Towards A Meanigful Evolution

Today the various parts of the Earth and the humans on it are divided one way or the other identified by various labels - based on religions, countries, colors, languages, beliefs, cultures, economic status etc.


Diversity has its own beauty and wonder, and there are many good-hearted benevolent people in this world, but the numbers are not big enough to bring about a change to stop the wars, and to let the good sense prevail. Anger, greed and attachment ride high on most people's minds and collectively this has led to an unorganized and a restive world.


Historically, we have proved to be a warring race, that has been impulsive, egoistic and selfish. Although the time has progressed a great deal seeing technological advancements that have made the lives of many very comfortable when it comes to coping up with the forces of the nature - the evolution of mankind as a whole to be more peaceful and a lot wiser has not happened. 

Even in the 21st century countries take pride in the ability to cause greater destruction if need be, and the modern times have a record of constantly using technological advancements to wage wars and create more destructive weapons than ever.


At individual levels, for most - it has become a materialistic pursuit even when millions of people are just struggling to make ends meet or living a life in terrible circumstances.

For example take the purpose of getting educated for most of the people around - it has boiled down to getting salaried jobs or to learn skills to setup a business to sell and make money (stop for a moment and look at yourself and the people around at your work-place and think why are they working, and what is the impact of it on aiding the evolution of the mankind as a whole).

In all this - where is the effort to be an altruistic person or an effort to reach out to the millions on Earth who live a life of lack and poverty?

The competition to study and get a place in the business world is so strong that we really do not bother much about those who cant pay for getting educated or for the millions cant even afford the basic necessities of life because they are either part of those regions where people are engaged in wars based on land, money, religion or resources or were not fortunate enough to be born in families where they could get inspiration and resources to get education and good health.

The competition in a lot of cases - that is a subset of the preoccupations we are involved in to make money - leads to the emergence of least desirable qualities in humans - that of envy, to bring another person down in order to get higher, to ensure we do whatever we can to stay ahead in the race, to outsmart at any cost. We completely lose out on the opportunity to be our greater self. The competition, for most people, makes living a life at a generous, benevolent, compassionate and greater level very difficult, as it leads to insecurity and a sense of threat from coworkers among them. Is precious life at such a level of thought worth it?

Competition at a macroscopic level has been such that today even neighboring countries do not trust each other and are armed and ready to cause destruction directly or indirectly.It's now man vs man, and as long we live with that attitude we can forget about the growth of mankind from a deeper level.

It's like as if the mind set of the human race is infected with a virus inhibiting evolution or as if  history preconditions the minds of every generation to follow similar steps.

Under these preoccupations - the children are brought up mechanically. They undergo same beliefs and are prepared for the same preoccupations and competition, with more or less the same mindset with no or little efforts to live life at a greater level - in most cases.

The current approach and chaos in the world only reflects that collectively we are under-estimating our own potential.

It's like give up and surrender, and grab what you can or you would be left out. Competition and division among nations, and other labels (like religion and boundaries) has led to heart burns,hatred and bruised egos.

If all the people practiced peace and pursued technological advancement for human-welfare and for discovering the universe we live in, then we would not have been bogged down in building armies and organizations to defend or to attack the members of the same human civilization.

On a side note - I wonder if a truly intelligent life existed elsewhere in the universe then they would've evolved based on better ideas than of destruction and division. They might have in all probabilities, with no destructive distractions, far surpassed the technological advancements on Earth. In the even that they discovered Earth, they might not have bothered to contact the Earthlings after seeing the history of the Earth full of man made destruction, unless their good senses and wisdom extended to change us for the better somehow if we kept our minds open enough to change.

All religions preach peace - however what role has religion really played in offering a solution? Lets see the results so far.
The online dictionary (http://www.dictionary.com/) defines the word religion as:


"a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs."

Sad to express but easy to observe are also the following facts on how things have shaped up with respect to religion:  Nations have fought over it, countries been divided, man has killed man over it, riots happen almost all the time in the name of religion, and new ones are emerging from time to time etc. Many of the proponents of various religions are busy to increase the head-count of those labeled with their religion, and it has also become an agenda-based approach to divide people.


 

Then why do people look forward to their religion in general, what does it offer them?

The answer I think is in human curiosity to find answers to the most difficult questions on the origin and destination of life, uncertainity and in the fear of the unknown - all taken at the same time.

We've always wondered why we were on earth, who was the creator, what lay ahead, and what was the right path to be taken in this mysterious journey. With so many unknowns - no one was sure (and no one really is probably) of the destination and of the real origin.

Amidst these questions - religions have offered to give the answers, show the light and direct the believers towards the path to take. The state of the world shows that we are far from the answers and at the same time divided into a lot of groups labeled with names of different religions.

Lets ask what would be the qualities that one might expect in God? What do most people think God is? This is what people say very often:

'God is the creator of this universe, the all-mighty (almighty!), one who knows it all and could do anything ... wise, forgiving, generous, kind, compassionate, healing, free from anger, and hatred.'

Therefore the real God would promote love and harmony on Earth - if our beliefs about God are right (and if we consider that the state of the world is majorly in the hands of God and not in ours).



Have the textbook Gods (or our understanding of God) really helped us achieve peace and harmony? Certainly not. Open a news channel and take a stock of the world we live in! May be God is very much different than our expectations and is beyond the logical reasoning we are capable of.

At the same time I also feel that the religious texts of all the religions are extremely important. They are our link to our past. Over a period of time, many of these records have been distorted or manipulated to a dgeree for various interests but they are still an important connection to events that might've happened in the past.

Many of the different religions share same stories having different narrations (for example many of the stories in the Quran, the Bible and the Zohar/The Torah are similar) with many protagonists being common - for example Jesus from Christianity is identified as Isa in Islam and considered the second most important prophet after Muhammad. The story in the 'Book of Genesis' about Abraham (Ibrahim in Islam) is common to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Similarly we have Moses (Musa), Ishmael (Ismail), Aaron (Harun) etc as common to various texts.


This very strongly indicates that something very significant did happen a long time ago and many people recorded them in their own ways.

Some have stories that show that gods or messengers powers were extraordinary and at the same time they were also associated with wars, and had human like emotions of anger, envy, jealousy and even a fierce sense of competition among each other. Some of the gods were weak, unaware of what was to come, were at times over-powered or tricked, cheated, and even crucified.


(The blog below shares a story of 'Durga' from the ancient Hindu texts: http://thelegendofdurga.blogspot.com/)

The protagonists from several religious texts have qualities like aggression - waging wars, anger, uncertainity, lack of absolute control over events etc unlike what we would generally expect in God.
Some stories describe the 'Gods' in battles, who had to work hard, devise strategies and do whatever in their might to win.

May be these people just have been a different set of people in different periods of time with varying degree of technological advancement, mental abilities and spiritual awareness that amazed or inspired the ones around who recorded these events.
 
Is it that limiting ourselves to just the textbook gods preventing us to look beyond?

These texts may need to be looked at more scientifically (and of course with reverence).


Coming now to individual level of growth - for most it has just boilled down to materialistic growth where we stay busy on Earth with man made pre-occupations till we die.

There is nothing wrong in having material comforts (I too desire them!) but at the same time
we think that it is just too bad for the person who is homeless and dies of extreme heat or cold, for millions who starve to death and for those in unsafe areas, or those in such countries where there is excessive human rights violation (probably in every country in various scales, there is no holy nation left on this planet I guess. Amnesty International, the UN, Human Rights groups can provide you the statistics if I am beginning to sound philosophical!).

Lets also have an alternative view on our equation with the textbook gods when we pray for our material success. Unless you are an atheist, you most likely pray to your god to give you a happy and prosperous life. Is the God really working? Well, you may say that God is working for you - that you live in a comfortable house (if not the dream house), bought that car you wanted to buy, your kids are growing up fine, etc.

Sure - that may be happening... but with this mindset we are just driving around in circles within a limited boundary. The world extends beyond that, far and wide but your thoughts are restricted, the magic of your material abundance (and good health if you are going to the gym or having diet control) is within the bounds - part of the pre-occupation that happily keeps you confined (the old story of the frog in a well)?

The approach to pray to your God, I think, is very powerful and sacred but unless all of us direct at least some part of our prayers and abilities towards uplifting the quality of life of the under-priviliged, towards a cleaner and greener earth, towards developing genuine peace and respect for all and towards ensuring good health and medical care for all, our life lived is an opportunity lost.

 

The changes in our thought patterns required may be a lot more radical as we may have to question the effectiveness of invention of money, creation of borders, and ideas of wars, and even election of the leaders that run the nations.

Probably we have never evolved as a race, we are stuck back in time with an illusion of progress!

Except for a handful of people who helped us lead comfortable lives through their inventions and discoveries, to whom we must be grateful at all times, the rest are caught up in just the wall street games, so to say - for all parts of the world.

Invention of the bulb, discovery of electricity, invention of the wheel, automobiles, vehicles that can fly are just some of the examples when we started moving in the right direction however such inventions and discoveries were quickly aimed at making money and profits - that not everyone could have! Discrimation got set in fast with who could have and who could not - based on several man made factors.

I think if we'd truly intended to evolve - we would focus on providing the benefits of technological advancements to everyone on earth and never let money or boundaries come in the way.

Probably, the real god or the creator of this universe could not have been more transparent and direct than this - we see whatever we have attempted so far is not working, the approach, the tools we used, have not worked ... we see the results for ourselves now. This attempt of the human race is not working. So we need to think and act differently, and give compassion and genuine sense of welfare a chance - in all that we do.

Amidst all the current global environment of mistrust, hatred and fear, the answer is probably staring at us in the face if we take a look at our creations and the state of the world around us. It is time now to stop, think differently, retrospect and consider different approaches, think human welfare first and human-welfare last, nothing else.

If we wonder that it would take a great political or spiritual leader to bring about such great change as we in our curent role could not do so then again that is thinking from the old approach - may be that is artificial power that has nothing to do with your real power to do real good?

To bring about great change, we don't need to be a leader as seen in the materialistic world, neither need one to guide us (nor bring down any existing ones). The new approach may be completely different from the traditional political 'leaders -followers', 'geographically-divided' boundaries model. This is just a thought. 

Most of us are too deeply preoccupied to deaddict our minds of the routine we are caught up in without doing real good to others, without realizing the positive powers of our minds. If we could take a break regularly, disconnect from the daily chores for a few minutes and wonder and harness the amazing knowledge that resides within and without, it would be good enough for a start building up gradually, listening to the inner knowledge and to the nature and positive energies around.


(The intelligent universe and the influence of the mind)

The ancient civilizations have often conveyed their hope for the new way of life, that is scientific, practical, peaceful and unconditionally compassionate towards all life forms and the nature. Aztec and others have called such evolution of beings as "Homo Luminous". The Hindus have called it as the Satya Yuga. Its not anything magical or a future cast in stone, but just a realization that great positive change is possible if we introspect and take the responsibility in our hands with a pure heart. To see a tangible positive change, to start with - as you read this - take a minute - take a deep breath, close your eyes and intend - may there be unconditional peace in the world I am part of, and on the planet Earth. That's a simple start!

The solutions and the mindset to follow would be the ones that unite people, help the humans unconditionally, not restricted by money or anything else. All hands or rather 'peaceful minds' on deck to help the humanity.

[Please feel free to post your comment. They are not moderated and everyone is free to post :-) ]

Thanks for reading!

Rommel Sharma

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Acknowledgement: All images used in this article are following the copyright guidelines,
and terms and conditions of the content providers, with due credit being given to them below:

1. http://www.military-aircraft.org.uk/
  (As per the copyright permissions provided)

     i. WW 1: JunkersCL1WW1Fighter.jpg

    ii. WW 2: north-american-b-45-tornado.jpg

   iii. AC130USpooky.jpg

2. Clip-Arts on this page: http://www.clker.com

3. Title Background image: Under copyright permission with
   due credit for the image included n the image and also

   to "NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team(STScI/AURA)"


4. Amnesty International Video to support a more peaceful world.
   Aimed at promoting the video by Amnesty international.
   Tell your friends about the Amnesty video!


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The Emerald Tablet of Hermes


“True without falsehood, certain most certain What is above is like what is below,
and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing.

And as all things were made from the contemplation of The One,
so all things were born again from one adaptation.

It’s Father is the Sun, its Mother is the Moon.
The Wind carried it in its womb, the Earth breastfed it.

It is the Father of all works of wonder in the World.It’s power is complete.
If cast to Earth, it will separate Earth from Fire, the subtle from the gross.

With great capacity it ascends from Earth to Heaven.
Again it descends to Earth, and takes back the power of the above and below.

Thus you will receive the glory of the distinctiveness of the World.
All obscurity will flee from you.

This is the whole most strong strength of all strength, for it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all solid things.Thus the World was created.

From this comes marvellous adaptations of which this is the procedure.
Therefore I am called Hermes Thrice Crowned, because I have three parts of the wisdom of the whole World.And complete is what I had to say about the work of the Sun.

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