Welcome to the world!
I recently got the opportunity to offer the first sip of water to my younger brother’s granddaughter. The week-old child looked into my eyes and seeing her quaffing the first drop of water was such a great pleasure. My brother’s son-in-law is a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force and stationed at Hyderabad these days. I had somehow missed this occasion earlier when my sons and even my grandson came into this world. So, this joyous moment came very late to me, but nevertheless, it came.
We all come into this world as little babies – weighing some 3 kg, as a bundle of joy for our parents and grandparents. Some have elder siblings around doting on them; others, the first child like me, are treated like a princeling anyway. I have no doubt whatsoever that each one of us enters the world as an immortal essence of consciousness assuming physicality. This conscious is smeared with experiences of earlier lives, making a little child laugh and cry for no apparent reason. As the child grows, it gets integrated into the world. However, past lives impressions remain operative as innate temperaments, whims and fancies.
A lot has been said about fate, destiny and free will. Put simply, our fate gives us birth in a particular family and the initial conditions of growing through our childhood. We can also add our temperaments, embedded emotional drives and even genes as our fate. Parents and other influencing people around – grandparents, elder siblings, teachers, and so on – impose upon a child their own wills. Human destiny is all about emerging out of these traps. To become a person first, escaping the imposters. And then expand the personal consciousness from social to universal to cosmic. It is here that people differ – one life may blossom and the other life may wither away.
Nature versus nurture is an old debate. With the maturity of the science of epigenetics, this debate has ended; only the ignorant are continuing with the argument. A very large portion of our DNA—up to 98 percent—does not code for proteins. Believed to be inert evolutionary leftovers, it merely lives within us. Merely some 20,000 and odd genes are expressed – deciding our bodies, cognitive apparatus, and temperamental hue. Gene’s expression heavily depends on the environment – the internal milieu of our bodies as well as our surroundings. Children growing up listening to music around, loving kindness, and abundance grow up as different persons from those who suffer noise, neglect, violence and hardships of poverty in their early days.
But even adversity carries with it the seed of greater benefit. As the child grows, the harsh conditions provide strength, toughness and endurance. Many who grew up living within balloons of comforts and privileges find themselves weak, insecure, and fragile in their adult lives. Life is indeed a great leveler. The unevenness of outer conditions in earlier life is eventually levelled off. I have seen examples of APJ Abdul Kalam, Barak Obama and Lula da Silva in my own lifetime.
In India, horoscopes are still considered at the time of marriage and there is a tradition of “matching” the planetary charts at the time of the births of the bride and the groom. I have seen all sorts of marriages – working, not working, and even dissolving in divorces – and horoscope matching is a wasteful exercise – amusement at best. Tuning of temperaments is what matters most in living together.
But perhaps the biggest problem of modern families is dysfunctional communication. People are not talking to each other. It is very common to find TV always “on” in the evenings when the family reunites after their day-long outings and even at the dinner table mobile phones are continuously used. Children speak in monosyllables. What are you doing? Nothing. Where have you been? Outside. The old art of writing letters is also forgotten, and a horrible style of writing has appeared where the is written as “d” and great as “gr8”.
Neglect of the elderly is becoming commonplace. Old age homes are not common, but Ashrams are full of elderly people. Everyone, including elders, is responsible. People are obviously living longer and it is very common for people to hang around 2 to 3 decades after their retirement. The spirit of the third stage of life, vanaprastha – where the elderly take up a detached stance and do not get much involved in their grownup children’s lives – is by and large ignored. Either way, the grace of old age is either lost or robbed.
There is an interesting story of Aesop, a storyteller of ancient Greece. A horse, an ox and a dog came and begged for shelter in a man’s home one winter day during a fierce storm. He welcomed them and provided them with warmth by lighting a fire and served food – hay for the ox, oats for the horse, and leftovers from his own dinner to the dog.
Once the storm subsided, the grateful animals blessed the human and each gave a portion of its characteristics to him. The dog blessed old age, which is why old men are frequently peevish and ill-tempered. The horse blessed youth and, as a result, young men are high-tempered and impatient of restraint. The ox blessed middle age, making men in middle life steady and hardworking.
But these problems, though in plenty, are not the serious ones. As Leo Tolstoy wrote in the first sentence of his 1877 novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” people – young and old – devise their own methods to co-exist. The biggest challenge is the failure to live the human destiny of expanding consciousness. Selfish people somehow create unhappiness wherever they are.
There is no scientific conclusion as to what exactly consciousness is, except that it is a fundamental characteristic of life. From conception in the mother’s uterus to the moment of death, every sentinel being is conscious – from bacteria to plants to insects and all sorts of animals, waterborne, amphibians, moving on earth and flying, and man walking on his two feet – are conscious of their surroundings and deal with it, knowingly or unknowingly, every moment of their lives and therefore, to be alive is to be conscious.
Human beings have a unique gift of imagination. They remember the past and fantasize about the future. They can dream about their desires and strive for them. Not doing that is the biggest failure of one’s life. In Ramcharitmanas, Goswami Tulsidas compared the squandering away of this opportunity to expand the consciousness after sensory pleasures to throwing away a gem in the hand to pick up a shining piece of glass: काँच किरिच बदलें ते लेही। कर ते डारि परस मनि देहीं।. The neglect of the capacity to develop the divine consciousness is indeed wasting human life.
The child is named Shambhavi (शाम्भवी), who is loved by Shiva, the eternal God. Everything emerges out of eternal nothingness and is sucked back into it at the appointed time. What we call day and night is the never-ending movement of the earth around the Sun. May Shambhavi grow up to the fullest of the feminine dimension of energy functions – balance strength with gentleness, express subtle energies lying deep within the unconscious – the real purpose of human life.
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God bless Shambhavi, “Om Namah Shivaye”,
I feel, upcoming generations has to face more difficulties than us, we need to teach and armed them with our value system and dharma strongly to survive and fight against the evils. Unselfishness is God, take off self by one side and God enters by the other. I am quite sure she has born with a great purpose and is going to fulfil that in her life.
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृ त्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ॥
Warm Regards,
Arrival of a new-born naturally brings up the question of life purpose. Are we destined to do something in this world? Are there any central motivating aims of a life? Or, it is an ongoing evolutionary process of advancement of humanity.
Thinking in terms of purpose can guide life decisions, influence behaviour, shape goals, offer a sense of direction, and create meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation—meaningful, satisfying work. For others, their purpose lies in their responsibilities to their family or friends. Others seek meaning through spirituality or religious beliefs. Some people may find their purpose clearly expressed in all these aspects of life.
Purpose will be unique for everyone; what you identify as your path may be different from others. The best parents can do is to selflessly raise the child without imposing their plans and wishes upon them. God bless Shambhavi.
Lovely to see you and Shambhavi!
God Bless!
The article is introspective.
Above all, the one thing that catches the eye in your blog is the beautiful picture of you and Shambhavi. God bless the little soul.
As you said “Human destiny is all about emerging out of these traps”, I hope she doesn’t get into any in the first place.
I am one of the many fans of your writing and always find myself short of words to express how ‘relaxing’ your blogs are – if only I can use that word. Looking forward for more.
“What is the meaning of life?” is the most profound question of human existence for those who are thoughtful or else nothing more than a nonsensical request built on conceptual confusion, for those who take life for granted. It is not unusual for the non-philosopher to wonder, “What do philosophers discuss?” Questions about the meaning of life is not a philosophical question but the most practical query.
It arises and takes shape within varied contexts: when struggling to make an important decision, when trapped in a job we hate, when wondering if there is more to life than the daily humdrum. Situations like when diagnosed with a terminal illness or the loss of a loved one bring this question up. Standing in a desert or looking up at the night sky highlights the insignificance of human life.
Thank you for this lovely blog answering this question in a simple, straightforward way. Purpose of life is to attend to your situations and make decisions that are based on expansion of consciousness – what is good over what I like, and long-term over short term. Such decisions taken, every day over a long period, in fact transforms one’s life. May God bless the new child with a great future.
Thank you for nice post Sir.
Respected Sir, I am amazed how simply you convey complex questions like the purpose of life. I distil from your beautiful narrative the purpose of life as an attitude of awe, gratitude, and altruism. The experience of admiration for being alive makes us feel connected to something larger than ourselves and provides the emotional foundation for a sense of purpose.
But it’s not enough to just feel like you’re a small part of something big; we also need to feel driven to make a positive impact on the world. That’s where gratitude and generosity come into play. People who are able to count their blessings are much more likely to try to contribute to the world beyond themselves.
There’s little question that helping others is associated with a meaningful, purposeful life. People who do volunteer service or donating money, tend to have a greater sense of purpose in their lives. Interestingly, gratitude and altruism seem to work together to generate meaning and purpose. I have read that altruism and gratitude are neurologically linked, activating the same reward circuits in the brain.
Thank you for making us aware of these concepts. May Shambhavi live a virtuous life and spread happiness everywhere. God bless her.
Wonderfully articulated as always. The purpose of human life is to keep the inner-child alive till you die—Spread happiness, stay innocent, stay curious, be expressive and expect nothing material from anyone. The highest form of spirituality leads to that child-like innocence.
आत्मार्थम् जीव लोके अस्मिन्, को न जीवति मानवः।
परम् परोपकारार्थम्, यो जीवति स जीवति॥
इस दुनिया में अपने लिए कौन नहीं जीता है।
लेकिन जो दूसरों के लिए जीता है असल में वही जीता है।
For oneself in this world, which human being does not live.
But for the sake of others, who lives, indeed lives truly.
God bless Shambhavi!
Shri Arun Tiwariji You have blessings from Maa Saraswati to pen your thoughts on variety of subjects so beautifully that I read your blog in just one go. It’s deep In thoughts, but the way you have connected Aesops story and Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina and further our own Tulsidas Ramayana explaining various facets of Life is just commendable Like your earlier writings this one really touches the soul and compels to think over journey of life we are undertaking without knowing the Terminus. I appreciate you for sharing your thoughts and look forward to read more in future. Wishing you Good health and more pen work !God bless.
Very deep and thought provoking bhai saab!
The gift of imagination! It is this which makes humans apart from animals. And from each other.
It is this which also creates fear in us. Imagining far worse outcomes than actually happen.
But the greatest gift from imagination is seeking redemption. And seeking the Almighty.
Warm regards.
Welcome to the little angel, Shambhavi. May the God bless her. Her mere arrival made several of us to realize the truth about our existence through your Blog. Also, the message of Goswami Tulsidas was so apt- Karm Pradhan Vishwa Rachi Rakha.
Sir, I remember many occasions and incidents in my life. My grandpa (my mother’s father) is a sheer inspiration to me until this moment. The memories of childhood are palpable because of such humans. The way we are celebrating occasions such as feasting, naming a child, and giving ornaments to a child is a welcome sign of acceptance of a good family member. As a child, the immediate environment is surrounded by family members. The journey of life starts with such good occasions.
Beautiful moments with the little soul!
Thank you for sharing
God bless the cute Shambhavi. The culture around will shape her personality. The dimensions of traits develop to evolve in the given ecosystem and prevail to leave the trail of contributions. The first gulp of water, first steps on her own and the first words the child speaks are moments to cherish and bless.