Form and function
Earlier this year an article was published in Nature, the premier scientific journal of the world, describing the beautiful integration between form and function. This concerned one of the least expected places, especially given the diverging currently prevailing view: our brain. We have usually (including in standard medical learning) portrayed the brain as a collection of neuronal groups that each are specialized to perform a function and the groups are hardwired to other groups with which they must interact to perform more complex patterns and functions. Fairly straightforward and quite mechanistic, a biological version of a large electrical computational machinery. The famous folds and wrinkles that us humans proud ourselves on are presumably just a means of increasing surface area and efficiently creating more room for more neurons and more connections. Again, simple and mechanistic.
It turns out that the truth may be very different in a much more beautiful way. Most of the brain functionality can be modelled very well by the spreading of waves of activity over its actual surface features. Just like a wave in the sea, the taller ones (longer wavelength) will spread further, and as they spread their intensity diminishes. Thus the fascinating walnut-like surface of our brain, its actual size and geometry, given a certain stimulus wave in a defined point, will itself explain the function associated with the processing of that stimulus. One could not think of a more marvellous result of the power of evolution - integration to the point of quasi-identity of form and function. An unspoken aspect this will likely revisit is the incredible energetic efficiency of our brain that belittles all our attempts at artificial computational competition. The reality is that our computers are very hungry and the vast data centres and, nowadays, supercomputers that AI systems rely on, are many times more hungry and this is starting to take a visible toll on our global resources.
Back to the beauty of brain form form and function - from a subtle system perspective, this is not at all surprising. Our brain is mostly created and evolved by the power of the 5th chakra, hence the unbreakable relationship between language and human consciousness and “superior” brain functions. This is also the chakra that governs our appearance and outer expressions. This innate combination of appearance - applied to the brain itself - and brain function is indeed what the article talks about. In a symbolic way, the life of Shri Krishna is a great example of the same. He lived thousands of years ago and embodied the attributes of the fully enlightened brain. In his life he performed countless actions of perfectly human appearance that were also ideal vehicles of his deeper work of fighting the darkness of his time and furthering our spiritual evolution.
When our brain gets enlightened it takes on its highest function - the perception of our pure Self. As the integration deepens, the brain eventually fully merges with the Self which then assumes both form and function. This is when we can say that one becomes fully spiritual - the outside appearance and actions completely reflecting the beauty of the inner Self.