ARGUMENT FOR THE LIFE HEREAFTER

body? This would appear to imply that the cause of death does not lie in the intestines, veins or heart, but somewhere else. Another explanation has it that nerve cells are the cause of death because they remain unchanged throughout life and are never replaced. The number of nerve cells in a human body thus decline year after year, thereby weakening the nervous system as a whole. If it is correct to say that the nervous system is the Achilles’ heel of the human body, it should conversely be correct to say that a body having no nervous system at all should be able to survive for the longest period of time. But observation does not support this view. A tree, which is devoid of a nervous system does survive much longer than a man, and in fact, survives the longest of all forms of plant-life. But wheat, which likewise, has no nervous system, survives for only one year. And the amoeba, with a minute nervous system, survives for only half an hour. These examples would appear to imply the reverse, i.e. animals belonging to the higher species, with perfect nervous systems, should live longer. But that is not the case either. Creatures relatively lower down the evolutionary scale, like crocodiles, turtles and fish are the ones who survive the longest. All the investigations so far carried out with the objective of showing that death need not be a certainty have met with total failure. The fact still remains that, one day, all human beings will have to die. There is no avoiding death. Dr Alexis Carrel, a French Nobel prize-winner, who has done advanced research in tissue culture, has discussed this problem at length under the heading of Inward Time. Man will never tire of seeking immortality. He will not attain it, because he is bound by certain laws of his organic constitution. He may succeed in retarding, perhaps even in reversing in some measure, the inexorable advance of physiological time. Never will he vanquish death. Anomalies in the organization of the present set-up of the universe, which periodically result in minor calamities, are indicative of what is going to happen on a large scale, at some time in the future. Anomalies in the organization of the present set-up of the universe, which periodically result in minor calamities, are indicative of what is going to happen on a large scale, at some time in the future.