I was startled upon reading the news item on Injaz, the first cloned camel. The cute animal was seen tucked between the legs of its surrogate mother. The report added that the baby was cloned using the ovaries and DNA preserved from the originally slaughtered camel (for meat in 2005). The camel was brought out for display in Dubai last week.
There was a knot in my stomach after reading this. It happened so a few years back upon seeing Dolly’s picture in the newspaper though I could not stop marveling human brain’s finesse. However, there are a series of points that buzzed inside like…
1) The five sensed animals, if cloned, may or may not create havoc in the environment but there will be 100% confusion if tested with humans. At least I think so.
2) If tried, will human cloning be the exact replica of the original personality – both exterior and interior?
3) When exterior matching itself can be the cause of major chaos, what would happen if the interior i.e. emotions, feelings, character, talents etc too are cloned alongside physical features?
4) How best can this be explained in spiritual terms? The encapsulated soul with causal and astral bodies do move out of the physical body after physical death is what I have read. If I believe in the law that I do choose my parents, family, surroundings, country, culture, features, talents, drawbacks, diseases etc based on my karmas, are there many souls like me with similar karmic balances to take up a similar body and life like me? Would it be the same soul or a different soul?
5) Does God approve of this cloning? Is that the reason the soul is injected into the new body?
6) If Dolly had lived only for a year, does it imply that cloned animals do not have long life unlike others born naturally? Or was it just that soul’s destiny to live only that much? Injaz might answer this question sooner or later.
7) If I think that everything happens as per His Will, then this knowledge of cloning animals is available to humans as per His Will. But if I think that man is exercising his freewill given by God to satisfy his intellectual ego, then I am worried.
8) However, if cloning is done only to replicate the organs, then it can be termed as the greatest breakthrough for better survival. Otherwise, it would end up just like nuclear physics in the wrong hands.
9) One thing has to be appreciated however. The thirst and search for knowledge continues in man ever since he is created on this planet.
The above points cropped up at that moment of reading the news and continued to ping me till such time I heard my inner voice asking me to concentrate only on my sadhana and the universe will take care of such things in its own way.
As Swami Vivekananda said, “Knowledge can be got in one way, the way of experience and there is no other way to know,” I would continue to wait for the knowledge to explain the mysteries of creation. :)
(written on 05/06/2009)
7 comments:
I feel the universe has the correcting mechanism. If cloning creates some imbalance, whatsoever may be it, it will correct on its own. With technological advancement, we polluted and spoiled the environment and now we are crying to save the enviroment. So, if cloning doesn't create any imbalance it may survive even in human beings. If not it will be stopped automatically.
Whew! It really is gut-wrenching! I am not sure whether to hail mankind for his scientific 'progress' ... But then you - all this stuff of betterment of life and all that ... we used to have people with longer life-spans, healthier lives not so long ago... Somehow we ended up destroying that and are now looking for new ways to go back to where we came from ... Sort of like a vicious cycle!! :) But yes, I am able to relate the concerns you have voiced here .. Surely, there must be some answer... which will probably come to us sooner or later .. :) Till then, we accept .. And life goes on .. :)
@Solai - You are right. The laws of cosmos are very powerful and orderly. It should take care of the outcomes.
@Anitha - Yes, life goes on. We may not hear the answer but the universe would surely give back the much needed answer to our deeds. Sadly, as human beings, we all have to take the responsibility collectively.
"The laws of cosmos are very powerful and orderly."
When will I be able to write like this? :) Precise and to the point.
Dear Padmaja
You have jotted down very valuable points. How to relate it to spirituality is still a mystery question to me. All that I feel is that it is just the knowledge that man is bestowed with. Some use it the wise way and bring about new innovations and the other, as you doubt might be experimenting with his intellectual ego.
I appreciate the thoughts that developed in your mind. They appear very sensible and coherent.
Thank you so much, Latha. So many interesting and disturbing events happen around us everyday. I wonder how do these things appear in the eyes of God!
Are people making too much fuss of this thing? In the plant world, people have been using stem cuttings, tissue culture, etc., for growing identical plants (orchids, rare flower plants). This technique was used even many decades back. Now, it is just an extension to animal and human world.
Many helpless sick patients would only jump with joy at the thought of receiving a kidney or organ - whether it is through cloning or advanced tissue culture. The idea can also be found in one or two (Indian) mythological stories.
Part of the problem lies with modern journalists. Very few journalists/news anchors are conversant with science.
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