A Short Treatise on Human Nature...(Part 2)

This is the second and concluding part of the 'treatise'...

This ‘nature’ that we are talking about is a highly complex subject. It is a study in contradictions. It is the cause as well as, to the certain extent, the effect behind all the evil or good in the world, because we can think, we can analyse and come to conclusions. We are ambitious and it is our nature that some times permits us to be ruthless in our pursuits. This nature of ours, I believe is an embodiment of the much larger Nature that we all are part of we create and destroy within our capacities, just like our larger counter part does.

But if our nature is nothing but a smaller, more confined version of Nature, then wherefrom do the various global problems of poverty, human rights violation, pollution hazards, torture, extortion, etc arise? These shouldn’t be problems at all; as a matter of fact, these should contribute to the maintenance of nature’s delicate balance. But, obviously, this is not the case, so what is the problem?

Ah! All said and done, there is but one point that we have overlooked, that has led to the above contradiction. I just mentioned on the previous page that man’s nature is a Smaller, more Confined version of Nature. Here lies our solution.

Man, most of the times, forgets the above and almost always tries to override nature. The problems arise when we trespass into that territory which is the exclusive domain of nature. We are always trying to match our forces with that of our larger counterpart. We do not understand that when we murder, deceive and torture our fellow humans; when we cut down forests and say “what the hell!”, we are not asserting our supremacy over anything, leave alone nature. If at all we are doing anything, we are murdering, deceiving and torturing ourselves; we are cutting ourselves down.

I do not say that man was meant to create Utopia, but at least we should have self- respect and a better understanding of our ‘confines’. Without deceiving into the supernatural (primarily because, it is yet another debateable topic), one can safely say that we have no right to call ourselves civilised, if we can’t learn to accept our limitations and respect our creator. Don’t you think 40,000 yrs on this planet is long enough for us to realise that we should stop behaving like spoilt brats having no respect for their parents and who are prepared to insult and abuse them at the slightest instant. Even that spoilt child is better than us, who are prepared to defile without even the slightest hint of provocation.

It’s high time, that young child’s queries regarding, life, existence, creation and goodness, were heeded; enough questions have been discouraged, enough curiosities trampled upon, it’s time we started the healing process before it gets too late. The problem is not that mans nature is bad; the problem is just that we have plainly forgotten our boundaries.

We need to draw the line again, so that we may have time to solve the problem at hand before giving on to the next; so that more questions are answered rather than left unanswered; so that man’s life becomes more coherent; so that I Roop Kumar Bhadury, aged 19 years, would no longer feel strange about writing about us humans, so that those people who have thoughts like I had at the beginning, would not hesitate to put them on paper, so that the world as a whole would have a better more refreshing look about it; so that all spoilt brats learn to respect their creator.

Hope you all enjoyed the concluding part...

New piece next week folks...

Cheers,
Roop Kumar Bhadury aka Babumoshai

Access this blog @ http://www.babumoshai.com/

A Short Treatise on Human Nature...(Part 1)

Well...that's what I thought I was writing anyway, when I was a 19 year old trying to figure life out...Still trying that, mind you :-)

Still, I feel it reads rather well...so here goes...

A Short Treatise on Human Nature

It really is strange that out of the blue I should feel like writing something concerning this living creature called a human being. Well, I guess such a sudden impulse occurs to everyone in his or her life, but is rarely put down on paper.

This question has racked me throughout the various stages of my development as a human (though, of course in different forms and intensities) What is a human being? Where do we come from, et al. As a child grows, it has been seen that these questions gradually cease to emanate from his lips. Does that mean his queries have been satisfactorily answered or does it imply a loss in his curiosity?

I think, a child gradually learns to accept his existence as a fact of nature and as gradually other seemingly important things regarding existence collide head on with his psyche, the basic questions take a backseat, so much so that later on in life, the basic existence of these questions is not acknowledged by us.

If we attempt to draw an objective inference, we do, to an alarming extent come to a rather strange possibility. Don’t u think, what happened to that child’s queries, is exactly what is happening to all people, at every stage of life and at all times. Don’t u think that man is always worrying more about the next problem, which invariably takes precedence over the problem at hand? This I think has made mans life, a string of unanswered questions. Why is this so? (if at all, what I say is true). The “if” that I have used in parenthesis is there to remind the reader that I am not attempting to change anyone’s ideology or thinking; but on the contrary, this is I believe a sincere effort (and a conscious one) on my part to understand the strangeness of us humans. I am thus trying to find as many enigmas as possible therein and a possible explanation as per my thinking.

Continuing with the rather delicate question/analogy I posed (to myself) on the previous page, one can’t but help suspect that this is inextricably linked with human nature. But, hold it! Aren’t we a bit ahead of ourselves in our little discussion? We haven’t yet justified the comparison or, if I may insist, the conclusion we come to, on the previous page.

All of us would agree that man ( I would like to apologise for the apparently chauvinistic use of “man” in my discussion; but rest assured, fair ones, I am referring to both sides of human coin. I appear chauvinistic because of convention; reasons of which are debatable, but that of course is another story!) is arguably a rather intelligent(?) and civilised(?) specimen of the living species. But despite the surface qualities (again coined by man) of being rational and “thinking “, we more often than not tend to bely this rather ego satisfying reputation we have given ourselves. History, as they say, is nothing but the fossilised face of time. It ”moves” without “moving”. So quite clearly it is reliable reference chart that can be used by us.

If we analyse mans progress over the ages, we come across innumerable incidents where man has contradictions himself rather than blatantly. Where man has preached peace, at our place, we have advocated war at another. Where he has preached truth, he has also deceived; it goes on and on. Why? Why is it that history is lined with instances where man has annihilated man, and again why, at the same time, has he been the epitome of compassion and peace? Our discussion, as we can very well see, has taken a ‘U’ turn and everything has again boiled down to, analysis of human nature.

Concluding part next week...

Interesting views for a 19 year old...and not entirely irrelevant in today's world either...

Cheers,
Babumoshai aka Roop Kumar Bhadury

Access this blog @ http://www.babumoshai.com