Man: Cosmos in miniature
By Satish K. Kapoor

MAN is said to have the insensate mind of inorganic beings, the biotic mind of the plant kingdom and the conscious mind of the animal kingdom. Besides, he has his own self conscious identity which yearns for peace and progress.

Man is a microcosmic manifestation of the universe. In him are all the five elements (panchabhuta) in varying degrees — the earth provides his body with strength, steadiness, heaviness and hardness; water with viscosity, viscidity, softness, smoothness and odour; fire with heat, glow and vision; air with dryness, transparency and tacticity and ether with olfaction, porosity and agility.

The Chinese sages believed that man’s head represented the sky and his feet the earth; his viscera corresponded to the five elements; "his vertebrae to the fortnights that make seasons; his 365 bones to the days of the year’’.

According to the Indian medical texts, the human eye has the elementary principle of fire, ear that of ether, tongue that of water and skin that of air. The tridosha (air, bile and phlegm) denote the three balancing forces of nature which derive from panchabhuta and then give birth to and sustain the human body established in the lower, the middle and the upper regions". Sapta dhatus or seven essential constituents of the body also relate to primal elements — water is predominant in rasa (food juice), fire in rakta (blood), earth in mamsa (flesh), water and earth in meda (fat), earth and air in asthi (bone) and water in majja (marrow) and shukra (semen).

Seven chakras in the subtle body (linga sarira) with corresponding nerve plexus, ganglia and glands situated along the spinal cord constitute the centers of consciousness from where life-current spreads to each cell. These, are, in turn, connected with the cosmic energy which is present in varying degrees all over the universe.

Like the earth’s surface, human body consists mostly of water and is affected by tides, seasons and other exogenous processes of nature. It contains nearly every mineral and chemical which exists on the earth. Lunar and solar energies pervade the body through the key channels described in Yoga parlance as Ida and pingala extending from the end of the spine to the left and right nostrils, respectively.

The expanse of man’s mind is as vast as that of the sky or as deep as that of the ocean; the flight of his thoughts and imagination swifter than air. Seismic movements take place in his mind as they do outside; his moods and actions are as diverse as the objects of nature. He undergoes an eclipse when some unfavourable development stands between his hope and fulfilment. Given a stimulus, the ingenious stuff in him bursts out like a volcano taking the form of anger.

Man is the epitome of intelligence which is eternally present in nature. Scientific gadgets and appliances like camera, calculator, taperecorder, computer, X-ray machines are only the material manifestations of his mental power by which man can gather, record, classify, compute, store or reproduce events or facts at will.

William Shakespeare rightly observed: "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals" (Hamlet)!

Should the noblest creation of God indulge in ignoble deeds and debase the divinity in him?