All the great philosophers were great learners before being philosophers. Experiencing is learning. One cannot experience unless one physically and mentally participates in things he wants to learn.
A few of such philosophers have emphasized that the growth of a human being cannot be complete unless he grows physically, intellectually and spiritually.
All living beings other than human beings; animals, birds, fish, trees, plants and grass etc. are helpless in the matters of their intellectual and spiritual growth. The creator and also the governor of the universe has limited their intellect only to the extent of services they are expected to extend to the universe. Physical abilities of all living beings, including that of human beings are limited according to the species and environment. A lion in a zoo is not expected to be as powerful as the one living in a forest. A fox cannot be as strong as a lion. It is the human intellect only that has a great potential of growth. Perhaps, our intellect does not help us in knowing how the universe came into being and how it functions with remarkable orderliness; but otherwise we can understand many things that other living beings cannot.
If we compare the progress made by human beings with that of animals or birds during last two thousand years we will be astonished. Animals have remained where they were but man is trying to investigate other planets by landing himself there. There is no doubt that human beings are far superior to other living beings. Even scriptures say that after several births as inferior beings a soul is rewarded with human form so that man can use his intellect to explore truth and conduct himself according to the truth to get rid of the painful cycles of birth and death. Life as human being is no doubt precious.
If we keep all scriptures aside and treat all what is given in religious books and scriptures as unscientific and ‘imaginations of the fearful’; we would at least agree that existence of the universe, where all living beings live happily, should not be endangered. Now that we have agreed that an entity like ‘God’ is a pure fiction, then it becomes the responsibility of the most intelligent species on the planet earth (assuming that there is no other planet like earth in the entire universe having 500 billion galaxies and 4000 billion suns) to ensure that all living beings spend their life spans free from all miseries, fears and pains, as far as possible.
There is no doubt that man has used his intelligence well and has succeeded in protecting human life from natural disasters and wild animals to a great extent. We do not know to what extent the earlier man was successful in protecting his life from dangers that were caused by nature; but there is nothing wrong in believing that we have progressed well, as we do not usually hear about people being afraid of nature.
Can we say with confidence that in modern age a human being is not afraid of another human being, even in his daily life? Are we sure that all human beings have almost equal opportunities to realize the potential they possess having born as human beings? Has the humanity progressed enough to ensuring that majority of human beings is free from the worries of food, cloth and shelter?
All that has been thought about in the preceding paragraph is not something like asking for a moon each for human beings. All that we asked for is freely available on planet earth and even the weakest of human being can use his body to feed himself well, if this opportunity is not snatched away from him by another human being.
[This article will continue. We cannot promise a daily post but we will try to be more regular.]
0 comments:
Post a Comment