Vicious Cycle of Life
Many human centuries ago, a new advanced life form was born on a planet which resembled Earth in all respects.
Everything
about this life form was similar to a human being except that they had an additional
power to create another life form with their thoughts. This life form was the
first of its kind on the planet which had life forms similar to plants. The
life form had 2 inborn instincts of safety and growth and seemed to know how to
achieve them. It started understanding its own needs, abilities and emotions.
It began exploring the resources available on the planet and realized how its
abilities could be leveraged to satisfy its needs. Everything was in abundance
and the life form was happy and contented which it understood as the purpose of
its life. Its mind was filled with values which were all positive since it did
not know of any other way to achieve this life purpose.
Many human
days passed and the life form started getting some strange emotions of boredom
and desire. While these negative emotions were extremely low in intensity, it
started impeding the positive emotions existing in the pure mind of the life
form. In these intermittent moments of disillusionment, it realized its hidden
ability to reproduce and created another life form similar to it. This seemed
to eliminate all the negative emotions as it experienced a new positive emotion
of companionship. The new life form began copying everything that the first
life form was doing. It, therefore, did not have to think about its own
abilities but blindly followed the other assuming that to be the only way to
lead its life and achieve its purpose. They began to resemble each other in
their habits and emotions. They developed a mode of communication using sounds
which were random to start with but slowly formed a pattern. Since everything
was still available in abundance, they had enough resources to keep themselves
happy and contented. They intuitively understood that they would remain happy
and contented if the other life form also met its life purpose and thus
additional positive values in the form of companionship & sharing became
ingrained in them. This existence continued for many human years.
During one
such human year, there was a drastic change in the weather conditions and the
environment around them began to deteriorate. The earlier abundance slowly
started getting converted to a scarcity. As many human days passed, the life
forms realized that the natural environment around them was not sufficient to
cater to all their needs. Their mind began sending some strange signals which
seemed to suggest that the values of companionship and sharing were actually a
hindrance in these troubled times. These signals combined with the
non-fulfillment of their basic needs sowed the seeds for additional negative
values in the form of selfishness and dishonesty as each of them wanted to get
their hands on the scarce resources. However, these values were still getting
overpowered by the experiences surrounding the positive values. As more
and more of their needs remained unfulfilled and their mind not trained to
explore other ways of meeting their life purpose, their instincts started
making them do things which they had never done before. They would now hide
things from the other and steal from the other when it was not around. These
actions gave them instant gratification which they misunderstood as meeting
their life purpose of happiness and contentment. Their communication vocabulary
increased with a number of sounds which became synonymous with the negative
values getting included. As time passed and the external environment not
relenting and the positive values which supported their co-existence now
becoming a rarity, their instincts forced them to delve into their own untapped
abilities and find out other ways of satisfying their individual needs. They
began exploring aspects of the environment which they had never done before but
this was done independently to further their own desires. They started drifting
apart from each other in the assumption that this would increase their chances
of meeting their needs. The thought that the same exploration can be done
together and the discoveries shared between them was easily overshadowed by the
flood of negative values which occupied their minds. The positive reasons why
the second life form was created was also forgotten in this murkiness of
negative emotions.
Since the
overall environment was vast, both the life forms slowly found their own
geographical spaces where natural resources were still in abundance and they
started living on their own. In the absence of the influence from the other
life form, their habits started to change as they reacted differently to the
new environment around them. Over the period of human time, there was little
resemblance between the 2 life forms. Each of them now were living in their own
private worlds and the profusion of nature meant that all the negative values
ingrained in their mind started losing their meaning and the original purpose
of life became all-pervasive.
Life on
this wonderful planet had seen one vicious cycle of existence.
As with
the first life form, boredom started rearing its ugly head again and just as
before, the 2 life forms created additional life forms with their own thoughts
and who resembled their respective creators. The planet now had a few hundred
inhabitants, each of whom were similar to the life forms that created them.
Their communication vocabulary was initially similar to the first life forms
but new sounds got added which were different between the 2 groups. The concept
of a language was born. In due course of time the language of the 2 groups
became so distinct from each other that it was difficult for the life form from
one group to communicate with a life form from the other group. The 2 sets of
life forms lived in harmony within their own spaces and their life was filled
with happiness and contentment. However, there was one negative energy which
was born during the period of turmoil remained and that was the suspicion and
fear of the life forms from the other groups.
With the
passage of human time, the number of such groups multiplied. Each group
remained in harmony within but in acrimony with the other groups. The variants
of the original language increased with some variants having almost no
resemblance to the parent. Their overall level of happiness and contentment was
still reasonably high since their interaction with the life forms of the other
groups were few and far between as long as the natural environment supported
their ever growing needs. As the resources within their spaces started dwindling
and was not enough to support the life forms from that group, the need for
interaction with the other groups increased. Their instincts suggested that by
giving away what was in abundance, they could get things which were scarce
within their own spaces and thus was born the concept of barter. However, as
with the first life cycle, things began to become ugly as some life forms
within each group wanted more than what was made available through bartering.
With the collective energy of these life forms becoming dominant and the thread
of suspicion still being prevalent, the use of force was used to acquire
resources from the other groups. Again, the instant gratification from these
conquests left an indelible mark on their minds that this form of acquisition produced
immediate results. However, the other groups quickly developed ways of not only
defending their spaces but invading other less powerful groups to further their
end. For the first time on the planet, violence had made its appearance. The
peaceful existence of the past was soon history as forced acquisition of
resources became the new normal. The original life purpose of these life forms
namely happiness and contentment were now being sought through more violent
means which produced instant fulfillment but was possibly leading to a far
lasting damage for the future generations. The life forms, in their greed to
acquire more had also started violating the natural environment around them for
immediate gratification but unknowingly were triggering the start of an
irreversible process.
All life
forms became more possessive about themselves and their groups. Each group
created their own habits, beliefs and way of life and made it a point that
everyone who were part of their group followed the same. Inter-group
interaction was strictly prohibited. Each group started strengthening their own
defenses to ward off any unforeseen intrusions. The groups also identified
individuals who were prepared to invade the spaces of the other groups.
Accordingly, their focus changed from fulfilling the basic needs to these
activities. Their desire to outdo the other group became an over-riding factor
and the perceived purpose of their lives. This was not an easy thing to do and
hence their happiness and contentment levels further decreased.
Over a
period of human time and the influence of the external environment, each life
form became very distinct from the other in terms of their individual behavior
and habits. However, each group still retained a similarity in their way of
life and their language of communication. With the original life purpose
somewhere lost in transit, everyone was living a life of momentary bouts of
happiness within the overall cloud of discontentment. Some life forms from
within the groups managed to maneuver through the maze of negativity and
display acts of a positive nature like helping others, being kind and similar
such acts which put them back on the road to happiness and contentment. These
enlightened life forms became the subject of admiration of the others. During
these periods of conflict, a few life forms stood out by their display of
valour while invading others and some by the courage in standing up and
resisting the invaders and rallying the rest of the group forms to fight back
and regain control of the lost territory. Over a period of generations, these
acts of a positive nature or the acts of bravery and heroism became the stuff
of legends. These acts were further glorified as they were transmitted from one
life form to another and reached levels of reverence not seen before. The life
forms, in their current state of an unclear purpose to life instinctively
needed a guiding force and thus was born the concept of saintly figures and
Gods. For the group which came out worse from the acts of the same angelic life
forms, they became the symbol of evil or someone who was the cause of their
current state of mind. The life forms who until now believed in themselves and
their abilities to get things done began looking for direction and advice from
these Godly forms. Their acts and deeds became the wisdom of the group
which passed from one generation to the next, first as an advice which slowly
got translated to the ultimate truth and thus the concept of religion was born
on the planet. Conflicts, which were caused primarily for acquisition of scarce
resources and then for ownership of territory were now turning into battles for
proving that their way of life was better and to justify their respective
belief of the ultimate truth. Importantly, none of these conflicts were aiding
the life forms achieve the real purpose of their lives. With everyone living
their life to seek limited pleasures of ownership & power and with no
regard for the preservation of natural resources around them, the once beautiful
planet slowly deteriorated into a barren expanse filled with life forms engaged
in eternal conflict.
The
evolution of life on our planet may have been very similar to what happened in
the planet described above. The circle of life started with a similar purpose
of experiencing happiness and contentment. Human beings lived in their own
environment and in harmony with Nature. The scarcity of resources and the
innate curiosity of exploration led human beings to get into each other’s way
of life leading to conflicts. These conflicts led to a sense of virtual
achievement of power for the conqueror and a feeling of dejection and rage for
the vanquished. A taste of power meant wanting more and the ignominy of defeat
meant a need for revenge. Thus every conflict was a breeding ground for
creation of additional negative energy which over a period of time removed any
possibility of a reconciliation. The quest for more also meant an irreversible
invasion of our natural environment, the result of which is only going to get
worse for future generations. Languages may have been born as a means of
communication and the concept of religion may have been a result of the quest
for the ultimate life purpose which was getting lost as the world became more
complex. In almost every religion that I am aware of, the concept of a God has
been a human being who displayed positive acts while surrounded by negativity
and these acts became glorified as they were described from one person to the
other and between generations. While these acts provided the right values to
future generations, the application of these values have to come from the human
beings themselves. The birth of religion can be considered as very significant
as it was supposed to show a beacon to its followers for achieving their
purpose in life. This could have been the possible missing piece to complete
the circle of life and make the purpose of life seem more attainable. However,
along the way, the need to prove that one way of life is better than the other meant
that the world got caught in another vicious circle from which there seems to
be no way out. Well almost….
If one
generation of human beings can come out of this vicious cycle and let go of the
belief that their way of life is superior, abandon their false sense of
ownership, discard their negative emotions, rise above the man-made boundaries
of country, religion & language, understand the importance of preserving
the natural environment and start living life the way the first human beings on
this planet would have lived, we may all still get back on the path to fulfill
the original purpose for which life was created on our beautiful planet.
Coach-Ram
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