Beginning of Man's search for knowledge

Some food for thought from a translation of Bhagvad Gita...

=====
Some years ago, when I studied biology, neurology, and allied subjects, I found one wonderful truth and that is , no animal, not even a chimpanzee, can oppose the thumb to the forefinger, but only the human child can do this.

In all animals, the thumb does not know how to co-operate with the other fingers, particularly with the forefinger.

However , at the human level of evolution, for the first time, the human being learnt to oppose the thumb to the forefinger. That is the beginning of humanity's technical efficiency, his or her capacity to handle tools, his capacity to manipulate the world around him, and acquire knowledge. The human being entered into the world of knowledge with this initial physical capacity.

This is why this opposing of the thumb to the forefinger is highly symbolic of man's search for knowledge from the most ordinary to the most extraordinary levels.

Now, how to represent this search for knowledge through a particular posture. Our ancient sages discovered this wonderful "mudra" which can describe the entire gamut of this search for knowledge. This is a remarkable concept in Indian Vedantic philosophy and spirituality. It holds that there is a deep significance for this particular "Gyana mudra", knowledge pose, when the thumb is opposed to the forefinger and all other fingers are stretched out.

I found this perfectly valid from the scientific point of view. I found that the number of brain cells needed to manipulate these two fingers is the largest compared to all other fingers. If the thumb is cut off , the manipulating efficiency of the hand will suffer automatically. In Mahabharata, we read of Drona, the teacher of archery, asking Eklavya to cut off his thumb and offer it to him as his guru-dakshina. So that he does not successfully compete with his favourite student Arjuna

The British rulers of India have said to have cut off the thumbs of our Decca weavers, who wove fine Decca muslin, so that they may not compete with their own Lancashire weavers.

The importance of thumb and the capacity to oppose it to the forefinger, is the beginning of man's march to knowledge, secular and spiritual. There is no distinction between secular and spiritual so far as knowledge is concerned; all knowledge is sacred.

A human being is human being because he has the organic capacity to seek knowledge; no animal can seek knowledge. Animals have only an instinctual apparatus within, and are compeletely controlled by the genetic system. The human being however, has been put on the road of making research into the world of knowledge.

========