shrivastavshubhanshu@gmail.com
Through the course of time
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BY SHUBHANSHU SHRIVASTAVA
Watching the
vast number of cars and bikes and other vehicles, sitting on a bench partly
rusted due the course of time, I often wonder about the development and
advancement of humanity’s constant survival through so many centuries and who
knows how many more will we, humans may challenge the natural forces of
destruction against which, our other fellow creatures do not stand a chance. We
humans had started to evolve from the instant our predecessors, some apes,
decided to walk on their two limbs instead of four. However, the idea of our
family tree starting from some monkeys is rather awkward and had been a subject
of a controversial debate in the recent history; yet this hard proven fact
could not be denied. It is so enthralling just to imagine the way we have
evolved over thousands of years starting from the day we were some monkeys. The
time we took in this evolution looks too much and yet it is nothing compared to
the time a planet takes in making itself life – sustaining to give birth to a
variety of species.
And still
our behavior is too complex to be understood completely. This might be because
we value ourselves individually and do not behave in an identical way. In other
words, each individual have their own thoughts and are likely to behave in a
varying way when posed with a common circumstance. This diversity of our
thoughts, is however the true beauty of human nature and the most basic reason
of our development. This diversity has, on the other hand often created mutual
conflicts even in the closest of individuals resulting in large scale wars in
various parts of the world. But, the fact that this variety of beliefs and the
way of thinking is the basic factor of our very development cannot be
neglected; and this is a widely acclaimed fact that humans are the most
progressed and advanced species on the earth. We have built great structures,
explored deep inside the nature and its laws, found new medicines to cure
diseases that were once thought incurable, even genetically designed organisms
in our tech labs and yet, this progress of a species is too slow to be called
perfect and eventually the conclusion remains the same, evolution is a slow
process.
These
‘achievements’ of the human race are gravely materialistic. Have we achieved an
evolution in our mindset for our social problems? After all, man is a social
animal and our planet supports the birth and progression of complex organisms.
Or have we disturbed the balance of nature?
Undoubtedly,
the answer is yes. We come across every day, in magazines, newspapers, even
children now are taught in school about the environmental crisis our world is
facing. Yet we remain reluctant about it; selfishly consume the nature without
caring for other species not even about individuals of our own species viz., a
great irony if man is a social animal. But it could not be blamed entirely on
the human race for evolution by the development of intelligence comes with a
price tag; which eventually reminds me about Darwin’s evolution theory –
‘survival of the fittest’ for it is the primary nature of any species.
Recently, I
read a novel written by Dan Brown titled as inferno, which in fact proved to be
the most apt title for the book. However, it was more about the conflict
between the beliefs of trans-humanitarians and the rest of the people but the
concept remains the same that a species is more likely to bring about the
destruction of its own kind along with the other species caught in the
crossfire between them and the nature. Dan Brown perfectly explained it by a
simple example of a type of algae that grows and flourishes rapidly in a closed
area, in water, receiving direct sunlight. It grows so rapidly that it soon
covers the surface of water restricting the reception of any more sunlight and
oxygen and eventually dies due to the lack of the former and the latter.
What if it
is the same case with humans too? Or will we be able to turn the wheel of
nature’s phenomenon? Only time could answer this question. But this is certain
that this cycle of destruction and creation will surely come in the future for
this the nature’s way of creation, of change. But it would take several years
from now to occur. Another question that remains is that will humans achieve
the development of technology that we often observe in some of those science
fiction movies. If it happens to happen then there is a chance for humans to
survive the tumult of change. Maybe we would be able to colonize mars or other
planets in our solar system or find another planet with a life supporting
ecosystem a few light years away and build one of those massive human
transportation space carriers to take us there.
But these
are just pure fantasies in the current picture. The idea is same for us as the
idea of earth’s revolution around the sun was for our ancestors before Galileo
arrived, it’s the same as the idea of a television or a cell phone was to the
people of 14th century, etc. howsoever, scientists all around the
globe are working tirelessly to find a way to make it possible.
What is most
fascinating to know is that all the discoveries we made using the modern
science as we know it today are merely the rediscoveries of the facts which our
ancestors has already made. Those can be found out in various languages in a
variety of older books in different parts around the world in different
religions, some languages being so obscure that hardly anyone present today
speaks it and are only studied in universities as a subject. However, the books
that possess these facts are often religious or believed to be religious, some
written for the sole purpose of enlightenment of the human soul. For example,
the book of Jews, the Zohar not only mentions the modern superstring theory but
also explains the connection and relationship of the 6 dimensions of the
universe! For such, I am proud to claim that Indian culture is the most diverse
in this subject. The Hindu Upanishads, Vedas, Bhagwat gita and other scriptures
and writings of various ancient Hindu scholars are swarming with such facts
which are accurate! How did they do it without having the benefits of the
technologies of the present day is truly a fascinating thing!
For example,
Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar says for the speed of light, “with deep respect, I bow to the sun who
travels, 2202 yojanas in half a nimesha” in his commentary on a hymn in the
Rig Veda. It must be noted that a nimesha is 16/75th of a second and
a yojanas is about nine American miles, you can do the conversion, he states
the obvious that sunlight travels at hundred and eighty six thousand miles!
There are
countless such discoveries and facts stated in the Hindu scriptures written
centuries before they were rediscovered by various foreign well known
scientists; such when Oppenheimer, the creator of modern atomic bomb was asked
how he felt after his first test explosion he replied that it probably wasn’t
the first atomic bomb but the first atomic bomb in modern times. It is said
that he then quoted the Gita, “ I am become death, the destroyer of the worlds”
which is quite similar to the line in Gita, “I am become time to end the world,
set on my course to destroy the universe”. It would even be more thrilling to
know that The Mausala Parva of
Mahabharata actually mentions a weapon and gives a brief description of a
nuclear blast which it bought forth!
Even the
word ‘Allah’ which is presently used in Islamic religion existed before the
existence of the very religion. It could be found in a verse in Rig Veda as “O
Ilah, Sarasvati and Mahi, the three goddesses who bring delight, please be
seated, peacefully, on the grass”. ‘Ilah’ was another name for Durga. Over the
course of time, the word al-ilah came to be pronounced as ‘allah’!
It seems
like all the worlds diversity of religions, cultures and faiths originated from
ancient India.
What I wish
to bring forth here is the very question about the missing part of our
evolution. If we already possessed such valuable information since ancient
times, why was it not put forth? Where was it lost through the course of time?
Why had we needed to make the rediscoveries?
My point of
view and my personal theory is rather bizarre about this. I believe that for an
event to occur in the space-time, there are multiple ways for its occurrence.
It could be understood by a simple example, if suppose you have to pick up a
book along its longer axis then there are 4 ways to do it, 2 ways by holding
either the top or the bottom of the book and 2 by flipping it and then holding
the top and the bottom of the book. What I mean here is that couldn’t it be
that there could be several ways to discover the laws of nature to the
subatomic level which we term as science? And couldn’t it we that our modern
day science has discovered everything in a 2nd way after the 1st
way of the ancients?
But what
troubles me is the question why was this treasure of knowledge not discovered
and put to use? Why did we came to need the ‘2nd way’ of discovery?
We are all aware that even in ancient times the people from other countries has
visited India, consumed its knowledge and gone back. So then why did it remain
undiscovered?
The theory
which says that the western civilization was established by the people who
migrated there from India is also unable to explain this question. It seems
that we lost a speck of time somewhere in history. Could it be that some
unexplained phenomenon of space-time in our universe might have occurred
somewhere in ancient history that could have altered the ‘flow’ of our
space-time and have made us adopt the other way or possibility? The idea seems
to be farfetched and purely imaginative in nature. However, there is one thing
I am sure of, i.e.
We will
eventually evolve into a tolerable species which would ultimately prove its
worth for existence to the Mother Nature.
The facts and discoveries
mentioned above has been adopted from the research done by various scientists,
scholars and writers which I have fused with my some of my ideas about the very
nature of humans on this vast topic of evolution trying to define and discuss
it under every aspect which came in my mind.
