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From The Mahabharata, Santi Parva Section XV
In This Article
Bacteria -Viruses, Physiology, Science of Speech
Bacteria- Viruses
This mobile and immobile universe is food for living creatures.
This has been ordained by the gods. The very ascetics cannot support
their lives without killing creatures. In water, on earth, and fruits,
there are innumerable creatures. It is not true that one does not slaughter
them. What higher duty is there than supporting one's life? There are
many creatures that are so minute that their existence can only be inferred.
With the falling of the the eyelids alone, they are destroyed.
Physiology
From The Mahabharata, Santi Parva, Section CCCXXI
Reproduced from Page Empty Chamber
The constituent elements of the body, which serve diverse
functions in the general economy, undergo change every
moment in every creature. Those changes, however, are so
minute that they cannot be noticed. The birth of particles,
and their death, in each successive condition, cannot be
marked, O king, even as one cannot mark the changes in
the flame of a burning lamp. When such is the state of the
bodies of all creatures, - that is when that which is called
the body is changing incessantly even like the rapid
locomotion of a steed of good mettle- who then has come
whence or not whence, or whose is it or whose is it not,
or whence does it not arise? What connection does there
exist between creatures and their own bodies?
[Note: The fact of continual change of particles in the body was well
known to the Hindu sages. This discovery is not new of modern physiology.
Elsewhere it has been shown that Harvey’s great discovery about
the circulation of the blood was not unknown to the Rishis.
The instance mentioned for illustrating the change of corporal particles
is certainly a very apt and happy one. The flame of a burning lamp,
though perfectly steady (as in a breezeless spot), is really the result
of the successive combustion of particles of oil and the successive
extinguishments of such combustion.]
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