Page 10 - NAMAH-Jul-2021

Moving Forward

The movement of nature is never in a straight and simple line. It has sudden leaps when
civilisations peak in knowledge and might, then an abrupt downward turn as a giant
wave lapsing into some vast ocean from where all seems to emerge and collapse back.
Yet each such downward slope carries within itself the seed and the potential of a higher
and greater rise. But these risings and falls yet lead the world forwards in her relentless
incessant march that spirals ascending upwards through all the upturns and downslides.

It is through these risings and falls that Nature advances joyously towards her goal
that she always carries within her heart. Unlike what we believe today, Nature is not
a mechanical unconscious energy but a conscious Force. It has a front that seems like
a mechanical energy, but even there, one can get glimpses of an all-comprehending
Wisdom that governs our life. Still, even as her stupendous leaps in the genius of our clay
or the civilisations that once climbed in thought and spirit, her retrogressions are not less
meaningful. She brings us back, pulling down the ramparts of our high-rise buildings
because something has been left incomplete at the very base of our structures. When the
time comes to recover or discover that something she brings us back to the fundamentals,
where we question life and death and, through both, our self.

Earthly life and humanity seems to be passing through such an hour and though it has
come with the façade of a pandemic, the question it raises is ever the same. It is about
how we see ourselves, how we define ourselves, how we discover ourselves. In one
word, it is the same eternal question of ‘Who am I?’ and depending upon the answer we
give we shall move upwards or linger longer in the abysses that have right now opened
before us.

The answer is well known but it needs great conviction, a great courage, a great
aspiration and faith to say, “We are but God wearing a human mask. By shedding the
mask of ignorance and death, we discover ourselves.”

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