Challenging the Frontiers of Human Knowledge

            Many of us, while going through the grind of humdrum human life, often pause to think of the endless races we find ourselves sucked into. Howsoever may we try, we still remain mired in this often needless and senseless chase after the goodies of life. While the hoi polloi has neither time, aptitude or faculty to even go beyond their daily routine to ponder over the existential philosophies of human life, those who have the time, interest or capabilities to brood over the basic existential questions of life remain ever disillusioned and disoriented.

            Many religious philosophies including Hinduism have attempted explanations of the reasons and logic behind the fathomless architecture of cosmic creations. But the common man still remains oblivious and unconcerned with the same, preferring his/her preoccupations with the daily chase after mindless stuffs of material life. Mindless because this chase never ends. The satisfaction of one desire often leads to another, thereby giving rise to a spiral of endless desires, thus keeping us all trapped into the here and now.

            This incapacitates and keeps us from getting into the deeper recesses of Divine Creation. Most of us find no time to delve into the various mysteries and secrets of cosmos. After all, the questions like ‘why are we born?’, ‘what are we doing here?’, ‘what’s the purpose of entire creation’ and ‘where do we go after death?’ keep nagging us all the time. Such questions and the pursuits to unearth their answers find more patronage and benefaction from those who have gone beyond the worries and struggles of quotidian survival.

            With the hindsight and with the benefit of the knowledge enshrined in the classical and modern philosophies, we can somehow grope about wangling an answer to some of these questions. For example, as believers and students of some of these philosophies, schools of thought and scientific discoveries, we now know the humongous size of the Divine Creation and our insignificance vis a vis the same. Many believe that we are all born and reborn on physical, spiritual or other planes and dimensions to learn our lessons through time and space.

            We do so to gain varied experiences for the gradual evolution of our eternal consciousness to finally merge with the Supreme Consciousness. These experiences and learnings are required for us to get rid of our various imperfections gradually to become equipped for better and bigger challenges and responsibilities as we may face through our myriad avatars and incarnations on our way up the evolutionary ladder. This also means acting as the extension of the Supreme Soul to guide and enlighten the unenlightened souls to further beautify and extend the glory of the Almighty.

            We now know, thanks to the widely-accepted spiritual and scientific expostulations including First Law of Thermodynamics and Quantum Physics, that all manifestations of the Cosmos are nothing but different combinations and permutations of energy. There is a constant exchange and assimilation of different forms of energy, with energy never being created or destroyed but only changing its forms.

            We all not only come from and return to the same source, but all the organisms and matters as combinations of energy are only changing their forms. They keep reverting to their basic elemental forms from which newer forms and objects of Creation take shape. Be it humans, animals, plants, trees or other matters, they are all constantly being created and destroyed, thereby acting as the raw material for each other’s constitution.

            Howsoever may we detest each other, it is a truism that our basic constituents may have come from those organisms, groups of humans or non-sentient matters we call unchaste and unholy. Similarly, our mortal remains may become the life supporting building blocks for our antagonist human groups or other expressions of Creation. We now know that there is actually an immanent unity in Creation at a very basic level and no aspect of the Creation is permanent except our ‘soul’ or ‘consciousness’ (whatever we may call it).

            We know that our chase after material and non-material possessions like property and fame in this temporal world is nothing but meaningless. It is we who create the value and it is we who keep running after them. The concept of money, assets, possessions and valuables is actually spatio-temporal. The same is also different for different individuals. No form of these material and non-material possessions that we hoard through our life goes with us to the other world. But we still keep chasing them.

            We seldom realise that it is actually our experiences and interfaces with the material and non-material manifestations of Creation that is more important than the possessions themselves. It is the learnings derived through these experiences and interactions that are more vital than the possessions themselves as they help our ‘eternal consciousness’ or ‘soul’ to move up the evolutionary ladder by getting implanted into our consciousness as permanent impressions.

            So, it is more than advisable for us to remain engaged in the real, loftier and uplifting pursuits of knowledge to keep enriching and elevating the human wisdom as may help the humanity in comprehending the higher truths and intricacies behind the infinite expressions of Divine Creation. Doing so, we can better understand the yet unexplored facets of Creation to further stretch and enrich our knowledge that may still be available in the still unfamiliar multiverses.

            Through our persistent and positive pursuits, we must attempt to stretch the human wisdom, knowledge and intelligence than we have known so far. Proponents of science and spiritualism have both been engaged in pursuit of the same since time immemorial. However, this pursuit can become more productive and useful if we can get away from the needless contretemps, conflicts and frictions that humans always find themselves embroiled in, thereby frittering away their precious time and energy in mindless chase and rage.

            However, there is a flipside to this basic understanding. Often, some of the humans after they become capable of hazarding an answer to these eternal questions, slowly become alienated and estranged from the mundane material life, losing their interest in continued engagement with the humdrum human life. At this stage, some either end their life or lose interest in myriad role-plays of a human life, finding them completely inane and meaningless. They often find themselves withdrawn or disengaged from life’s sundry races or pursuits.

            While the Hindu deity Lord Krishna in ‘The Bhagwad Geeta’ does talk extensively about ‘Nishkama Karma’ i.e. selfless engagements in worldly pursuits without an eye to the outcomes. But that does not mean that one should become completely disinterested in life or its varying pursuits otherwise we shall cease to explore and unfold the multi-splendoured genius of God’s incredibly beautiful creation. So, even while we remain preoccupied in various pursuits, the outcomes should not move us or impact us negatively.

            Our experiences and pursuits should have an uplifting influence on our consciousness. And all such uplifting and loftier learnings should lift and enrich the collectiveness consciousness of the entire humanity, thereby creating newer possibilities and unlocking newer mysteries of Divine Creation. Unless and until we do so, the same shall continue to make us incapable or unqualified towards any future engagements in superior pursuits.

            The truths of human life become starker when we keep losing our near and dear ones at regular intervals. This often drives us towards the realisation of the mundane character and emptiness of our existence unless we start comprehending the spiritual nuances of our various worldly experiences and encounters. These days, when I see someone fighting, getting angry, getting arrogant or becoming vile and vicious, I am immediately drawn into a different world. The vile and vicious, the uncomfortable people or interlocutors are actually God’s ways to put us through tougher tests and ordeals for preparing us for better and bigger responsibilities in this or the afterlife.

            Seeing them as the children of the same Almighty as created me, I am often transported to a thought whereby I start looking for the reason for which God might have sent these uncomfortable people to the earth or into my life for making me and many others learn some of our lessons. After all, as they say, if things are happening your way, it is good. But if they are not happening your way, it’s better as the same is happening God’s way and God definitely knows better than us. And one can definitely say with certitude that all our negative experiences have been followed by positive and better ones. One loss has always been compensated by much bigger gains.

            Spiritual rationalisation has been found to be a very effective and helpful tool in correlating present life’s incidents with past lives’ ‘Karma’, thereby getting away from life’s many woes and getting ahead in life. While talking to all kinds of people, I often see myself talking to and interacting with a frame of bones covered with a pile of earth, eventually going back to nature. I also visualise these people including myself sooner or later departing the scene, leaving the causes or the outcomes of the said fight, anger, arrogance or viciousness behind, so behind that people would hardly remember any of us.

            More so, because most of these people would also soon be replaced by others who would hardly know most of us as most of us would be lost through the time, without any traces. All the ordinary and extraordinary people end up either in graveyards or cremation grounds sooner or later, being consigned to insignificance unless we really leave our footprints on the sands of time.

            Moreover, when life throws stones at us, it is more than advisable to use the same for making a bridge or constructing a beautiful edifice as would satisfy our creative self and would also glorify the Almighty. If life gives us the sourness of a lemon, we should make lemonade of it. So, while life’s various quirks and turns make us feel low or disheartened, we should immediately change gear to rediscover ourselves to engage with something different and positive preoccupations of life rather than remaining stuck on the negative and depressing stuffs of life.

            However, if rebirth were to be the truth, as Hinduism and many other religions believe, we ourselves can’t identify ourselves with those great causes, outcomes or feats in our newer incarnations as we usually are reborn with no memory of past lives. But the learnings and lasting impressions of our previous lives remain ever so etched on our eternal consciousness to guide us through our future roles and responsibilities. That’s why, some individuals have better felicity, knack or talent in certain fields than many others because of their past learnings and experiences.

            The prodigies’ talents could be traced to their remarkable successes and learnings in their previous lives, thereby getting implanted onto their eternal consciousness and helping them in their extant lives. That is why, it is more than advisable that after we have provided ourselves with the basic necessities for a comfortable human life, we should start delving into the deeper truths of human life and divine drama, simultaneously trying to stretch the human imagination and knowledge to better understand the vastness of the multiverses.

            Mind you, it is these lasting impressions and learnings, positive or negative, that we take with us to the other worlds or the after worlds. That is why, while we keep striving at human excellence in every sphere of life, we should nevertheless be wary and chary of any of these human experiences or encounters negatively affecting the evolution of our eternal consciousness. It is the imperfections of our soul which keep us mired into the incessant cycle of birth and death. The faster we get rid of the same, the better for our souls to go beyond the trap of repetitively mundane human life to engage in loftier pursuits of knowledge.

            Against this background, this is really very ironical that notwithstanding the fact that we are all born of the same God, we still keep sparring over the various expressions of the Almighty. Knowing very well that each one of us may be reborn or re-expressed tomorrow on the other side, we still conduct ourselves to accept our extant positions or forms as something permanent. After all, the Hindus could be reborn as Muslims or a Pakistani could be reborn as an Indian. But we still keep drawing so many boundaries among ourselves.

            All those who believe in the superiority of their God or their power, they also believe that all expressions of the Creation are actually born of or created by their God and as such all the followers of different castes, races or religions have also been made by the same God. As such, we should have no reason to engage in internecine conflicts with one another. But for some strange reason, we refuse to accept and understand this.

            And as long as we don’t understand this, we shall neither have time, energy or the inclination to engage in the higher pursuits of knowledge. As the highest and most intelligent expression of God’s Creation, we must move away from the parochial concerns of a single planet by resolving its many problems and ought to go beyond the same to further stretch our knowledge and wisdom in consonance with the humongous possibilities created by the Almighty.

Need for a National Water Policy

                                                                                    *Saumitra Mohan

            The Rain God has been playing pricey for sometime in this country. All the skyward prayers and purported rain-invoking rituals seem to have been in vain with the rainfall still remaining elusive and erratic in many parts of India. The erratic and delayed onset of rains is said to have negatively impacted agriculture in this country. With the water crisis looming large on the horizon, the subject experts and scribes are seemingly having a field-day diagnosing the problem and related issues, while also prescribing endless solutions.

            This is where the nub lies. We have all known the problem and solutions for long. But when it comes to acting on the sundry recommendations, everyone everywhere falls short and comes a cropper. And this has somewhere to do with the way we do our politics today. Our decision-making is beholden to the generosity of the political class who, more often than not, shrink from taking right decisions while playing to the gallery of the voters. It is this attitude and the emergent situation which have been playing havoc with the way we deal with every issue in this country including water.

            The almost ‘free water’, ‘No User Charge’ or ‘free electricity’ policy has somehow cost us dearly, with the same resulting in the extensive and mindless use of ground water by all the stakeholders, almost verging on the criminal. The stakeholders including agriculturalists, industrialists or the hoi polloi see no merit in water conservation by way of a prudent and discrete consumption of the same. However, the time has definitely come for all of us to soak in all the available water wisdom by doing a rethink on our water consumption patterns. 

            Today, the 18% of the global population living in India has access to only 4% of its usable water, with 163 million Indians lacking access to safe potable water. The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) in its recent report has painted a very grim picture of India’s water scenario. As per a report shared by the NITI Aayog, 22 Indian cities including New Delhi shall run out of water by 2020. One could only imagine the ensuing chaos and mayhem as a result thereof unless we start bracing ourselves for the eventuality in right earnest immediately.

            As we know, 21% of our diseases are water-borne and with no access to safe drinking water, almost 200000 Indians reportedly die every year because they don’t have access to safe drinking water. It is suggested that a humongous 600 million Indians face ‘high to extreme’ water stress in the country. The situation is only going to aggravate in times to come. Thus, we are virtually sitting on a ticking time-bomb in the form of a potential health emergency waiting to unfold. Poor state regulation and gross mismanagement over the years by our water managers have today resulted in our rivers and water systems being heavily contaminated by the presence of solid waste therein. The high coli-form content at many stretches of these water systems make the same unusable and unfit for human consumption.

            It is really painful to note that notwithstanding 70 years of independence, India has seen the safe piped drinking water reaching only 70 percent of urban and 19 percent of rural households in this country. It is really laudable though that the Government has finally given piped water supply its deserved attention by not only committing to reach the same to all the rural households in five years by way of launching a ‘Nal Se Jal’ (Water from Tap) scheme, but also creating a dedicated Ministry in the form of ‘Jal Shakti Mantralaya’ for a more holistic and coordinated approach to India’s water problem.

            A better convergence of the same with national programmes like ‘Namami Gange’, ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’ and similar state government initiatives could pay rich dividends to ensure better policy outcomes, thereby addressing the problem of inegalitarian access to water resources in certain parts of India. If we don’t wake up in time to come out with a geographically-customised water policy, our dreams of becoming a developed country or a ‘superpower’ is sure to be dashed against our water woes, not to speak of our health and food security being severely compromised.

            Be it a sound watershed management, building of smaller check-dams rather than big-ticket behemoths, construction of more percolation tanks linked to main service tanks, popularising dedicated ‘on-farm tanks and ponds’ for agricultural purposes, better networking and deepening of our canal systems, imposing a population-specific progressive user charge, a regional river-linking plan to be gradually upgraded into a full-fledged national river-linking project, incentivising water harvesting and water conservation behaviour, encouraging more and more afforestation, renovating and redoing our traditional water systems while creating more water storage capacities for better recharging of our groundwater aquifers are some of the solutions that the Government needs to consider with more gravitas than has been done so far.

            The required policy and regulatory support should be immediately in place. It is felt that all the municipal and PRI bodies should hugely incentivise and make it mandatory for all the private and public buildings to have a ‘roof-top water harvesting structure’ as far as practicable, while also recycling most of the water we use to make the same usable for different purposes including drinking. The regulatory machinery must ensure zero discharge of industrial, household and municipal waste into our rivers and water systems, thereby not only improving the quality of water, but also saving the entire aquatic ecosystem therein.

            We also need to do a rethink on our cropping patterns. By traditionally cultivating water-intensive crops like rice, sugarcane, soybean, wheat and cotton, we have been unwittingly depleting our water resources. The export of such crops actually means indirectly exporting water to the recipient countries. We must selectively switch from the more water-intensive crops to the more water-efficient crops like pulses, oilseeds and other cash crops which give better returns on the investment of all kinds of resources including water, labour and capital.

            According to the Central Water Commission, India receives 4000 billion cubic metres of rains, while it requires only 3000 billion cubic metres of waters for its populace as of now. However, as per the recent Composite Water Management Index Report by the NITI Aayog, country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply by 2030. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an individual requires 25 litres of water daily for meeting one’s basic needs for hygiene and foods.

            While India’s per capita average water use is much more than this as of now, the same is going to be severely compromised in near future if we don’t sit up and take corrective measures instantaneously. And while we do all this, we must raise the general awareness among all sets of stakeholders regarding the looming water crisis and the related imperative to conserve the same. We urgently require the framing of a National Water Policy today to nudge every stakeholder to imbibe a more responsible water ethos than we have cared so far. One only hopes that with an intent and determined Government leadership, all stakeholders could come together for taking the water problem bull by its horns.

Enriching Our Eternal Consciousness

            The proliferation of a mindboggling array of ‘Baba’ and ‘Guru’ within and without the length and breadth of this country adumbrate to the increasing alienation in human life which keeps multiplying with increasing complexities of our day-to-day life. The growing alienation and estrangement are actually more from the carnal and material world, thereby pushing people in search of the reason and relevance of our daily struggles to make ends meet.

            This often pushes people towards the supposedly better-endowed spiritual savants to make the ‘head and tail’ of the generally inscrutable turn of events in their life. The people would rather make their life more meaningful than remaining stuck in the mundane mumbo-jumbo. After attaining and enjoying the basic comforts and pleasures of human life, they long to stretch themselves further to explore the real purpose behind a repetitively boring and unexciting life, often trapped in a routine rut and rat race.

            We the humans are often stuck in a habitual chase of false gratifications. We seldom realise that the pleasure we seek and achieve turn out to be very short-lived after the same is achieved and we again begin the same race in search of another holy grail of happiness and contentment, shifting our goalpost further. These attainments and achievements could be aiming for the possession of physical objects or non-physical and amorphous chimaera like cherished pride, ethos or values.

            It is the latter which is more trouble and tricky than the former. Our fight and struggle for championing and securing a set of ethos and moral values often bring us more pain than pleasure, thereby compromising the very quality of our life. Besides, we know very well that these ethos and values are spatio-temporal, changing with space and time.

            Many of the values, ethos, mores traditions and customs which were very sacrosanct and worth fighting for in the distant past have suddenly become outdated and passé today in one part of the world while they still remain valuable in other parts. ‘slavery’, ‘Sati’, ‘untouchability’ and prohibition on widow remarriage’ were parts of Indian culture at one of Indian history and have become unthinkable in modern India.

            The human society has multiple codes and ways of establishing human and marital relationships in different parts of the world. Whatever is profane in one part is acceptable and permissible in other part of the world. An incestuous relationship in one part of the world appears perfectly normal in other part. So the human society has itself not evolved a consensus about the values and ethos to structure its social and communal life.

            And why not, these values and ethos develop and evolve in keeping with the variable circumstances and conditions specific to a people or its geography. The cultural diversity and differences as visible in human society across the world makes our life really interesting and attractive. The problem arises when we unnecessarily fight for the supposed superiority and one-upmanship of one’s own culture.

            It would be more than advisable for us to accept the beautiful variety in our life. We must learn to respect the ‘salad bowl’ nature of human life unless and until the following of one’s culture starts interfering and conflicting with the enjoyment of cultural rights of others, while simultaneously trying to evolve common societal ethos. The human society and consciousness won’t evolve and enrich itself unless and until we learn to simultaneously evolve a sense of discrimination for respecting the cultural values and ethos of others.

            Let the superiority, if at all required, of cultural values and ideas be decided through time, practice and individual choice rather than trying to impose one set of values over others, often at the expense or to the exclusion of others. Some of us who lack a healthy sense of discrimination, an ability to tell chaff from the grain, not only live in the darkness of ignorance but also suffer endless miseries. Like Don Quixote tilting at the windmills, their life gets wasted in fighting an imaginary battle with imaginary enemies without getting any time for indulging and exploring their lives further to add values to their eternal consciousness.

            Most of us live through our lives like zombies, without ever pausing to understand the reason and rationale behind the ‘whys and wherefores’ of human life. We, thus, waste a beautiful opportunity afforded by the Almighty to improve and enrich our eternal consciousness. If we walk carelessly, we shall surely bump against a stone or get knocked down by an obstacle. We are actually repeatedly engaging in behaviour which hurt ourselves no end.

            But the problem is we have all been doing this unknowingly without our ever realising the same. We must exercise better discrimination and discretion in our quotidian day-to-day lives to use the same as our permanent guide in all our thoughts and actions, to know the value or relevance of one’s vocation or avocation, to know what is it which we are doing or going to do is of permanent value to our eternal consciousness rather than haggling over trinkets and trivia of carnal existence.

            Our problem is that despite often knowing and comprehending the difference between the right and the wrong, we still choose the latter. We must not forget the golden advice enshrined in the ‘Bible’ saying, ‘Don’t do unto others what you don’t want to be done unto you’. More often than not, we try to get even with someone who has hurt or humiliated us, thereby bringing us to their level and eliminating the difference between them and us.

            We must remember that as long as we are trying to get even with others, we can never get ahead of them. Let’s learn the right lessons from the wrong people rather than doing the other way round, as we invariably do. By gloating over the hurt and pain of others we dislike, we are actually debasing ourselves and devaluing our eternal consciousness. If we are always engaged in the rat-race for keeping up with the Joneses, we can never realise the eternal peace and satisfaction as would afford us an opportunity for self-exploration.

            It is only when we look beyond our personal comforts and selfish desires by denying and depriving ourselves the mundane pleasures that we enrich ourselves, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Only when we raise our consciousness and individuality beyond the routine and ordinary, we become extraordinary and begin to realise the intoxicating power of altruism and doing good to others. The ensuing empowerment from evolving perfection and upliftment of our being is nothing less than heavenly bliss.

            Perfection means a mental and spiritual state when all our desires and senses are under our control and we are the absolute master of our ‘Ego’ masquerading as our ‘Self’. It is our false Self as Ego which keeps blurring our vision and constricts our understanding of our real eternal ‘Self’, unsullied and untouched by the hydra-headed clutches of the selfish senses. We may not have control over how someone behaves and treats us, but we definitely can choose to decide as to how should we respond and react to an external stimulus coming in the form of a positive or negative overture. Our free will should be harnessed and prepared well enough to be our true pathfinder.

            Remember, the sun shines over all of us equally without any discrimination. It is completely up to us to feel the pleasing, soothing and life-giving stellar rays. If we shut ourselves in dark corners or close our eyes, we shall never feel and savour the life-giving divine bounties. Similarly, the divine grace is equally available to all of us; it is up to us to explore and feel the same. Only those near fire can feel the heat, not those away from it.

            We should find time and ways to feel the divine and glorious presence of the Almighty all around us. All our high positions and possessions keep us tied to the plane of mortals like millstones round our neck. It is advisable that even while we attend to our duties and responsibilities in the material world, we still find time to explore the deeper recesses of our sublime and eternal ‘Self’. That’s why, all the kings and rulers of ancient India were saints or saintly, being repository of all the uplifting human virtues and values, almost like Plato’s Philosopher King. Some of the examples would include Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira and King Janaka.

            As has been duly proven, our thoughts, being energy vibrations in motion, are very powerful. We are all children of our thoughts. We become what we think. If we think of worldly or material pleasure, we shall attain them. If we desire permanent, unchanging bliss, we shall get the same. Electricity does not have a name, but appliances do even though it is electricity which animates them all. Similarly, the soul does not have a fixed name or identity but the physical bodies definitely have.

            While in body, the soul takes a name, acquires multiple identities and remains entangled in them. After death, the soul goes back to being a possibility of numerous lives as part of unmerged cosmic consciousness. The fact is that we are always attached to the present in spite of the fact that it shall soon become the past. But we still continue doing all wrongs due to our affection and attachment to an elusive present, while ignoring our eternally present spiritual ‘Self’ or consciousness. We must not spoil and starve our eternal consciousness for the false nourishment of the mortal and impermanent physical forms.

Can We Defeat Death?

                           *Saumitra Mohan

            The ‘Second Law of Thermodynamics’ says that entropy results in the gradual decline and death of all systems including stars, people and the universe. The ‘Law of Natural Selection’ has ensured hereditary transfer of immortal genes through generations. This has also guaranteed the replacement of the present with the posterity through the instrumentality of death.

            Death, defined as the permanent cessation of all biological functions sustaining a living organism, is brought about through ageing, predation, malnutrition, disease, suicide, homicide, starvation, dehydration, accidents or major trauma resulting in a fatal injury.            The remnants of an organism naturally merge with the biochemical cycle on death. Such remnants and residues become food for other predating or scavenging animals.

            The organic matter is further decomposed by detritivores (including earthworms or fungi), transferring and transforming the same for reuse of others in the food chain. All such material, eventually decomposed as chemicals, get consumed and assimilated into the cells of one or the other living organism. The process keeps repeating itself forever, thereby ensuring the sustenance and continuity of the ecosystem.

            With the enlightenment and epiphany afforded by the continuous march of science, we all know today that nothing in this world ever ‘gets lost’ and wasted. Every organic and inorganic matter being different permutations and combinations of energy, they simply change form on their eventual depreciation and disintegration as energy could never be destroyed. Even as organic bodies deteriorate and die, they also undergo a similar process of formative mutation, by becoming or providing building blocks for other living or non-living beings in the universe.

            So, energy including the one forming our ‘soul consciousness’ does not actually end. It simply metamorphoses from one state to another.     That being so, why are we ever so frightened of death? It is our perennial fear of death or love with our earthly life that goads us into seeking, exploring and unearthing the secrets of death for keeping it at bay perpetually. In our daily struggles to make the ends meet, most of us hardly find time to pause and ponder over such esoteric matters as death and life thereafter.

            While it is a truism that almost all the religions and cultures have dealt extensively with the subjects of death and afterlife within the confines of their own cognitive perspectives, this is also true that man has forever tried to explore and unearth the mysteries of death, not to speak of making an untiring effort to defeat death in his desire to live forever. The eternal human desire for immortality by getting around the biological death of organic life has always inspired civilisations since time immemorial to discover the ever elusive ‘elixir of life’ or a ‘philosopher’s stone’ for a permanent victory over death.

            Notwithstanding a series of failures in doing so, the human endeavour has never ceased and continues with renewed vigour and fervour. And this is but natural. As humans get more and more comfortable with their day-to-day problems of survival, they think of continuing and extending the pleasing experiences of human life forever though there have always been a significant number of people who wish to do otherwise because of their negative and miserable life experiences.

            Different schools of science at different phases of human history have explored, propounded and declaimed differently on diverse ways to tame the hydra-headed monster of death of a living organism for realising the human craving for immortality. One of the ways includes transplanting the head of a physically disabled person on a fully-functioning brain-dead body. There is also a phenomenon of ‘whole-body transplant’ where the brain of one organism is transplanted into the body of another organism.

            The ‘whole-body transplant’ is a procedure distinct from the head transplant, which involves transplantation of the entire head into a new body, as opposed to the brain only in case of the former. After a 2014 Harvard study noted significantly enhanced memory and ability to learn in the older mice who were injected with the blood of the younger mice, harvesting teens’ blood has since been promoted for acquiring eternal youth. How successful the same would become, only time will tell.

            Cryonics, a specialized stream of science, proposes to attain immortality through freezing, preserving and reanimating the cadaver of a living organism by way of pre-stipulated formulae. Here, the human memory in the form of individual body is cryo-preserved infinitely until we have the right technologies for reanimating it. If frozen embryos could be brought back to life, why can not the human memory? However, a brain being much larger and many times more complex than an embryo, the freezing process is likely to set in entropy and destroy the neurons carrying the individual memories, thereby destroying the ‘Self’ itself.

            Then, we have ‘Singulartarian’ scientists who propose to immortalise us by uploading the composite patterns of our thoughts and memories into a computer. By intending to upload human consciousness on cloud, the idea is to transform a human from a biological being into a non-biological being to such an extent that the biological part becomes redundant. It is the non-biological part which dominates and by dint of being non-corporeal and non-biological transcends the eternal cycle of birth and death to make a human being immortal.

              In an age of information technology, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, it won’t be long when we shall soon be able to afford any android body with options to upload a mind of our choice. This could become possible as and when science succeeds in uploading human consciousness or mind onto the humongous pool of interconnected ‘cloud’ as the virtual repositories of brains/minds/consciousness and, thus all human knowledge and wisdom, possessed by all individual human beings. It would then become possible to share or exchange our minds with others.

            One may flaunt as many android bodies as possible depending upon one’s desire, predilection and matching financial condition. This would, however, give rise to another kind of inequality in the world unless the future Government comes out with support and subvention for meeting such needs of its citizens. Whatever be the financial capabilities of the people, the science could definitely facilitate our choosing from a bouquet of minds of different genders and different ages available on the cloud.

            So, even if our physical bodies die, we could still be around by way of our uploaded individual consciousness which could again manifest and express itself through the media of available android bodies. It would become technically possible for an individual to show off as many android bodies as possible, depending on the fact as to whether human civilization is able to solve the problem of poverty and inequality by then or not.

            Nevertheless, the idea of uploading human consciousness into a computer or on an online interconnected database called ‘cloud’ and expressing the same through the instrumentality of androids also has its limitations. This actually traps the humans into another cycle of birth and death, rather than liberating from the same. The knowledge, expertise and administration of new levers for our manifestation through androids or downloading desired minds from the cloud, if fallen in wrong hands, may wreak havoc with human existence.

            Our manifestation through android or downloading the required consciousness would depend upon the mercy and efficiency of those entrusted with the knowhow of the entire mechanism surrounding the conception, design, manufacture and distribution of the androids and administration of the ‘cloud’ containing all our minds. This forebodes the creation of another religion and another God in future. If humans could actually create and work out an efficient and effective system for the same coupled with the technologies for teleportation and telepathy, the same shall open the avenues for colonisation and population of other habitable celestial bodies.

            To get around the problem of dependence on a human agency, the human capacities aided by science and spirituality shall need to be enhanced to the extent of manufacturing their own bodies at will as and when required. The requirement of permanent physical expression shall require to be reduced to the minimum. The human capacities would require to be enhanced to an extent to be able to materialize, travel and express at will at the speed of thought without in any way compromising the similar liberties and rights of others.

            Any such continuation of human consciousness through scientific breakthrough would, however, strike at the roots of the belief in the permanent loss of consciousness after death. As the spiritualist and reincarnation studies have already suggested the existence and survival of human consciousness through eternity notwithstanding physical demise, such a development would actually ensure the convergence of spiritual and scientific perspectives, thereby making the Homo sapiens immortal forever. This would also corroborate and confirm the Hindu belief in the eternal existence and immortality of human consciousness.

            Against the above very futuristic solutions to the problem of ‘death’, there are many who believe in the more feasible and practicable goal of extending human life to the maximum extent possible. The intercellular competition in the animal body for eliminating and replacing the damaged cells does have the potential for immortality. If our body could just keep doing this indefinitely, theoretically we do have a decent chance of living an interminably longer life. The human life could be very well extended by slowing the rate of ageing, periodic molecular repair, rejuvenation or replacement of atrophied cells and tissues.

            The average life of a human being could actually be extended by slowing or reversing the processes of ageing through a balanced diet, calorie control, regulating human vulnerability to natural and man-made calamities and accidents, regular exercises and cultivation of healthy habits like avoidance of health hazards like consumption of tobacco products or carcinogenic foods. Doing so, one can very well avoid premature deaths or lifestyle related afflictions and ailments like cancer, diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular diseases. 

            Yet, the life extension methods could only reduce the rate of ageing and postpone our death, but that will not take us anywhere close to the realization of the cherished immortality because of inescapable ‘senescence’. Even if a living being is able to survive all the possible life-threatening accidents or calamities, s/he would still expire due to ‘senescence’ referring to the process of ageing and old age due to the deterioration of cellular and other bodily functions.

            Though there are ‘biomedical gerontologists’ who are trying to understand the various nuances of ageing while also developing treatments for reversing or slowing the process of ageing to ensure improved health and youthful vigour at every stage of human life, still death catches up sooner or later. The ‘trans-humanists’ come on the scene here, promising to create a ‘superman’ with vastly enhanced capabilities to tide over the problem of senility, dotage, caducity and ageing.

            The ‘trans-humanists’ seek to achieve their goals through a combination of behavioural changes, body enhancement techniques and genetic engineering. This inter alia includes diet control, physical exercises, breast or cochlear implants, organ transplants e.g. artificial knees, hips and hearts as well as biological tinkering via genetic engineering.       The new-age ‘nanobots’ or micro-robots are proposed to be pressed into service to get into our bloodstream to annihilate the targeted pathogens, clear the accumulated vascular and arterial debris, rid our bodies of all life-threatening clots, clogs and tumours and carry out the required DNA corrections.

            All this is done with a view to reverse the ageing process for regulating our evolutionary process to transform our species into a stronger, faster, healthier, and more erogenous species with vastly superior cognitive capabilities. So, even if we are not immortal, we can very well become ‘amortal’, i.e. one who is unable to die from disease or ageing.   The modern ‘Rejuvenation Biotechnology’ and ‘Regenerative Medicine’ are convinced that humans will be able to live forever one day.

            Regulating and stopping the molecular and cellular damage or dysfunctions in a human body through state-of-the-art technologies as stem cell, gene therapies, better drugs and vaccinations would soon ensure the same. It would soon be possible to generate human organs using 3D printers loaded with living cells, making them much more accessible and affordable than they are today. The humans shall be able to fix their bodies at will and could rejuvenate it every time they feel so while effectively living in the cloud by being able to link their minds to the interconnected and uploaded minds of all the sentient beings. This will be as good as living in a real world.

            Countering the natural entropy through ageing, the ‘extropians’ like trans-humanists aim at lengthening our biological life, enhanced intelligence, greater wisdom, vastly superior physical and mental abilities while simultaneously aspiring to eliminate political, economic and cultural limits to our personal and social growth. Immortality could easily follow the achievement of these more achievable goals. All said and done, our mortality appears to be immanent and naturally programmed into every cell, organ and system in our bodies as of now. The same shall continue so till the time we are capable of resolving the multifarious issues at different levels of complexity including those relating to ageing and senescence.

            The truth is even if manage to break through the upper ceiling of 125 years by solving the many problems associated with ageing, there are likely to come around newer issues if we succeed to live 200 or 500 years as many of the spiritualists are claimed to have achieved already a la the character of ‘Babaji’ and other beings as mentioned in books like ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ and ‘Living with Himalayan Masters’. Hence, instead of vying for the utopian goal of immortality, a more modest objective of living for 150 years with a better functioning human body through the aid of modern science could be something well worth aspiring for.

            However, one also needs to visualise the many problems emerging from the possible attainment of ‘amortality’ or a longer life of 150 or more years. What would happen to the problem of population? Won’t the very natural evolution of human beings be compromised as a result thereof, thereby trapping many humans in the time warp forever, not to speak of compromising their spiritual growth? We shall need to realise the goals of teleportation and telepathy for real-time transportation and communication with life on other celestial bodies before we make them habitable to tide over the problem of population. Our spiritual growth and advancement may also be severely compromised if we seek to extend our stay in a physical world forever or for an unduly prolonged life.

            One hopes that with scientific growth, we shall also attain corresponding spiritual growth and insights, thereby unveiling and unravelling the mysteries of life, afterlife and rebirth more authentically and authoritatively. If that happens, the humans may lose interest in a longer life or immortality, realizing that they already live forever through the instrumentality of newer physical or spiritual bodies, acquired after every pause called ‘death’ through reincarnations in physical and other dimensions. This would convince the human race of the futility of chasing the chimaera of immortality.

Dissent is the fulcrum of a democracy

                                                                                                *Saumitra Mohan

            Dissent and democracy are often considered synonymous in a liberal-democratic social order. It is through open debate and discussion that the huge range of diversity of opinion in a democracy is captured. It is by means of such continuous conversation on relevant issues and contretemps that the real truth comes out. However, many have questioned the putative usefulness of ‘dissent for the sake of dissent’, as without much import.

            It is suggested that motivated and manufactured dissent can do more harm than good in an ‘open society’. The critics point out that too much of dissension actually thwarts and frustrates a meaningful discourse. This is because a conscious attempt is usually made to drown out the real issues and airbrush the truth behind a surfeit of information, debate, disagreement and discussion.

            The critics have pointed to the meaningless reflexive dissent by opposition political parties in a democracy. They do so not just to make their presence felt, but also to embarrass and run down the Government of the day with a view to earn some brownie points to feather their political nest. But here the question is how does one recognize which dissent or disagreement is genuine, reasonable and legitimate? The same could be known only through dialogue and debate.          

            Any proclaimed right to justify the suppression of such discord in the garb of curbing socially insidious opposition could later be misused to stifle even rightful and lawful dissent as is on display across the globe today. So, it is definitely never advisable to indulge in the misadventure of restraining the dissenting behaviour or voices. The truth is always strong enough to come out stronger through the rough and tumble of democratic discourse. This happens notwithstanding all the falsehood, fabrication, and misinformation advanced to screen the truth via multimedia channels.

            A sturdy, liberal democratic body politic has innate homeostatic system to ensure a balance in favour of truth and justice. Freedom of expression is the much elusive ‘Holy Grail’ which is the real fulcrum of a functioning democracy. So, the so-called critics of reflexive dissent should be too careful before advancing an argument in favour of any curbs on any type of dissent, howsoever disruptive or subversive. Expression of such dissent should, however, be subject to reasonable restraints and within the confines of relevant regulations.

            An institutionalized ‘rule of law’ cushions a democracy against possible abuse of the right to dissent and disagree. The alleged misuse of some of the legal provisions in our fledgling democracy including those relating to defamation and sedition has been noted with concern by many. The penchant for booking and arresting people for their anti-establishment vitriol is definitely not a very encouraging development and should be restrained.

            The USA, as the world’s oldest democracy, does provide a shining example of allowing any criticism or censure of the Government and its policies, howsoever disparaging to American values and ethos. An open society shall never fear any such divergent opinion or criticism. A tradition of healthy debate and constructive criticism are said to be beneficial for any progressive and vibrant polity. A society without any tradition of debate and dialogue starts stinking like the waters of a stagnant pool.

            It is through such constructive criticism and dialogues that new ideas and vision come forth, thereby taking the society to a new developmental height. As John Stuart Mill would have said, ‘My right to swing my arms in any direction ends where your nose begins’. Voltaire had similarly said, “I may not like what you say, but I would defend your right to say so till my death”.

            In an age of high-speed information and communication, it is well-nigh possible to tweak and twist facts to present the same as truth, thereby compromising the very efficacy of democracy and open discussion. As such, there is definitely a need for being vigilant against falsehood and propaganda in an age of ‘post-truths’ where sentiments and schmaltz are passed as ‘truth’ by the power peddlers.

            The new-age social media has made the situation further murkier. There have been many gruesome incidents and sanguinary episodes resulting in bad blood and loss of lives, just because the vested interests somehow were successful in manipulating information and news through media and social media for advancing their selfish interests. It has been proven beyond doubt as to how the entire presidential election of USA was influenced by another country with a view to ensure the victory of a particular candidate.

            As control of the mammon decides the information outreach, those with deeper pockets and influence over different media houses have higher chances of manipulating and manoeuvring any information, news or views. Hence, it is more than advisable for having a system of checks and balance in form of an impartial ombudsman to regulate the means of information and communication in an open democratic society.

            It is only through functioning of a vibrant media along with homeostatic checks and balance that a liberal democracy could survive. However, a trend has been noticed across the world for the rightwing revisionist forces to do everything possible in their might to be intolerant to any uncomfortable opinion as may prejudice their vested interests. Such orthodox and reactionary forces not only misuse media to manufacture convenient opinion, they also actively discourage any free expression of opinion and disagreement.

            The murder of Shujaat Bukhari, Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar or many others in India and abroad for their candid views are all examples of intolerance to dissent and disagreement. Be it the imposition of the emergency in the 1970s or the lynching of some people with impunity, we only hurt the cause of democracy by such actions. Notwithstanding all attempts by the British to throttle freedom of expression in pre-independence India, they still could not contain the same at a time when we did not have such sophisticated means of mass communication.

            The argument here is very simple. If the negative opinion is within the precincts of law, none has any right to suppress the same unless the finds reflection in unlawful activities. The same has also been concurred by the Supreme Court of India. By prohibiting such free expression, we only make them go underground thereby hurting ourselves more as then it get difficult to track such individuals and groups who may become more sinister to the larger societal interests.

            In fact, a prohibition often has an opposite effect by putting more gloss on the subject. All the attempts to manage and manipulate media by the dominant power groups never have the desired effect because of the inherent strengths of Indian democracy. As Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can fool some of the people for some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time’. All autocrats have attempted to control media with disastrous consequences.

            While violence has always been a tool with those expressing and curbing dissent, its effectiveness is always questionable. It’s because of this that Gandhi never recommended the same for a just cause. The use of violence as an alternative to a meaningful dialogue is dangerous and has the potential to balkanize any society. Hence, there is a need to be alert against any mindless use of violence.

            A constructive criticism and meaningful dialogue is the hallmark of a democracy. But before we can expect that to happen, we need to have a more educated and informed society. One only hopes that amid all the attempts to impose fetters on freedom of expression and package lies and post-truths as truths shall come apart in a country as diverse as ours. India and its institutions shall emerge stronger as a more educated civil society comes forward to fight its battle as is already visible.

           

Do Good Without Any Expectations from Others

                                                                                               

            A lot many problems and complexities in our life are sheer because of the wrong approaches we adopt when faced with them. One such relates to our multiple expectations from all those around us. Be they our relatives, friends, colleagues or mere acquaintances. We usually have certain expectations from each of them. These expectations increase if we have done something good to them, hoping that they would return the favour sooner or later. But we feel upset and frustrated as many of them don’t act or react the way we expected, thereby resulting in a lot of heart-burn and bad blood in our relationships.

            But our expectations and anticipations going unrequited is a fact long known and experienced. This is why, there have been many precepts and wise words relating thereto, advising us against harbouring any such thoughts or wishes for others behaving the same way we do. All such words of wisdom advise us to immediately forget after doing any work of altruism or favour to our near and dear ones. More often than not, our expectations from others for returning the favour out of a deep sense of gratitude or acting in the same fashion as we did may be hugely misplaced and may not come true.

            Rather, it is quite possible that we may even get harmed and hurt by those benefitted by our good deeds and acts. One should still keep extending all possible help to everyone approaching us therefor, without ever thinking of any return favour. We should help someone not because someone approaches us for the same, but we should do so actually because the feeling and action of helping someone itself is very uplifting. Again, helping someone without his/her knowing the source of help is said to be greater and loftier.

            We could assist and help on our own seeking and initiative also whether someone seeks our help or not because of the spiritual advancement involved therein. We should do so even if someone doesn’t acknowledge the help or even tries to harm and hurt us. Whatever be the reaction or response from the beneficiaries, we should continue helping such people notwithstanding the harm or hurt received in return. We should still help such people as long as we feel capable of doing so, as long as we ourselves don’t actually get hurt or harmed or as long as we are capable of helping without compromising our own self-interests.

            After all, if we stop helping or coming to someone’s rescue despite calls for assistance, there would be no difference left between them and us. The people who help despite harm coming their way or continue do so without revealing their identity are bigger and greater souls. Now, how far are we willing to travel from being an ordinary soul to an extraordinary soul for extending help or assistance to someone ungrateful notwithstanding our good behaviour, good intentions and our initiatives for help depend upon our own desire.

            The desire for altruism is also inspired or informed by the level of evolution of our individual soul. The greater and enlightened souls, being saintly in nature, would still help such people notwithstanding all the harm and hurt expected, involved or returned and continue doing so despite all the obstacles on their way because of the divine pleasure they derive out of such acts of kindness. Earth being a school and human life being an opportunity for passing all the ordeals and tests for learning right lessons for advancement of our ‘Self’, the loftier souls take such hurts and harms as their tests in life’s school on earth for moving faster in their spiritual growth.

            The spiritually more enlightened souls continue helping the ungrateful souls also because they don’t believe in the dichotomy of ‘me’ versus ‘they’. To them, all of us being reflections of God, all of us having divine element and all of being spiritually connected, all such acts of altruism and kindness are actually service to the ‘Self’ and offerings to the Almighty. Therefore, they indulge in all such acts without any selfish interests or expectations of return favours from the beneficiaries.

            This variance in behaviour or ingratitude from the beneficiaries sometime also stem from the divergent perceptions of the interlocutors. What we deemed as an act of kindness or assistance may have been perceived as a condescending and patronizing act aimed at belittling and denigrating the other. The manner in which the favour or kindness was extended also may have a role in changing the perception of the recipients.

            But all said and done, no return favour or comparable kindness ought to be expected for the extended deeds of altruism. Such acts otherwise no longer remain acts of altruism and turn selfish investments. But this also remains true that all such acts of good deeds and kindness eventually come back multiplied in one way or the other. Only we should not be expecting the same. The return favour or rewards for our good deeds may not come from the same people or in the same manner, but they do come back to our benefit in one or the other way.

            In fact, the biggest rewards for all such acts of altruism, favour or good deeds, are the performance of these acts themselves. The contentment and joy emanating from the execution or accomplishment of these acts are themselves the ‘just desserts’ or deserved rewards. The very fact that we could perform those acts of favour or altruism shows that the Almighty has been very kind by endowing us with the capabilities and capacities to do good to others. If we are capable of indulging in such uplifting and elevating acts, it simply means that we have enough (in terms of time, resources, health or loved ones) for ourselves which allows us to share the same with others by indulging in such acts of compassion, kindness and altruism.

            It is often ironic to notice that notwithstanding the fact that most of us are aware of these wise words and insights, still we have a lot of expectations from those around us. It is this which is often the cause of our misery, unhappiness, gloom, despair and wretchedness. It is perhaps keeping such a thing in mind that the celebrated Hindu scripture Bhagwad Gita long propounded the thesis of ‘Nishkama Karma’. It exhorts us to do our duties without any expectations or attachment towards the outcomes or fruits of our action. As we remain excessively attached to the outcomes, results or fruits of our action, we end up sullen, irritable, wretched, dejected and miserable because our expectations often don’t turn out the way we expected them to.

            Hence, it is more than advisable that we restrain our expectations and desires even while performing our expected duties with all our dedication and devotion. Deeming our actions and performance of duties to be the selfless offerings to the God, we should derive our joys from their very performance, thanking God for endowing us with the capability of doing the same. After all this, if we still have people around us returning the favour, we should accept the same as bonus, as the grace of the Almighty without in anyway being overly attached to the same.

            Not expecting fruits of our actions definitely does not mean that we stop attempting newer things and stop having any desires at all. What one means here that even while we reduce our desires to the minimum, we should never be attached to their outcomes as the same may have negative repercussions and ramifications for our personal and spiritual growth? As we move up the spiritual ladder, our desires should be less for the material pleasures and more for the permanent spiritual bliss. The latter would bring us eternal happiness vis a vis the transient one via enjoyment of material comforts.

            So, even while we reduce our desires, we can still afford to remain positively dissatisfied to indulge our creative muses in search of eternal happiness in the spirit of Nishkama Karma to keep on exploring the secrets and mysteries of our cosmos.            Life being a drama as the Bard of Avon had famously said, we should simply go on playing our role without in anyway expecting that the other characters in the drama would play their roles equally well. Mind you, we can only control ourselves and not others. We should focus on our own role in the life’s drama, without ever trying to push or advise others as to how they ought to play their roles.

            The same being equivalent to unsolicited advice, meddling in others’ internal affairs and attempts to control others’ lives is not viewed and treated well by others. Anyway, we can only play our roles. Howsoever may we try, we can’t play others’ roles. The latter have to be played by those for whom they are meant. However, we ought not shirk from any requested help or assistance required by others in playing their roles. But while doing so, there must not be any expectation that they shall also be equally obliging, supportive and forthcoming when we require them to do so.

            Again, because of our misplaced and undue expectations from others to act the way we want them to, many of us often try to shape people in our mould. We try to control people, their actions and their life which not only sours our relations vis a vis others but also leave us disgruntled and petulant. In fact, instead of attempting to shape others’ personality, we ourselves end up being shaped in a negative mould. This happens because of our failure to get others to conduct in our expected ways. The same leads us into becoming very badly-behaved and irresponsible. This often leads us into playing safe to avoid responsibilities. But the same reflects very poorly on our leadership credentials. We should not shrink from taking responsibility wherever and whenever warranted by the circumstances.

            More often than not, we don’t mind our business and are more interested in others’ personal affairs. Instead of confining ourselves with our affairs and indulging in self-development, we often love looking over others’ shoulders, thereby robbing us of our sanity and normality. Our ‘I know everything’ attitude is often the parent cause of many of our problems. Rather than opining and declaiming on everything and about everyone’s matters, we should consciously keep from proffering unsolicited advices. In fact, we had better listen to other people around us, howsoever unimportant and lowly they may be. It is often helpful and opens newer vistas for our self-growth.

            Often we don’t like people bragging, exaggerating, claiming bigger and greater things or doing well. So, we busy ourselves criticizing, carping, bitching and cribbing about such people all the time. Instead of feeding our negative Self, we had better focus on self-development than poking our Pinocchio nose in others’ affairs. We end up using very bitter and foul language about others, we begin talking ill of others all the time, we keep criticizing others as they are not behaving in a certain way, we are angry all the time and we cause very bad hormones to be generated in our bodies and all this is definitely not a very uplifting experience.

            Why at all should we bother what others are doing, saying, achieving or claiming as long as the same does not affect us in one way or the other. We should look at others only to get positively inspired than to sulk and feel envious at the achievements and exaggerated claims about their successes. Confining ourselves with self-development than engaging in negative acts would fix half of our problems. The negative talks and acts imbued with negative emotions not only take a toll on our mental and physical health, but the same also leave us a very bad human being, who misses the wood for the tree, who has no idea of the purpose for our being here in this life and ends up messing his/her precious human birth.

            All this triggers a chain reaction of failures and unhappiness in our life. Our failures to control others’ actions and lives keep us internally unhappy and dissatisfied all the time, thereby negatively affecting and influencing our external behaviour. As such, we keep cribbing and complaining all the time for our deemed failures. We also create and invent imaginary ‘fall guys’ for our failures and blame them for the same. Such people often attribute their failures to lack of right people, right circumstances and suitable resources for not being able to carry out their responsibilities and duties effectively.

            If we really were to perform our duties and escapades when all the required resources and circumstances are available to us, the same does us no credit. After all, anyone can do anything if all the desired and required resources are made available. But, if we can carry out our responsibilities and perform the difficult tasks notwithstanding all the constraints and handicaps, then it shows our real leadership qualities while also proving our real character and worth. Such persons always succeed in life and know how to make even adverse situations favourable and positive.

            Who can forget the redoubtable Mountain Man Dasrath Majhi from the Indian province of Jharkhand who never cribbed about the absence of a road in his village? Majhi took upon himself to keep chipping away at the mighty mountains for a long 22 years to carve a road through the same after he lost his wife on way to the hospital via the same mountain. There was no short route available and possible in his village because of the mountain standing in the way of a shorter route. Today, Dasrath Majhi, who was a mere daily wage labourer, is a legend in India for pulling off the impossible. If one single person could do it, we all can definitely do the same with whatever resources are available to us.

            In his celebrated work titled, ‘American Soldier’, the eminent American sociologist Samuel Johnson found out that the soldiers who had comfortable and easy postings in peaceful regions had many more complaints than those posted on the difficult borders and warfronts. Same is the case with all of us. Most of us who have all the life’s comforts available to us keep cribbing and whining about certain other things we don’t have in life. However, those who are deprived of even the basic amenities and requirements of life are usually comfortable and happy with their circumstances.

            As they say, our pains, problems, troubles and travails are actually God’s tool to test our mettle to improve our character through the same. Every problem we encounter, every challenge we face and every pain we endure make us a stronger and better person than we were earlier. However, as we move with our sundry endeavours to achieve life’s goals, we ought to be careful not to lose our basic individuality and humanity because of the same. In our bid to achieve our objectives, we try to please and placate those who may help us in doing so. However, often we overdo the same, thereby losing the very individuality which distinguishes us from the others.

             We are always modifying our conduct and demeanour in keeping with the prerequisites of our life’s goals and ambitions. As long as these behavioural changes and modifications are positive and in conformity with the larger spiritual upliftment of our soul, the same is well-taken and recommended. The problem starts when we modify our behaviour to get recognized by those around us including friends, relatives, colleagues and other members of the larger society. More often than not, we lose our individuality, uniqueness and originality while trying to do so and by going overboard for attaining the societal recognition and appreciation.

            Societal and normative conformity and compliance beyond an acceptable point and at the expense of our individuality are definitely not advisable. Many of the shining examples of success amidst us are of the rebels and iconoclasts who have believed in their convictions and continued with their ways without being overly worried or hooked to societal acceptance and appreciation. They may have had to bear with societal deprecation and humiliation initially, but they were finally accepted and lauded for whatever they set out to do. In fact, most of the civilisational progress has come about because of these non-conformist rebels who had the conviction and courage to challenge the status-quo notwithstanding much opposition and resistance on their way.

            Again, while we try out newer things, indulge our creative muses, perform our duties and set out to achieve our life’s goals, we should do the same without ever hurting the others. Hurting and harming for larger societal interests as in case of a soldier doing it for his country may be acceptable, but we should never do the same for the misplaced selfish interests. By talking ill of others because of our supposed sense of hurt and humiliation, we actually hurt ourself more than once and more than we ever realize.

            By doing so all the time, we not only activate and attract negative vibrations, we actually end up hurting ourselves more than once because of this attitude. The person may have hurt us only once, but our constant focus on the incident makes us hurt ourselves more than once. The guilty mind thinks that everyone around us knows about the negative incident or our mistake. So, we keep on trying to defend the same even though people may hardly know about it, may have forgotten the same or may be hardly interested in the same. But our constant preoccupation and obsession never allows the issue to die down and we keep the same alive by our conscious behaviour.

            We should stop doing the same and move on with our life, occupying ourselves with positive things. People only see and hear what we show and say. Anything we think is immediately reflected through our speech and action. So, we ought to be careful about harbouring negative thoughts. Positivity in thought and steadfastness in action slowly for surely lead us towards realization of our real ‘Self’ and eventual merger with the Supreme Consciousness.