Though our planet seems to have no purpose in itself, it certainly has the most beautiful of roles – that of serving as a base for man to manifest the ultimate possibility of his being. This, however, requires a sane environment and a well-balanced ecological system. One of the many reasons why people have become so ungodly is that we live in an environment which pulls us away from our centre. And there is nothing more divine than the centre of our being, which is also the essence of existence.
Who would believe that this whole setting was brought for our unfolding! Is that not simply wonderful? In a poetic language, one could say that the whole setting was designed for the meeting of the lover and the beloved, that is, man and God. Till now no place has been found to contain the same environment as ours where life could emerge, flourish and propagate. Spiritual evolution requires such an environment. However, caught in his greed and arrogance, man has nearly destroyed the environment, creating an imbalance in the ecological system. And now it would seem that we are nearing extinction.
The environment of the earth is like the womb of a mother, but the womb has been made impure, thus unfit to give birth to spiritual beings. However, there are already some individuals who are trying to rise above the snares of sensuality and materialism to attain the most sublime state of eternity in this very life. There are a few who have succeeded too.
The wonderful manner in which the ecological system functions and evolves is a miracle though science has explained much. From the smallest speck of dust to the remotest galaxy, everything contributes to our ecology and environment. But how easily mankind has reduced that beautiful garden into a hell! Gaia, as Mother Earth is also called, is a living being – this is what James Lovelock, a famous scientist, says. But see to what a wretched and unhealthy state we have reduced her! She is overexploited, polluted and made dirty; most of her resources have been much wasted and depleted – all these due to our greed and selfishness.
Is it too late to save her and together with her, ourselves and the future generations? If we go by what is being observed, then I am afraid the answer is yes! Today, climate change does not augur any bright future. We are talking about the rise of sea level, tsunamis, temperature extremes, desertification, water shortage and so on. The excessive use of weapons and all sorts of chemicals have polluted our environment, so much so that many diseases have beset us.
My observation is that we still can save our earth, thus ourselves, but only if we bring about a radical change in our attitude and style of living. That will be very hard, but there is no other way. Selfishness, greed, habits and our actual style of living will have to be sacrificed. The big question is: do people seem to be willing to do that, bearing in mind their present mental frame? For instance, the USA refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol for the reduction of fuels and other materials that would reduce the carbon dioxide emission.
If the state of our environment is unhealthy today, world leaders are greatly responsible for that. They blindly took short term decisions to strengthen their political and economic positions, without any regard for the long-term negative impact on nature and the environment. Also, instead of educating their people about the dangerous consequences of their unhealthy way of living, they on the contrary encouraged it. Consequently, we are all losers and our children will certainly not shower any praise on us.
The root cause of all this, as I have said earlier, is greed and selfishness. If these are not transformed right here and now, we will all be responsible for the extinction of the human race. However, such powerful drives like greed and selfishness, which are in our genes, are not easily transcended. They form part of our nature. But we can and should always go beyond what nature gives us. This is what differentiates us from animals.
Animals cannot rise above their nature; they have no choice but to wait until they reach the top of the ladder and become a human being. A dog is a dog and it is its nature that makes it such. By this, I mean that its mind is at a stage on the ladder of evolution that fits a dog’s body and till the body lasts, ‘dogginess’ will be the nature of the dog. Man, however, changes into something higher than humanness. Or if you wish, we can put it like this: since we say that man is a social animal, I would say that man can rise above his animal and human natures.
The transformation of greed and selfishness is what I call the religious science, not the practice of rites and rituals. The greatest alchemy is that which allows man to transcend his animal and human natures into something higher and more sublime. Therefore let us teach it to our children right now so that we save ourselves and the earth.
