Abstract
MAY a self-constituted Anubis of the scientific philosophy of ‘the ancients’ raise a plaint outside the door of the Temple of Modern Knowledge from which he hears the voice of its Secretary stating his opinion about their views? (Supp. NATURE, Nov. 3). The irreversibility of living energies was fundamental knowledge on which the ancient scientists of Aryavarta based their doctrines of evolution, human and cosmic; and the ancients will be pleased to know that the moderns have, in their turn, discovered this law of Nature. Everything in the universe, from atoms to stars, is subject to ‘birth’ (manifestation) and ‘death’ (withdrawal into latency). Periodical cycles of appearance and disappearance of all forms of life is the method of the evolution of consciousness. The phœnix rises out of the dead ashes at the close of the dark half (Pralaya) of the cycle. The ancients would agree with the view expressed in the notes on p. 703 referring to Sir James Jeans' lecture “that a degradation of the physical universe is not necessarily a degradation of the world of spirit”. To them a Manvantara is a cycle of a solar system: a Mahamanvantara that of the cosmos. These cycles are “The days and nights of Brahmâ”. Oxford has published “The Sacred Books of the East” in many volumes, but Cambridge is advised to read the English translations of Indian scholars, who understand better the technical language and scientific symbols of their ancestors.
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L., W. [Letters to Editor]. Nature 122, 809 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122809a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122809a0
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