We, the Fools
It amazes me how well we forget about the fact that we are puny creatures in a world much, much larger than us. That is the beauty of mind - it makes us the centre of the Universe.
Close your eyes (once you are done reading this) and imagine there is no chair or couch beneath you, no roof over the head, no trees or the neighbour’s dog. Imagine that it is a virtual reality version of SkyView through your eyes. There are stars everywhere, you can see tiny specs of the planets from our Solar System and the sun is burning up in its mighty glory. The silence is super loud and it makes your mind want to scream. Now open your eyes and KNOW that all of what you imagined is how it really is, THIS VERY MOMENT. This moment, the vast Universe is going about its course and it couldn't care less about you or me or the people around us. Maybe I would take back the last bit - the Universe does not care less, it does not care - it is indifferent. And that is what makes this world go.
If you have watched the movie Avatar 27 times just the way I did ( sidenote - amazing visual effects plus the story makes me weep), you probably would remember one of the scenes where our protagonist Jake Sully is praying to Eywa (the mother nature equivalent) for some miracle to happen, so that the planet would not be conquered by cruel, greedy capitalists and destroyed, much like Earth in the story. That’s when he is told that, "Eywa does not choose sides. She only protects the balance of life".That line stuck with me in some corner of my mind since. It applies beautifully to Nature in general, except that Nature protects balance - life or non-life - through the laws of Physics and other Sciences (which we did not invent and are simply catching up on).
In our attempt to anthropomorphize everything, some of us believe that Nature is ‘getting back at us’ whenever there is a Tsunami or a volcanic eruption and more recently Covid-19. No, some of what happens on this planet is because of us (we should not and cannot take all credit for tectonic plate shifts). Almost all of what happens in the Universe has nothing to do with us (till such time we are able to shift Earth’s rotation or nuke the Moon).
Only if we can begin to appreciate the beauty in Nature’s indifference. It first struck me hard as a rock when I was in Kasauli in Himachal, North India and a river ran next to where I stayed. I was caught up with some crisis that my mind made up, when I first really heard the sound of the river in the silence of the night. It made me stop thinking. Through the night, the day after and to this point as I write this article - this river is flowing on, every moment till the end of my life and beyond. It does not stop for my worries, bickering and career issues. It makes time seem unimportant - with no milestones, there is only one time - now.
I am not going to say cliche stuff like we must learn to be like the river. We cannot, it is not in our nature. But what we must learn is that Nature, in its indifference towards us, teaches us a kind lesson - we need to get above our petty life problems and our tendency to think we control our lives and of those around us. This lesson, that we are yet to learn, is what will give us tremendous freedom to be in the current moment that Nature and life has to offer.
