Page 36 - NAMAH January 2016
P. 36
Namah Vol. 23, Issue 4, 15th January 2016
breathe and grow or expand and contract. even if inwardly the change takes place, the
They move. All these things can be witnessed outer body remains a big obstacle to the
as happening in what we now call as the fullness of the change. Thus, for example,
inanimate world of matter. Perhaps they are dogs can well develop human-like emotions
living, though not in the way we would like and their intelligence may begin to function
to see. Perhaps they are alive in some occult in certain ways like the rudimentary
space and all their movement is a cry and human intelligence, yet their body and its
struggle of ‘particles of life’ to emerge out constitutional make-up prevents the full
of seemingly inanimate objects. Yet Nature possibility of a human being. It can
has drawn a magic line denying a full understand the human language in certain
emergence of life. Matter moves in grooves nuances but cannot speak nor write! It is
fixed by Nature and if we were to undo the condemned to be a dog as long as its body
groove of habit perhaps life would emerge. does not change even if its inside is
Who knows if this is not already happening becoming human due to the human contact!
as we play with the possibilities of dust and To become human it must drop the ways of
the stars? The science fiction about the rise the dog, sacrifice its doglike strength and
of the machine may not be a fiction but an methods and then relearn something else in
anticipation and apprehension of something its place. It is a big sacrifice and a dangerous
that is very much in the realm of possibility. one as it may well land up in a nowhere-
zone and end up becoming a strange
But when we come to living objects, it is so creature, half-beast half-human or perhaps
obvious that the whole idea of a species and neither.
the limits within which it moves and to
which it is tied, is nothing but a bundle of The challenge of evolution
habits. It serves nature’s great purpose of
balancing the different elements of creation This is the big challenge of evolution, even
by fixing for each its place and characteristic of human evolution! The strength of a
movement. This characteristic movement is human being is its ability to reason and
the distinguishing element of a species. It is logically infer things. It is reason that
its own peculiar strength that helps it to exist organises the human life just as blind instinct
and grow despite a thousand challenges. So does for animals. We are conditioned as well
strong is the identification of a species with as condemned, so to speak, to use and rely
this movement that to replace it with on reason for everything. Even the most
something else may well weaken it or create primitive man uses reason and logic, only
a temporary imbalance. And even when the his premises, experience and observation are
new movement has been learnt as we find different and hence his inferences are different.
with tamed lions in a zoo or circus, the We trust our observation, experience and,
natural instinct remains in the background based on that data and rationale, erect a three
and can emerge at any moment. Here we dimensional world. But so does a primitive
see that the very strength of a species man erect his own world based on his data.
becomes its weakness when it has to evolve, He too uses reason but his reason leads him
to learn and to assimilate a new way. And to very different conclusions. Could it be
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