Supremacy of Human Life

The street in which my house is located is also home to four dogs, and since last month their count has increased to 10 with the addition of 6 newborn puppies. Due to the presence of a big hearted old lady, who feeds the dogs diligently twice a day, a meal comprising of lovingly cooked meat, eggs and rice, neatly wrapped in plastic bags, so that each of the them can feed peacefully without fighting each other, these canines have no worry whatsoever in their lives. So to pass time they carry these plastic bags and place it in every corner of the street, and if they get too bored with this activity they decide to try their hands in playing with the children of the street, sending the poor kids scurrying back to the safe confines of their compounds from where they start their counter attack by throwing whatever stones they can lay their hands on.

The friendly neighborhood dog catcher arrives regularly twice a month and surprisingly whenever he arrives, the dogs are nowhere to be found. Either he has a peculiar odor which the dogs can smell from quite a distance or they always manage to get the inside information, the result of which is that none of the four dogs have undergone any birth control operation since they were born. The magnitude of the problem has resulted in worried discussions in all the homes of the street, off course except that of the gentle hearted old lady.
Ruminating over the problem, I suddenly started to think in an altogether different direction, We as humans take our place as the supreme life form completely granted. But what if there is a species somewhere in the universe which has more intelligence than that of man and the ratio of its intelligence to that of man's is exactly the same as that of Humans to dogs, what if this intelligent species attacks earth and colonize it. Also let us assume that this superior species is also as heartless as we humans are, then what may be the situation?
Almost all of what man has built may give way to completely different structures which cannot be comprehended by us, We maybe reduced to the posh streets of superior beings, some of them might keep a few of us as pets for their entertainment( Here we may have to fight for the spot with the dogs), most of them might find our flesh very palatable and some may hit upon the idea of human farms, wherein, the way we do with poultry, humans will be bred for large scale consumption. Some of us humans, who value their freedom very much may go back to jungle life, But the superior species may occasionally hunt them down for sport, etc etc, this list can be an endless one, because the sufferings that we are piling on nature is unfathomable.
So does it mean that as supreme beings of earth we have a right to do whatever we like? Certainly in the above discussed situation, life can be very bleak and that is exactly what we have inflicted on the lesser animals. Being supreme doesn't mean a right to exploit, but it stands for a sense of responsibility towards the lesser creatures, We have the capacity of wisdom, let us use it to leave everyone in peace.

On happiness

What is the one thing that everyone either consciously or unconsciously wants? I think it is happiness. The primary instinct in any animal including man is survival, once survival is not a major issue then the second most important instinct, the need for being happy takes over. Though most of the animals are pretty much satisfied if their primal instinct is met, man is most likely the only exception. The desire of being contented and happy is infact the major driving force for majority of mankind. But what exactly is this happiness that we are running after?.

I decided to introspect to find out when was it that I felt really happy? The day when I got my first job, The day I got a good salary hike, The day I came first in the class, The day I got my Engineering seat, and few more such things. But the novelty of all of them faded within a few days, that is I got used to them and the situation came back to normal. Also the momentary happiness that you experience at an achievement or attainment is directly proportional to the amount of sorrow or hardship that you have endured to get it, say if a person struggles for a long time to find a job, then the joy he experiences at finally getting it will be manifolds greater than the person who gets a job without much struggle. But is this the right kind of happiness that we are seeking? Personally whenever I struggled to achieve something, I always felt that I will be happy after achieving it, but as most of us know through our experience that it is not true. Life is a constant struggle, our achievements will only determine how well prepared we can be for the next battle that is around the corner.

I have also felt another kind of happiness, When I have tried making others happy, when I have helped someone etc, acts done without any expectations. Though in terms of intensity it may not be able to match the momentary delights but still a positive vibe gets generated in the mind after such acts and a sense of fulfillment is ever present. Acts of compassion and love whether be it towards other people, animals or even to nature, from time immemorial has been linked as one of the pathways of attaining god and in fact the advaita philosophy says that subconsciously we are ever trying to seek god the true and complete happiness, but deluded to take the right paths. Also children are said to be closer to god as they enjoy each moment of their lives without any burden of the past or the future.

So what should we do? should we dump all our ambitions down the drain and become social workers or a sanyasi. It will certainly not be an option for many of us because unless there is a strong inclination to become a sanyasi, we may just be deluding and piling on a new problem on ourselves. The best option would be to continue what we are doing but with a realigned outlook, Let us constantly try to purify our senses and cleanse our mind of all the impurities, while still performing activities which we are inclined to pursue. Taking some time out for meditation, for exercise to keep body fit is also very essential. Reorienting life towards discipline and god consciousness will make life much more enjoyable and help us in enjoying life's fleeting moments more rather than being engulfed in a state of fear, greed or avarice.

Armed with above road map, I have started treading the road, Hope will reach the destination soon.

Ethics:A question of limits

Every religion in the world has the word Ethics in its must haves for its followers. Ethics and moral values have been the eternal words which are considered their worth in gold in a person. Nowadays even companies, let alone governments draw up lists on what constitutes ethical and non-ethical behaviour. So is ethics a mere set of rules that I need to follow that has been prescribed for various circumstances?

One thing that needs to be cleared is ethics and law doesn't mean the same, they work in different dimensions altogether. Long back I had attended a presentation in which a speaker had explained the meaning of ethics by giving an example of the irresistible tendency of jumping a traffic light, His contention was that during normal hours every one of us will follow the traffic rules, but what happens at say Midnight shows the extent of ethics one has. I awoke suddenly from my sleepy dreamy state I had snuggled into at once, mainly because for me the traffic lights seize to exist after 11 in the night. And after a long debate with myself I came to the conclusion that, Yes I was indeed breaking a law and was an offender, but was my behaviour unethical? To that the conclusion was no. The traffic lights were created to ensure smooth movement of traffic and the intention being only that, At midnight if the roads are empty and when there is no sign of any vehicle in all the three directions of the road waiting for the Red light to turn to Green seems quite illogical. By following the traffic rules at such times you have blindly bind ed the law with your reasoning of ethics. There is nothing wrong in such a reasoning but there is again always a question of limits here, What if the traffic lights malfunction and unfortunately you are on the red for the whole of the night. You are bound to break the rule after some time, because I don't see even the above mentioned speaker waiting till morning to move ahead.

Now if I start extending this same idea to say corruption, will the water hold. Taking a bribe is banned under law, but a Person may argue that since he is not able to maintain his family even for the bare necessities with his salary or say if the person has a severely ailing dependent whose medical expenses he is not able to meet. Now this person is thrown in between the choice of doing his official duty properly or fulfilling his duty as a Husband or Son. Can we call such a person unethical who takes bribe to get medical treatment to his Wife or Parents which in anyway would have been beyond his means? This question is very difficult to answer. Some may argue here that the person is showing attachment (Moha) towards his family members and so according to karma yoga is following an unethical practice by not doing his duty properly. Even it can be argued that the person should go for the medical treatment as much as his means allow him to. But we know that not everyone here is a Yogi or a Monk, on the flip side there may be severe feelings of guilt of having not done enough towards the loved ones.

Now let us come to the point of giving a bribe, I have known some people who have steadfastly refused to give any kind of bribe. This reminds me of the older Kamal Hassan in the film Indian, He refuses to give a bribe when the doctor demands one to treat his badly burnt daughter and later she dies without any treatment. So did the father come out ethically shining from the incident. I would doubt such a situation happening in real life, because your sense of ethics get overrun by emotions at such situations. Again a case of limits being reached.

Also the idea of what is ethical and what is not keeps varying from person to person and also over time. Many years ago polygamy, taking dowry etc were all considered normal and there was no element of unethicality about it but the passage of time always tweaks the ethical wheel to weed out the unwanted or unwarranted things. Some people may be ahead of their times with their concept of Ethics and these are the people who tweak the ethical wheels of the society. Even these people can only tweak because that is the only way, If you want a drastic change that is never going to happen, It will be like breaking your head against a wall, which was the case in the movie Indian. Trying to correct through the help of fear is never a permanent solution.

So finally how to decide what is ethical or not, for this the only option will be to follow ones conscience. A regret after an action will be an indication of having not met your ethical standards. There is always a limit till which we will stick to our ethics and after this tipping point we break. It is essential that we keep pushing our limits, but it has to be kept in mind that no one can become a saint in one day, you need to work on it.