Have you ever wished you were rather born as those cute pets with no responsibilities or worries, and your loving (human) parents to take care of all your needs. Or those carefree stallions running wildly in savanna, with no guilt of past and no anxiety of future. Or be born as gods with unlimited power, luxury and youth to enjoy? We, humans, are so limited in power and dependent on others and world. Effort must be put to experience every pleasure, which in any case is short lived.
Think of any religion, it paints a picture of heaven filled with gods enjoying luxuries. They have access to every pleasure. They can manifest the object of pleasure by mere desire or thought. They also have the ability to enjoy it in an unlimited way. What is the use of hundreds of varieties of desserts when you are a type 2 diabetic. Thus, gods are beings with no lack or scarcity. They do not have any unsatisfied cravings. How wonderful to be born as such a being, isn’t it?
Let’s look at animals. They are simple creatures. They live to fulfill their basic instincts – i.e. survive and propagate. All of their actions are geared towards protecting themselves (run away from predator, fight to defend themselves, hunt for food, water and shelter etc.) or propagate themselves (search for mate, fight and protect their mate). These actions are programmed by mother nature to ensure their survival (and thus survival of sentient life). But they lack discriminatory intellect. They can’t differentiate good from bad, right thing from wrong. They do not have ability to reflect on their actions or words. Neither birds reflect and improve upon their nest making ability, nor solo hunters like tigers think it’s better to hunt in packs by looking at dogs. They are programmed and driven by nature. They do not crave for big houses, cars, etc. I am sure some of us would love such simplicity, minimalistic lifestyle.
Now here comes us – humans. We are right in the middle. Unlike animals but similar to gods, humans have strong desire to experience various pleasures. That too for unlimited in quantity and for unlimited time. But we do not have resources to experience them. Not only external resources (viz. money to buy objects of pleasure), but also internal resources (body, senses etc.) are limited in nature. Such strong appetite for higher pleasures for longer duration, but lack of resources to satisfy that, keeps us under constant craving. We are not satisfied with what they have, we crave for more and more. In fact, more we get, more we crave (because we have tasted higher pleasures, we can’t go back now). Additionally, we have a strong discriminatory intellect (that is missing in animals). We are gifted with understanding of right vs wrong, good vs bad. Such discriminatory power is built into us even without any formal education. Formal education only helps in expressing, intellectualizing or verbalizing such discriminating ability. At times we use such formal education to justify our decisions using arguments that are based on (or against) such discriminatory power.
Thus, we humans are creatures with a) constant craving for higher pleasures for longer duration, b) but with clear sense of right vs wrong. This combination gives us opportunity to evolve higher, through action. Desires forces us to act, and discriminatory intellect shows us on the right way. Success in those actions give us pleasures and failures refine our intellect. We never stop trying because we never have enough, we are never satisfied. We are greedy. The trick is to make sure we exercise our discriminatory power for all our actions, else risk becoming animals. This is the secret to our evolution.
Gods do not get such opportunity as no craving of theirs remains unsatisfied. Thus, no passion, zeal, or motivation to make an effort. No effort, so no failure. Thus, no experience of sorrow of failure. Just indulgence without control. Animals do not get such opportunity as they neither have desires like humans, nor sufficient intellect. They are content with what they have, and thus no higher efforts, no motivation for action and thus no evolution.
Thus, if we drive our passions to attain higher experiences in the right direction, guided with discriminatory intellect, we evolve higher. Such evolution, initially limited to material attainments, later becomes spiritual – as matter can only satisfy one so much. Beyond a certain point, one realizes that from now on, higher pleasures will come not from material attainment but spiritual attainment.
Think of a poor person who thinks money is a source of happiness. If he works hard and earns money the right way (and not gamble, steal etc.), he will certainly improve his skills, abilities and intellect. On getting money, he will naturally get greedy and will desire for more. If he continues to work harder and employ creative means in the right way, he not only reaches his money goals but also becomes much smarter individual and may be an icon for others to follow. Then the time comes, when he is still looking for more, his very well refined intellect understands money is NOT the source of happiness, he starts search elsewhere – may be search for power, relationship, fame, family, religion. His search continues, his actions continue, always guided by the discriminatory power of intellect.
Thus, his journey advances higher and higher, till he exhausts all possible external means, and starts going inwards. Guided by his completely purified intellect, reaching in the depth of his own self, where he attains highest possible spiritual evolution. He experiences that inner bliss. The bliss that is not dependent on any external object. The bliss that is not dependent on his instrument of experience (senses, body, mind). The bliss that is his real nature, thus is infinite and for unlimited time. The bliss that was always there, veiled by his false beliefs that happiness lies outside. Only human birth creates such possibility – to use it or to lose it, is up to an us. And the way to use it is by asking – “yes, I want to be happy, I want more, but is this the right way?”
Hindu scriptures say it takes soul to go through 8.4 million wombs to finally get a human birth. Journey that may have started as a single celled amoeba, took 8.4 million births for sufficient refinement of intellect to take a form of a human being, the most magnificent creation of mother nature, her finest engineering marvel. From here on, one has a free will to evolve further higher or go back down. So, whatever you choose, realize that you are the blessed one, gifted one, with the most refined intellect amongst all beings. Don’t lose this “one in an 8.4 million” opportunity.
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