A Discussion between the Granddaughter and Grandfather

      A Discussion between the Granddaughter and Grandfather

There was a scholar of 75 years who used to give philosophical advices to those who are avid to know mostly with reference to Indian Philosophy. He had a granddaughter of 8 to 9 years old. She was keen to know about those things and hence used to be there but as a silent spectator. One day that group was not present as they went to a temple function. The granddaughter got the opportunity to clarify her small doubts, as she thought them to be. She went to her grandfather who was sitting as usual in his easy chair in the veranda, sat nearby and sought his permission to express her doubts. The grandfather felt happy and permitted her to ask questions.

The conversation went on as follows:

I represent the granddaughter with C (Child) and grandfather with G.

C: Can you define what a life is?

G: Life can move.

C: So, you and I have life. How about animals like rats, rabbits etc.

G: Yes, they too have life. They can jump hop run like us. Similarly birds can fly fish can swim and there are amphibians that can survive both on land and in water.

C: So anything that has movement is considered to have life. Can you tell whether a stone on the roadside has life?

G: No, stone has no life. It can’t move by itself.

C: Suppose somebody takes a stone that he can pick, and throws it. Then can we say the stone has life?

G: We have to, but as long as it travels.

C: Consider a handy fan made of bamboo? When it is swung while in the hand, have we to consider, it has life?

G: No. It was shaken by hand and the body to which the hand is attached has life.

C: That means a life can cause a non-life thing moving.

G: Yes.

C: We see waves are moving up and down in the sea?

G: True.

C: Can we say that waves have life as they are moving by their own?

G: No, waves have no life. They were blown by the wind.

C: As we have discussed in the case of hand fan the life can cause a none-living thing moving. So now can we say wind has life?

G: No, wind has no life. You can’t see it.

C: So, the living are to be seen.

G: Yes.

C: So far we drew a conclusion that a visible moving thing can be considered as living is it? If so can we say that a tree cannot have life?

G: Never we can say it. A tree has life. It has life within. I thought while you were sitting and calmly observing the proceedings I thought you were whiling away your time. It is great and I feel proud for all the inquisitiveness you have shown on the subject. Having come so long in our discussion let us enter into a little large space where we discuss about life in things of mobility and non-mobility.

G continues: First, life can grow. You eat and drink and then you poo poop and pee-pee out your waste. Thus, you grow up bigger and bigger up to a certain peak where from you will have to scale down. That is natural metabolism.

C: Anything else for life besides of metabolism?

G: Life can self-multiply. That is called reproduction. A hen lays eggs. And eggs after hatching turn out chicken. And chicken can grow up to become more hens and cocks. Generation may differ but it exists among the living.

C: Anything else for life besides reproduction?

G: There is variation, adaption and mutation. You see no leaves are of the same size and same shape. That is life’s characteristic called variation.

 The life is not exclusively confined to land it holds for both water and sky also like fish and birds. This is adaptation as the respective species get themselves adaptable to what they are meant for.

Life form can make its off spring alike, but a little bit different. This can ensure that some of its descendants could be better to adapt their surroundings and to become the winner in the natural selection. This is called mutation.

C: Can you tell me who has this discreet powers of classifying the life.

G: That is the super natural power who hold control of all these things. Knowing that is the ultimate. How to know it is vividly discussed in Bhagavad-Gita.

It is second to none to realise God and is never a book where from the excerpts are read near a corpse, like from the other religious books.

Swasti.