The rain had been bothering me for some time now. Floods raged across the country. It rained heavily everywhere from Bihar to Vadodara, but drinking water will once again become a problem by the time summer arrives. A thinker named Joyce Carey wrote, 'Culture flows like a river. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes above danger but in the same direction, towards the sea… Finally, its existence fades away and it becomes the sea. When so much sweet water rains down from the sky onto the earth to become salty, the question arises, is everything born to waste?' Everything created by man has an expiration date. Language or food is perishable over time. From 'Gujarati' to 'Sanskriti' we are all bent on saving everything, but the truth is that everything has to perish in the end. From beginning to end—is a journey. This life also flows in one direction in the same way. From life to death… We may run towards happiness, but pain travels with us. Happiness and sadness go hand in hand. Any happy hour is no longer than 60 minutes. The hour of sorrow is of the same duration, but the waiting for happiness seems longer. We are so busy trying to accumulate happiness that when we reach sorrow, we realize that what was lost was happiness! The river does not store its water, but lets it flow, with the belief that next year the salt water will be added again. What is today will not be tomorrow, is man's greatest fear. God gives faith, by regrowing fallen leaves, adding water that has flowed away, by giving sunrise after the setting sun… Man's lack of faith makes him feel burdened to breathe. The competition continues, inside and outside! We are all happier or sadder than others. Forgot the difference between 'pleasure' and 'convenience'. No amount of comfort can bring happiness, but a little happiness does not make up for the lack of comfort. Happiness is the ability to enjoy what 'is'. Honestly, the new generation seems more practical and honest. They have to do everything today! Their pace of life and lifestyle is such that there is no room for tomorrow. 'Live in the moment' says the new generation! They don't marry, don't want children, want short cuts to earn money and don't 'worry' about health… An entire generation lives in 'today', and an entire generation is still wasting 'today' in regrets of yesterday and worries about tomorrow. is The Atharvaveda says, अज़ कर्ष्व सं गरभभाय. Desired things can be achieved by doing Purushartha. It is said in the dialogue of Paramatattva, क्रित्म में दक्षिने हास्टे जूयो मे सवया अहितः. Purushartha or effort is in my right hand and victory is in my left hand, but what is this victory or defeat, hope or despair, victory or defeat in the end? Some moments of life, only! These moments are feelings, not life. We have forgotten life and started living by basing our existence on its small pieces. Forgetting the whole, we have forgotten the partial, forgetting the whole and accepting the incomplete as truth. We have failed to both know and preserve our cultural heritage. This is not only a matter of physical monuments, we have not been able to know the spiritual and scientific heritage as well. What we call forward and upward development is really a downward journey? Yuval Noah Harari's book Sapiens is a history of mankind. 70 thousand years ago all of us as homo sapiens were fearsome to nature. As we read, we understand that, just as there are species in other animals – in dogs there are (were) species in humans like Pomeranian, Alsatian, Siberian Husky, Cocker Spaniel, Labrador. Darwin is revered by us as a scientist today, but when he first called Homo sapiens a 'simple animal', humans were unwilling to lose their distinctiveness. At that time 'man' thought that he was the best creation of nature! Perhaps, if we are a great creation of nature, we should act like that too… But, we don't miss an opportunity to destroy nature, our own species and the world around us. In the name of Indian culture, unbelief and superstitions like Bawa-Sadhus and some astrologers-Bhuta, Bhuwa, Vashikaran have flourished. Everyone has more than enough! We want, want 'more than others' and we are all ready to bow down to whoever promises to give this 'more and more' without looking at his qualifications. We are done with violence and bloodshed in the name of religion. In a culture that had 'swayamvar', now there are Khap Panchayats and Honorkilling. 'Indianness' has been erased in the discord of caste, caste and sub-caste. When a civilization that was perfect starts to move towards imperfection, its survival becomes not only difficult, but impossible. Now not 'living', 'winning' has become important. It is natural for everyone to want to get ahead, but now, 'beating others to get ahead' has become more important. For a society based on 'thing' instead of 'thought', man has also become a commodity. What culture are we trying to save when one man is now taking another man's life for something that doesn't come along? The day we understand the difference between the value of humanity and the value of a thing, between freedom and sanity, our civilization can be revived… But, will it happen?
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
