Mind over Matter

Dr. Raparla Janardana Rao

Since ages man’s life has been a saga of adventure into the unknown realms of the world. Man at some moments attain unknown heights, harvesting his innate reserves of infinity. Those great moments may seem transitory but they deserve to be called “excursions into infinite”. Man by his dedicated endeavour, keen perception and above all by a transcendancy of his physical limitations, achieves great records in all spheres of human life. Be it great discoveries of new lands, establishing incredible records in sports and games, in the field of valour, excellence in fine arts, or medicine and surgery, or in modern technological improvements and innovations, man unmasks his hidden talents and attains super human heights. Let’s call it man’s sway of mind over matter or the physical forms.

Isolated lands were brought together and global concept was given to man by the sea faring adventures like Vasco da Gama, Columbus and Magillan. By their adventurous spirit with utter disregard to their personal safety they assailed on their fragile boats facing the fury of the waves on the unchartered great seas. Their marvellous, adventurous and superhuman spirit brought us the knowledge of the lands like America, the East and West Indies, Australia and all the countries of the world.

In great wars, the great soldiers overcome the love of their physical bodies, and looked only for the, victory in War. The great warrior Xerxes in Thermopolae, Tanaji in Maharashtra, Tippu Sultan in Srirangapatnam, the man-to-man fight, at Leningrad, or coming nearer home, our boys at Kargil-all are to be reckoned as the ascendancy of mind over matter. Is it not a supreme example of this concept, that a frail Gandhiji by raising a mere fistful of salt at Dandi, symbolised the start of a battle against the so called formidable, invincible British supremacy? And did not the great Reform movement in history commence with the nailing of the questionnaire on the Papal door? What about the silent sitting of the Buddha, in the place of the sacrificial goat at the Yagna? Did it not bring about a significant change in the Vedic rituals? A Ram Mohan Roy, an Ahalya Bai, a Ranade, an Eswarachandra Vidyasagar, a Kandukuri Veeresalingam, a Narayan Guru, an Ambedkar to name a few, all brought about changes, in the social history of man, not by any calculated moves, but by an undaunted upsurge of a spirit within that brought about changes in outlook in the mundane world of man.

Coming to the arena of sports and games, man’s attainments through his sheer will power provides us with innumerable examples of Olympian heights. The Czec sprint runner Zetopeck, attaining “the one mile a minute” speed after a life’s struggle is an amazing achievement. And Mihir Sen swimming the British channel and falling as a log of wood at the shore is a miraculous feat to Indian sea swimmers, of course, later followed by others. And scaling the formidable heights of Mt. Everest, by Tensing Norkay and his Australian leader and Neil Armstrong’s setting footon the moon are all examples of extreme human endurance, many times overcoming limitations of the physical domain. Those are indeed man’s great moments in human history, his excursions into the infinite. Coming to medicine and surgery, do we not come across a plethora of examples how surgeons and scientists have been helping the suffering sick, to get over their ailments? Thus they prove the Sanskrit adage ‘Vaidyo Narayano Harihi’, Doctor is but another form of God. Let us take the classic example of Dr. Christian Barnard, for the first time in medical world, venturing upon the surgical feat of heart transplantation in the African forests. Spurred by the sheer will to save the life of a patient in his terminal stage, Dr. Barnard ventured upon the transplantation surgery, with his limited means, and achieved the miraculous success. It is an ideal example of man’s power of mind over material limitations. Christian Barnard by his exemplary courage, motivation, and dexterous skill, paved the way to the transplanting surgery in medical world, saving several lives.

Coming to the field of fine arts, the verbatile genius Leonard da Vinci, called the Renaissance man, who lived during 1452-1519 AD remains a man of wonder even to this day for his depth of knowledge in anatomy, botany, hydraulics engineering, mathematics, philosophy, and finally sculpture and painting. His magnificent painting ‘Last Supper’ made in Milan, and his world’s most famous enigmatic portrait ‘Mona Lisa’ brought him immortality. He proved an inspiration to the artists of later age Michaelangelo and Raphael. His designs reveal that he thought of making even a helicopter. The architects of the great wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, Tower of Pizza, Hawa Mahal, Taj, Statue of Liberty and several other awe inspiring creations of architectural magnificence, to name a few, are worthy of our remembrance.

Talking of literature the epic writers Valmiki, Veda Vyas, of Ramayan and Mahabharat, Homer, the Greek epic poet of 8th century B.C. labouring under blindness, producing the epics Odyssey and Iliad, and Shakespeare of 16th century, starting his career as an attendant at Globe Theatre and raising himself to the heights of fame as the Worlds greatest playwright, Milton, suffering from blindness producing his epics Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and nearer home Chilakamarti suffering from the same impaired vision producing the greatest play in Telugu “Gayopakhyanam”, and Rabindranath Tagore with no formal school and college education obtaining Nobel prize for literature are the wonders of the success of the human will. And in music Beethoven, with impaired hearing producing celestial music, and Helen Keller, with loss of vision and hearing, becoming the wonderous lady all are examples of ascendancy of mind over matter.

By oratorical skill man has changed the history of the world. Six classic examples of oration are given out by celebrated writers. The first one, the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus Christ, beginning with the words “Blessed are the meek in spirit” marked the emergence of Christian spirit against Mosaic law. The second example is that of William of Normandy during the invasion of England, when his soldiers lost their morale, he took out his helmet, showed his face to his soldiers and said, “Look at me I am still alive”. These courageous words stirred up the Norman soldiers to continue their fight to a successful end. These words of William of Normandy changed English History. Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 standing, as it is said, “eyeball to eyeball” with the Roman Emperor. Charles V facing accusations, said “Here I stand, I can do no other! God help me” and the Protestant Reformation Movement emerged, starting a new chapter in Christian religion. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech with emphasis on the prepositions “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” during the American Civil War changed the American history. The words “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat” by Winston Churchill through his broadcast speech to the Britishers who were at a low ebb in morale facing the Nazi Blitzekreig, changed the history of Britain leading to success in the Second World War. Finally, nearer home, the two worded sentence ‘Quit India’ by Mahatmaji acted as ‘Mantra’ in awakening India and that of the conscience of the world.

Going to our past, Charaka, Dhanwantari and Shushruta, the surgeon of yore, and the pathologist Vagbhata, Agnivesh are names in Ayurvedic medicine to be remembered. The Rishis of yore of the Vedic past made the physical body their laboratory and attained superhuman powers, by the practice of Yoga and Pranayama. This is the quintessence of our culture, its potential powers dominating over matter. ‘Door Drishti’ ‘Levitation’ achieved by our ancestors envisaged in modern terms. Our Sages, Patanjali, Matsyendra, Gheranda, were the great exponents of yoga, whose attempts to transcend man’s power over matter proved successful.

Man ever tries to gain supremacy over considerations of Matter.