The
Fall of Mankind
Expulsion
from Paradise
Question:-
I understand that the account of the origin
of man in the Quran and in other religious literature is symbolic. Can you
explain the nature, causes and consequences of the Fall of man, the expulsion
from Paradise, in contemporary language and knowledge?
Answer:-
The Fall of man in the Quran is mentioned in
Quran 2:30-39, 7:11-30, 95:4-6.
There is an explanation for it throughout the Quran. It is for each person to
meditate on it for himself. But here is the result of my own meditations.
The fall can be explained in several ways,
all interdependent:-
(1) As alienation, separation from Allah and
His Spirit, the divine spark within man, Quran 9:67, 32:7-9
(2) A drop from a state of higher
consciousness and behaviour to a lower state.
(3) A drop from a state of inner unity,
harmony, happiness and fulfilment to one of inner and outer disintegration,
conflict and suffering.
(4) A disruption of the balance and harmony
between various centres of control within the human organism.
(5) A disruption of environment from one that
was very congenial and to one that was harsh.
Human beings are inter-dependent with their
environment. They are dependent on their environment for all the material,
energy and information that forms them. But their physical, social and
ideological environment is also modified by them. This depends on their values
and motives and on their abilities. They see the world according to the nature
of their faculties for perception and thought, the degree of consciousness and
attention, which is directed by motives. There are several states of
consciousness and there are, therefore, correspondingly several levels of
Reality with respect to man. Each higher state of consciousness and level of
Reality is more comprehensive than the previous lower one and all are parts of
Absolute Reality, accessible only to the highest consciousness. These levels of
Reality can also change through appropriate effort, motivation and knowledge.
Human beings by their behaviour not only modify their environments but also
themselves. These modified environments then further affect and modify the
individual and the modified individuals modify their behaviour, which further
modifies the environment.
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Reports from all over the world and from
scientific and other investigators indicate that there are human beings with
extra-ordinary abilities and that ordinary human beings can show and develop
such super-normal abilities under certain circumstances. These can also arise
under hypnosis and this seems to indicate that these abilities are widespread
but normally lie dormant, unused, unexercised and unconscious. It is certain that
human beings have a Higher Mind or Overself that lies dormant and that our
ordinary conscious mind functions at a much lower restricted level. Indeed, it
is a matter of observation and self-observation that much of our behaviour is
not even under our conscious knowledge or control. The questions then arise:-
(1) How did this Higher Self arise? (2) Why has man fallen into this lower
state of functioning? (3) How can man re-ascend to the higher state and regain
his potentialities? The Religions have come to pose and answer just these
questions. It is obvious that they must have come through the Higher Self that
is in greater objective contact with Reality.
There is not a great amount of difference
between man and apes physically. Man shares 99.8% of genes with Chimpanzees,
Man has a larger brain, a more sophisticated and complex language, a bare skin
that necessitates clothes, and walks upright so that arms and hands are free
for more versatile and skilful manipulation. All this has created a great
mental difference between man and ape in that man has created a physical and
social environment and complex cultures and ideologies that also modify them.
However, it seems that this Mental aspect is a side effect of a Spiritual
change, of the development of consciousness, conscience and will which require
the existence of a centre of integration, a Self or Soul. The question is: How
did this development come about?
The environment in which human beings arose
must have been particularly benevolent. It must have supplied abundant
appropriate (1) resources (nutrition in the form of materials, energy and
information; (2) mutations (creative acts) and (3) selection. So, human beings,
arose Spiritually in a Garden, in Paradise. The loss
of Paradise is, therefore, the loss of those generous conditions.
This could have been caused partly by human mismanagement of their environment
and partly by failure to adjust intelligently and adequately to climatic
changes.
According to the Old Testament, the Fall was
caused by the sin of eating of the forbidden Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil, as a result of temptation by Satan. As all things were made good by God,
this can only refer to setting up a non-objective subjective set of values.
Satan, it seems, convinced them that they could be gods instead and need not
obey God. The Quran does not describe the Tree. Its fruit was simply forbidden.
The sin lay in disobeying God and the nature made by God (Quran 30:30, 32:9).
Man forgot God (Quran 59:19, 9:67, 18:29)
and made himself into a god. He has formed attachments to his own body and
senses and through them to sense objects. The cause of this may have been the
pleasure principle produced by sexuality because the sin made him realise his
nakedness which he proceeded to hide from himself by covering up (Quran 7:26,
11:5, 17:46). As the Quran says (25:43) "Have you considered him who takes
for his god his own lusts?"
The result of this is:- (1) The narrowing
down of consciousness, conscience and will (the ability for self-control and
autonomy. (2) The loss of a more comprehensive awareness of Reality, the unity
and pattern behind diversity and particularly of what is good or bad for
oneself. As the Quran says, it makes people blind, deaf and heartless (Quran
2:7, 2:16-18, 6:105, 11:24,
22:46 etc.) (3) The distinction between the conscious mind
and the greater unconscious mind and correspondingly between the narrow
subjective world of personal concerns and the greater objective world. (4)
Instability of consciousness as it flits from one thing to another, becoming
purposeless and directionless, wasting psychological energy in futilities. (5)
Disintegration of the mind into several separate compartments that might
overlap or be mutually exclusive. (6) The invention of fantasies in order to
close the gaps in awareness and knowledge. (7) Inner conflict between ideas,
motives etc. and in particular, self-contradiction that leads to psychological,
psychosomatic, organic, allergic and also owing to affects on the immune
system, infectious diseases. It causes guilt-feelings and as this is unpleasant
it tends to be suppressed out of consciousness by creating barriers in the form
of excuses, rationalisations, inventions and distractions. Much of human
behaviour and opinion consists of just these.
Apart from personal consequences of the Fall,
because of the inter-dependence of people and their inter-dependence with the
physical environment, there are also social, political, cultural, economic and
environmental consequences. To illustrate:- People pursue illusory value
systems. They seek and honour people who are rich in material wealth rather
than in human qualities. And because of that they devote their lives to compete
for a limited amount of resources most of which are wasted particularly when death
is certain and all is lost. Or life is spent futilely in the pursuit of
trivialities that make no difference to the world and no question is ever asked
as to what purpose that behaviour serves. But it certainly affects
interpersonal, social and international relationships and puts pressure on the
worlds resources and the ecological balance. When foreign persons kill or
injure citizens and cause destruction of property or social chaos then it is
clearly seen that such people are criminals that should be caught, tried,
removed or executed. But when the American, British and other governments send
troops to foreign countries to kill and injure people, cause social havoc and
mass destruction of property then, though they are equally criminals that need
to be driven out, disabled, tried and executed, they are not seen as such but
made into heroes. Obviously people in power have been made blind and stupid,
quite unable to perceive the contradiction. They make all kinds of
"rational" excuses to justify themselves, not realising that these
others can and do the same. They find it just to promote the interest and send
arms to one nation that oppresses another, but condemn those who do the same
for the oppressed as terrorists. Nor do they see that by that kind of thinking
they damage their own minds while creating the chaotic and dangerous global
political conditions that also have economic consequences.
However, the Quran indicates that God knew
that man would sin (Quran 2:30).
Indeed, the Tree was placed in Paradise as a temptation. It was part of the plan. Man had yet
to learn self-regulation from his own experience and he had a purpose in the
scheme of things as an agent of God. He is required to ascend. (Quran 84:19,
91:7-10, 89:27-30).
In some religious traditions the Pineal Gland
situated in the brain is regarded as the medium of spirituality. It is
sensitive to light (all its subtle aspects and functions including spiritual
ones) and is called the Third Eye. Spiritual exercises are designed to activate
it. According to Hindu Scriptures the Human organism is controlled by 7 centres
called Chakras. These can be said to correspond to the influence of 7 Nerve
Complexes and 7 Endocrine glands and the hormones they produce. These are in
descending order:- The Pineal, Pituitary, Thyroid, Thymus, Pancreatic,
Super-renal and Sexual. These constitute the Serpent, Kundalini which lies
coiled at the bottom in the sexual region. The pleasure principle fuelled by
sexuality has caused it to go to sleep and it needs to be roused. It caused
attachments. There are many kinds of complex interactions between these glands
via the hormones they produce. The Pineal gland produces hormones that affect
other glands such as the Pituitary, stimulating the production of hormones such
as melatonin, seratonin and monoamineoxidaze inhibiters that cause feelings of
wellbeing and happiness, facilitate transmission of information between
neurons, and by affecting the transcription of genes, it affects the production
of proteins of which we are made. There is an inverse relationship between the
Pineal and Sexual glands that produce steroids such as testosterone. Melatonin
suppresses steroid production The central gland, the Thymus stimulated by the
Pineal hormones, tends to promote growth and development in children
particularly the brain and this stops with sexual maturation when testosterone
production peaks. The Thymus gland is an essential part of the immune system
that fights bacterial infections, repairs tissues and keeps us healthy. Anxiety
and stresses caused by inner and outer contradictions between desires or
between desires and resources and aggression and fear has an adverse affect on
the immune system, the thymus and the Pineal gland. Meditation that affects
consciousness tends to stimulate melatonin production, reduce stress,
strengthens the immune system and attempts to restore growth and regeneration.
The Gut, like the Heart appears to have its own partially independent nervous
system that interacts with the rest of the nervous system. Much of the hormones
have their affects there, and some are even produced there or stimulate their
production. This affects the way food is digested and utilised and how the
organism reacts and behaves. Moods and motives and perception is affected.
It is supposed that the two parts of brain,
the right and left hemispheres have different functions. The Left Hemisphere is
concerned mainly with conceptualising, analytical, impersonal and linear,,
formalistic and rule-bound thinking, and rational explanation, numbers and
quantities, etc. It is, therefore, also more individualistic and competitive.
The Right Hemisphere is concerned mainly with direct perception, insight,
empathy, cooperation, personal and synthetic thinking, wholeness and patterns,
creativity, intuition and inspiration. We not only require to perceive details
but also the whole patterns to which they belong. Both sides co-operate in all
our activities. But circumstances, physical and cultural have caused a bias in
attention towards the details. Because of greater attention and exercise, the
modern age is dominated by the Left Hemisphere and this has led to the neglect
and relative atrophication of the Right Hemisphere. This has caused (1) a
narrowing of consciousness, (2) separation between the functions of the two
hemispheres and (3) a loss of balance. Conscious attention tends to be confined
to the functions of the Left Hemisphere. This however, in the absence of direct
perception, leads to rationalisation, excuse making, illusions, superstitions
and conservatism, which in the absence of a balancing antidote, is not seen as
a problem. Inspiration tends to work only when the normal consciousness is
suspended as in sleep or reverie. Yet must of the great advances in Science as
well as in Art and Technology and Social Reformation arise from Inspiration.
However, these insights can have no practical applications unless specific
detailed thinking is applied.
It is supposed that the male mind is mainly
concerned with the Left Hemisphere whereas the female mind is concerned with
the Right Hemisphere. Men as hunters pursuing pray would have needed to
concentrate their conscious attention in a narrow way on details. Females would
be concerned with the multiple tasks of the home and community. But the original
balance between the two Hemispheres should also have applied to the balance
between the sexes. The fact is that both have become more intellectualised,
competitive and aggressive and that has made the whole society unbalanced with
detrimental economic, political, social, cultural, psychological and
environmental consequences.
Whereas changes in nutrition can affect
structure, faculties and behaviour, this depends partly on the environment and partly
on the genetic constitution of the organism and partly on its tastes and
efforts. Change involves changes in (1) the Environment, physical, political,
social and cultural (2) Life styles, (3) Attitudes in thought, motives and
action. This is what religion is concerned with.
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