Cyclic behaviour of Nature...

      We can find the cycles of nature everywhere around us. We even have been studying them in our school… the carbon cycle, the oxygen cycle, the organic matter cycle. However these cycles are not just limited to these elemental levels. Even the planets revolving around the stars, the satellites revolving around the planets all constitute cycles. Apart from these cycles we have the cycle of birth and death which we live out and in. I was reading an article in TOI on the same topic and my thoughts were set into motion: -

 source: http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/msticism/cosmic-cycle-of-life-and-death

Cosmic Cycle Of Life And Death

By: Moni Mohan Bhattacharyya on Mar 01, 2012

If you walk continuously along a straight path, you will never be found again. But on a cyclic path, you come back repeatedly at the starting point and eventually cover endless distance, provided the energy and system remain intact.

Interestingly, most phenomena occurring in nature favour a cyclic rather than straight path. In the greater universe, we see planets circling around stars and stars moving, centring around the galaxy. The process has been going on in billions of other galaxies since creation. However, such movement is not without purpose.

Apart from gigantic celestial bodies, it is surprising that microscopic subatomic particles inside matter like electrons are also moving in orbits around the nucleus of the atom. These are all energy particles and are responsible for matter formation and destruction.

Returning to our planet, one of the most important phenomena sustaining the life process is plants photosynthesis. It continuously converts carbon dioxide released by life forms to oxygen in the atmosphere through cycles so that there is never any dearth of any component. Apart from this, there are myriad other cycles occurring in nature that protect creation.

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose wrote in his book, Abyakta, while going to explore the source of the Ganga, albeit philosophically, "Oh river, where have you come from? Where will you go? The river replied, "From the locks of matted hair of Shiva I originate and go back to the same place yet again."

Why does nature prefer the cyclic path so spontaneously all along Sadi Carnot, French engineer, discovered in 1832 that a reversible engine generates maximum output only when it works in cycles.

It is also independent of the working substance used.

If the cyclic path happens to be so desirable both for the material and the living world, then it is highly probable that the most vital phenomenon on earth concerning birth-death of human beings should also work in cycles and is very unlikely to be a one-off incident.

How does it work then? According to the Prasnopanishada, at the time of death, the old body being incapable of sustaining the life process any longer perishes along with senses and buddhi or intellect, leaving mind and soul intact to space.

While the soul behaves as an onlooker only, mind stores all sanskaras like a computer's hard disk. This soul-mind system acting as a link then enters a new embryonic body, the matrix of which is determined by the previous mind at the time of death.

The soulmind then directs the body as steam drives a steam engine away. However, evolution from raw mind to enlightened mind is a long journey considering that change in mindset is undoubtedly a slow process. To effect this time-consuming transformation, continuous cycles rather than a single one are the right answer. Had it not been so, all souls should have required the same state of attainment at the end of a one-off cycle. With the path remaining the same and with changed system (new soul-mind), each time at the start, the soul-mind combo can, therefore, repeat its journey afresh through a chain of cycles, which entails continuous cleansing of the fleeting mind from illusory bondage of negativity by selfless karma till it achieves liberation. This has been the purpose as also Divine Will, which the cyclic path delivers uniquely.

       Are we all not living through a cycle at all times? If yes then what are the effects of the cycle? What is a cycle at the first place? In any cycle, when we start from a location we reach back the same location after certain interval of time. So is it not obvious that even in birth and death we follow a similar pattern? We are born and we die. We are reborn with a new body and live a new life. As Mr. Bhattacharyya described in his article so well, the storage and soul (life causing something) never perish. They continue to exist and are passed on. Ancient sages said we are stuck in this cycle of birth and death and to be free we need to attain moksh. 

        Apart from this, should we not also consider this: if somehow we can recover the data of the storage that never perishes, will we not become immensely intelligent? Think of knowledge and languages that are now lost. We will be able to speak them again. We will actually know many Vaidic mathematics principles (assuming we ever learnt them). I have a belief that the homo sapien race does not inherently belong to the earth. We will even be able to trace back our whereabouts and know all our origins. 

        What my present writing has led me to is this: we must have some control over our mind. By control I mean the ability to actually disintegrate ourselves temporarily from the body and look at the birth and death cycle as an outsider. I will definitely write more on the topic of Kayagaman or astral experience, as the west calls it.