The continued automaticity of the organism has no business to dysfunction when the necessary nutrients are supplied. It does dysfunction, nevertheless. Why is this so?

Life as an event starts from the moment of fertilization (conception) and it gets terminated when the organism ceases to function. The question is, how does life start and why does this end? Pray, what is the force that controls the events from conception to death?

Fertilization takes place with the union of two gametes. Gamete is a sex cell. With the union of spermatozoon of the male and the ovum of the female, a new sequence of events called gestation or pregnancy takes place. The fertilized cell (ovum) in the female develops into a fetus, and thus a new unit of life develops.

The human cell nuclei contains 46 chromosomes coming in 23 pairs (diploid). Chromosomes are composed of genes and genes carry heredity. Gametes, however, are haploid, having only half its number of chromosomes (23). Each sex cell, therefore, will be contributing half this number, thus they unite to form a zygote (fertilized ovum) with the correct number of chromosomes (46).

Zygote, so tiny as to be barely visible, grows into a fetus by cell division, called mitotic division. It divides into two cells, which then divides into 4, 8, 16, 32\85 and so on. At the moment of fertilization, sex and everything about the individual is fixed.

And this is the beginning of what is called life. Death results following the termination of life process.

Now the question is, how does life start and why does it cease to function? The one term answer is: praanan. The automaticity of the organism is so, only because it is planned that way. Praanan is the key here.

When the union of spermatozoon of the male and the ovum of the female takes place and a zygote is formed, an unusual sequence takes place; that is, at that precise moment, both the aatman and praanan together enter ovum and fertilization has taken place.

praanan: The controller of life process

All organisms require oxygen for survival, because all life depends on chemical reaction with oxygen to produce energy. Oxygen is carried to the cells through the blood stream. But the organism on a whole or some of the organs dysfunction for no apparent reason, even when the circulation of oxygen is normal. The real force behind the function or the dysfunction of the organisms seems to be other than oxygen.

The real force behind the functioning is praanan, it exercises its executive control through the central nervous system. The locus of praanan, is the floor of IV ventricle of the diencephalons. It is this force which initiates and sustains the process of fertilization, fetal growth, its birth and the entire span of life until death, Pranan, along with aatman, penetrates the ovum through spermatozoon and this aids fertilization, it is therefore supposed by the yogic scientists that the father is reborn in the shape of this progeny (Aitareya upanishad, II 1.1 to 4).

Vaayu, which contains oxygen amoung other gases, is in reality a product of praanan. When praanan vibrates in space as in the cosmos above or in the organism here, vaayu is produced. They do have separate existence. Vaayu is very much verenated, and rightly so, because it happens to be the first in the chain of events that leads one to go up to the Absolute. The sequence, worth recounting here, is: vaayu reaches one to the praanan; praanan reaches to the aatman; aatman to brahmatva; and from brahmatva to the Absolute. Since without the lowest the highest cannot be reached, the vaayu found to everyone as atmospheric air, is venerated.