A few stray thoughts

“Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution.” Shri Aurobindo Ghosh. Great spiritual souls do not lie, yet what seems so near is still so far. Do humans have the potential at their disposal, have all physical evolution been completed, what then is stopping humans from taking the next step? I think it is the ability to look inwards. In this world where ever I see, I find people absorbed in observing whatever is going on around. It could be the life of a celebrity, it could be a movie, a song, dance and music, it could be the forest, wild life and mountains, it could be a powerful or luxury car and apartment, it could be business empire or political empire, it could be sex or crime, it could be food and drink, it could be sport, it could be advising, lecturing or research. All these outbound activities have been going on for …… God alone knows how many years. However man has not become superman. A Buddha, a Ramakrishna, a Jesus and many such great souls who we also refer to as saints, hardly form a respectable percentage of the entire human population. They are the superman for their name still remains on the lips of ordinary folks with respect. The funny part is that they did not achieve anything worldly but they became superman simply by focusing their observations inwards. Others be it some celebrity or sportsman or businessman or ruler who live and prosper were and still are soon forgotten and buried in the sand dunes of time.

Another stray thought struck my mind recently. “This is Suman Bose (referring to my physical being and its activities). A lot of things happen to him and with him, some for reasons not known and some for no reasons at all. Then what is the point in bothering about what people think about him.” The moment this thought entered, it opened a huge door for a number of egoistic arguments to be happily thrown out. A lot of tension also went out along with the false and baseless arguments. Life became lighter. Later I was wonder struck by the simplicity of the idea. Of course not everything happening in the life of Suman Bose is because of unknown and thus uncontrollable reasons. There are many things or events which have deliberately made to happen to sustain the self. But even there, a choice has been made in such a way that the ego is protected or projected. Thus on a broad scale, I observed that too much effort is being spent worrying about what other people think about Suman Bose, how they perceive him. Suddenly now is the realization that how can Suman Bose help when events happen for no reason. When he can’t help then why should he care? Why should he care at all? Over the recent past I have undertaken the task to dilute and annihilate the ego inside. Slowly it is happening. Such new understandings arise to help. I have also decided to forego the car which my office gives me and use a two wheeler or the public bus transport from October this year. My partners will name me mad but then how do I care?

Tell me why?

As I can see, the struggle of man against man has been taking place since ages across the world on two counts, one non tolerance of people who look and think different and second hard feelings caused by fear or threat leading to violent reaction. We don’t need to look far back into history. Even if a look at the globe today we can see the tensions caused by Chinese in Tibet, North Korea (God alone knows what they want!), Tamils in Sri Lanka, Civil war in Ethiopia and Somalia, Afghanistan (has been at war even before the mughal invasion of Hindustan), Israel in Palestine, Non whites in Australia, Communists in East Europe, Mexicans in America. Possibly I might have missed some. No country is spared, no race is immune.

Man has survived over the past millions of years if the carbon dating of fossils is to be believed. If the earth does not explode, it is quite evident that man will continue to live another million years. Then what are we afraid of? Why can’t we all live in peace? There is enough of resource of every kind to go around such that every living being can live comfortably. Infact no human race has been wiped off due to non availability of resources in all these million years. Even the Eskimos have learnt to live in the snow and ice. Then why?

Why do we see our individual self as the centre of the universe?

Why are we scared of fellow humans instead of calamities of nature?

Why do we suffer from greed and the anxiety to conserve for tomorrow?

Why is self preservation so important when we can’t deny death?

Tell me?