Origin of Life and Evolution – Mythological facts

# Bhagavad Gita (from Sri Krishna, a great philosopher):

The Hindu mythology says, the term “Pancha Bhutas” or “Pancha Mahabhutas” refers to the five fundamental elements that are believed to constitute the “material world”. These elements are an essential part of Hindu cosmology and philosophy, indirectly revealed in the section of “Origin of Life on the Earth”.  The five elements are: (The words in the bracket are spelt in Sanskrit language). Here, the facts of scientific evolution are explored with the contribution of “five elements”. Organic evolution was emphasized by the first father of evolution, A great Greek philosopher, the Empedocles (495 – 435 B.C.) to modern father, Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882 A.D.) and other evolutionists. Most of their research contributions revealed the secret of evolution is “gradual evolution” from “imperfect to perfect”, “less complex to more complex”, “unsuitable to suitable’ to live and occupy not only the aquatic regions but also the diverse terrestrial habitats with great adaptations and variations. this was already explored by the Avatarahs (avathara=origin) in Bhagavadgteetha as “Dashavathara”, Which explains the vertebrate evolution. The first one was the “Mathsya avatar” avatar means “fish”, and the second one was the “Kurma avatar” which means “tortoise” which although now it is in the reptiles group, it lives on land as well as in water just like an “amphibian” (emphasize the evolution led from water to land), the third one “Varaha avatar” means “Pig”, a mammalian evolution, The fourth one was “Narsimha avatar” being a human from other “primitive mammals”, “Vamana avatar”, the “dwarf man-like appearance, the anthropoids man“; “Parshurama avatar”, a Homo sapiens of “Pleistocene epoch”(2.58 million to 11,700 years ago). “Shri Rama avatar” deals with “monkey-like human evolution“, and the later “Balrama”, “Shri Krishna” and “Kalki” avatars–the latter incarnations depict the formation of tribes and communities. These avatars opened up our scientific evolution of “Vertebrate or Chordates evolution”.

#Chinese mythology:

The mythologists conceived that the primitive world at the beginning was made up of five primary elements—water, wood, fire, soil, and gold. According to their mythology, the positive and negative interactions of these primary five elements were responsible for the origin of life and different kinds of adaptations and diversities of organisms or “things” originated from a single source through gradual unfolding and branching. This was emphasized by the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles, as attraction and repulsion forces contributed to the development of plants and animals on the earth.

#Greeks and Romans after Renaissance:

Thales (624–548 B.C.) explored that all the organisms were origin in the water, the oceans. Anaximander (611–547 B.C.) explained that living things came from primordial fluid and men first evolved as “fishes”. Anaximenes (382–524 B.C.) explained that life arose from non-living matter, the air and he proposed “abiogenesis” which was finally proven and accepted as “inorganic Evolution”. Aristotle (384 B.C.E.—322 B.C.) emphasized that life started from inorganics and spontaneously generated as life forms and the organisms “gradually” changed from less complex to more complex organisms according to the changes triggered in the environment.

We were trying to explore the concept by taking the mythological facts, and how could they contribute to our modern scientific prooves.

1. Earth (Prithvi): Earth represents the solid state of matter and is associated with stability, support, and the physical world. Here the earth means “soil” which contains all inorganic matters such as metallic substances, iron, nickel, sulfur, copper, manganese zinc etc., and non-metallic constituents, the methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), water vapour (H2O), and hydrogen (H2). Approximately, 4.6 billion years ago this alkaline or reduced environment (electron donors) could have been involved actively in many chemical reactions and conceives some larger molecules like hydrocarbons, amino acids, simple sugars and small lipid molecules. These molecules constituted the “Origin of Self-Replicating RNA” life on this planet, Earth. Now, every organism grabs the minerals from the soil only.
2. Water (Jala): Water represents the liquid state of matter and is associated with fluidity, adaptability, and emotions. Water is a universal solvent due to its property of dissolving many substances providing feasible and possible chemical reactions to take place. All the chemicals are active and become ions and radicals and chemically reactive when they are in the liquid media (the water). All the inorganic constituents of the primitive earth were in the oceanic water and formed the “Prebiotic Soup” or “Primordial Soup”. Life originates in the water (the oceans). Interestingly, Now, every life has to begin in water! The zygote in the cytoplasm, the embryo in amniotic fluid, and the seeds germinate on imbibed water only. without water, no one started or led life!
3. Fire (Agni): Fire represents the energy and heat of matter. It is associated with transformation, purification, and the power to change. Every chemical reaction requires energy to run. The primordial soup was the site of all the chemical reactions to take place. How could the chemical reactions grab that energy? The sunlight UV radiation, sparklings, volcanic eruptions etc., were being provided the energy to make success the origin of life from inorganic chemicals and chemical reactions. Now, all the organisms adapted to take and consume sunlight energy directly by the plants for photosynthesis and indirectly by the animals with the consumption of chemical energy bonded in the photosynthetic food. All the organisms convert this chemical energy into ATP energy to run the biochemical reactions. Origin and leading of Life without energy is unimaginable!
4. Air (Vayu): Air represents the gaseous state of matter and is associated with movement, expansion, and the breath of life. all the non-metallic constituents methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), water vapour (H2O), and hydrogen (H2) were very important in the prebiotic soup and provided an alkali environment to start and provoke the chemical reactions. Oxygen, the high oxidizing agent was absent in the primitive environment and prevented the degradation of macromolecules, which contributed to aggregate chemicals to facilitate the origin of Life.
5. Ether or Space or sky (Akasha): Ether represents the space or void that accommodates the other elements. It is associated with emptiness, potentiality, and the infinite. among all the planets, the Earth became the address for the origin of life! Why was it so? Why not other planets? The space provided a suitable place for the earth to stand the life! All our planets, our sun, other stars, comets, and asteroids are located in the “Milkway Galaxy”. The Sun is the centre of this galaxy. Before exposure to sunlight, 5 – 6 billion years ago and before, the Earth was an ice planet (no oceanic water) and there were no suitable conditions for the origin of life! due to the changes in planetary movement around the sun, the Earth is blessed with the required amount of sunlight. The ice became oceans, and oceans became rich nutrient soup (primordial soup), and the chemical evolution created Life on Earth.

Final words:

These five elements are considered the building blocks of the physical, and material world in Hindu cosmology. Without anyone in the five factors, there is an ambiguous discussion about the Origin of Life. The Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu scriptures use these elements metaphorically to explain various aspects of life, spirituality, and the nature of the self. They are also central to Ayurveda, the traditional system of Indian medicine, and are a fundamental concept in yoga and meditation practices.