Nothing can ever be more traditional than
cycles of nature. Planets have been orbiting around their respective suns with
no changes in their time periods receiving the same amount of heat and light energy even
today as they did thousands of years back. Our planet earth, perhaps a very
special one, has been supporting life with all the resources of heat, light,
air, water, fertile land and all that is necessary for the purpose. Each and
every element of such resources necessary for supporting life was is still
being continually refreshed and renewed in a cyclic process just as it was
being done in some remote past. It has been well understood by us that all what
exists in our universe has a meaningful and useful role to play in the
existence of the entire universe. In a nutshell, all that is living or not
living has existed; decaying, degenerating, transforming from one form to
another, renewing itself and regenerating; for thousands and thousands of years;
that is, each component of the universe has existed as an indispensable one for
the existence of the universe thereby evidencing a remarkable sense of their interdependence.
It is evident that the traditional cycles of nature have the inbuilt
intelligence to ensure the survival of the universe for as long as it is
possible.
The
man, who superficially knows or claims to know a few things about the universe,
appears on a small planet, the earth, only to disappear after spending a few
years on the earth. Other living beings also live for a limited period of time
on this earth. The man thinks that he can do many things with his life and with
the lives of others, whereas, other living beings lack any ability of
independent thinking the man is gifted with. No doubt, man’s intellect,
perhaps, is much superior to any other living being on the earth. But, does it
establish that whatever the man is capable of thinking and doing would always
be the right thing to do, in the sense that it would not go against the
intelligence that helps the universe to sustain and maintain itself for
hundreds of thousands years?
To
answer the above question, let us raise a few more questions. The first
question is how can we be sure that the human beings, by virtue of being an
intelligent species out of the millions of other species existing in this
universe, know enough about the intricacies of interdependence of all that is
living or nonliving in this universe? The
second question is, whether a man, who lives only for about 60-70 years, can
really imagine and anticipate the consequence of any of his actions occurring a
little later, say after 300 years? If he can’t, how can we anticipate as to
what would happen as the consequences of his infinite actions in some distant
future? Next, does the man think that he
is a more important component of the nature out of the many others so as to
impose his will on others? And, if he thinks so, what makes him think that way?
These are only a few questions out of the many that need to be answered by the
man about his own ‘thoughts’ and ‘conduct’.
Before
anybody prepares himself to answer the above questions, he must keep in mind that
while a wild horse can cause a damage only according to his physical ability,
that is ‘one horse power’; a man, thanks to his intellect, can control millions
and millions of horse power thereby acquiring an enormous destructive
potential. We all know that the man possesses a mind that can prompt him to construct
as well as destroy. We also know that the man possesses a mind that can make
millions and millions of living beings suffer for many years in exchange of his
own momentary pleasure.
The
questions, like the above referred ones, have not been raised by me for the
first time. Our ancestors, compassionate enough to have been concerned about
the welfare of all living beings, particularly about that of the human race,
deeply thought about the traditional cycles of the nature (with its inherent
intelligence acting for survival of the universe), about the intellect of the
man that gave him enormous abilities, and also, about his mind that could
prompt the man to do anything, even destroying whatever was destructible
including himself.
After
much experiencing, experimentation and contemplation our ancestors revealed
about how the things related to the universe protecting the life existing
therein must be viewed. They made unambiguous suggestions about how the man
must act; what he must not do; what he is permitted to do, but only after exercising
adequate restraint; and what he must neither do himself, nor allow others to do.
Many saints full of compassion and Rishies with impeccable character
have reviewed the duties of the man and his ways of life, at different times
and circumstances, and then, reconfirmed the truth of the existing knowledge
about life. It has been repeatedly found that whenever the man for any reasons
whatsoever became casual in complying with his duties; he has suffered and has
made others suffer. The culprit had always been the unrestrained human mind that
disoriented the most fabulous possession of the man, his intellect.
A
restrained mind makes a man live like a human being; and the man who makes
himself free from his mind is emancipated. Incidentally, the death is a
non-issue in this discussion; it is a part of the process of the cycles of
nature.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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