature Krishna Chaitanya, Orient Longman1964, 1995 pg.23)
Careful estimates of all the opinions lead s one to conclude that pre -Christian thinking acknowledged the presence of a law or order that was simultaneously physical and moral. This law immanent in the universe is the foundation of Indian philosophy encompassing the vast deep earth and the heavens and upholding it. No one is exempt from it. He too who fixes this law upholds it. (R.V. 4.32 10). It has given us the integrating power which is manifested in ‘Vasubhadika Kutumbakam’ the whole world is a family. Here whole is to be understood as all-inclusive, from the lowest to the highest order of Nature. This is the essence of the Indian attitude towards Nature.
This concept of Rta is intimately linked to the Indian ethics of the environment, where ethics includes besides, dos and don’ts, the question of preservation and continuation .In the earlier part of this discussion Rta has been referred to as the wheel, which initiates motion. From the environmental aspect it allows adaptation (with reference to evolutionary changes) and flexibility (to accommodate these changes), whereas from the societal aspect it is tolerance. By virtue of this our civilization has continued since 5000years, whereas contemporaries in Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, have succumbed to external forces.
Tolerance is acceptance that leads to harmony intolerance is discord. The environmental crisis, which threatens us today, is the result of intolerance. I have indicated earlier that with our increasing scientific knowledge and resulting egocentricism we dare to over step the directive laid down by ‘Dhatar’ the ‘Law Maker’ who formed in due order Heaven and Earth, the regions of Night, the air, and light.(R.V. 10)
The emphasis on the cosmic Law when environmental crisis is the issue is to impart the message that in the Indian way of thinking there is no dividing line between natural and supernatural, there is no area of life that is beyond ‘Rta’. Thus in its basic conceptual structure there is no place for any dichotomy between the moral and the natural; on the contrary the focus is on internal peace that manifests as external harmony. This is also an indication of the basic monotheism of Indian philosophy. “They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, and ha is heavenly nobly-winged Garutman. ‘To what is one, sages give many a title: they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan.”(R.V.1. 164.46). This harmony is embedded in the entire Universe as Rta- the wheel formed with twelve spokes, unweakened by the length of time rolling round the Heaven this ‘chakra’of during Order. Herein established, joined in pairs together, seven hundred sons and twenty*, working as a unit as a whole to maintain the stability of this universe. *(720 minutes =12 hours). The wheel is a symbol of relatedness between the parts , perfect agreement and balance within the entire structure which make possible the uninterrupted cycle of natural events. The emphasis is on integration on relatedness, as disintegration leads to decay which we are experiencing in the present. “Just as the nature of the earth is one, while beings each live separately, And the earth has no thought of oneness or difference: So is the Cosmic which connects us with the root, establishing the kinship between everything because we are born from the same seed. I am the seed of all existence. There is no being moving or still that that exists without me. (B.G). This is the quintessential of Indian aspect of Nature. All forms of life, from the universe itself down to the individual trees and seed and the very earth beneath our feet, is full of this Divine purpose of Nature. (Ranchor Prime calls this God, Artist, Creator, in ‘Hinduism and Ecology. Seeds of Truth.MBD.Delhi 1994, pg 4)
To sum up the forgoing discussion
· Rta-essence is harmony; designates ‘order, pattern observable in the natural world.
· Rta is moral law, the laws of nature. Gods abide by it. It represents dynamic, undecaying Nature.
· It is conservation. Rta is svata and dharma because it is unfaltering.
· It is Foundation of all relationships. Opposing Rta leads to discord. Rta maintains balance of the world.

Underlying this cosmic law is the One Universal Mind, suggesting a bond of friendship with the mortal. “How, and what love hath he for those who love him, who have entwined in him their firm affection? (R.V. 4. 23. 5 “we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible piper”, remarked Einstein. This law is the urge to move onwards, through right relationship and concord. So is ‘Rta’ environmental scenario. Alternatively, the ‘whole’ from which, as we will discuss later, everything has been caused, allow no division in any of its experiences. Yet we cannot resist asking, “What was the tree, what wood in sooth produced it, from which they fashioned out the earth and heaven? (R.V. 10. 81. 4).