DR. JOE D’SOUZA
Ever since human beings evolved about 80,000 years ago, human mind has trained and shaped him from being a wanderer to a confined settler. We all know that early Homo sapiens aimlessly travelled far and wide in search of food. Man slowly built temporary shelters atop tress, prepared food from wild berries, and hunted animals until he discovered the goodness of community living. This transformation was not quick or sudden.
Our early forefathers also feared nature and learned to performed rituals, hoping to keep mother nature happy, through sacrificial offerings and chanting to ward off evil spirits. When languages developed some 20,000 years ago, symbolic rituals were developed, which later evolved into the finer aspects of music, song, dance, giving birth to literature as well as finer aspects of crude science and technology. This helped man harness the forces of nature. Agriculture developed, horticulture prospered and animal farming and rearing made it possible for man to generate balanced foods, effective medicine and understand the importance of elemental cycles. Burying or burning wastes, decanting and filtering water and even understanding the significance of boiling, frying, preserving by drying, salting, smoking existed about 10,000 years ago. This was primitive biotechnology.
About 6,000 years ago, there was a dichotomous evolution of the thinking process, in our early ancestors. Rig Veda tells us emphatically a section of our forefathers continued to love and respect “Mother Nature” and the other group of individuals developed the concept of ritualism and religiosity. The concept of an almighty Creator of the Universe and the forces of nature was thus parallel. If there is a nature which was harmonious there must be a Creator. Thus divine verses, prayers, hymns, shlokas, etc. started to be generated to worship, venerate, pay obeisance to the “Invisible Almighty and seek blessings and rewards from the Creator”. Neo religious, caste or class distinctions grew all across the globe. However, the tillers and the toilers, continued to respect and revere “Mother Nature”.
The toiling class believed nature was supreme and self-governing was the belief of the people who toiled and labored. If there is a God, who has created that God, was the question they fervently asked. Every creation has a creator than who created the creator.
If there is an all knowing merciful and knowing God, why is he angry, making mistakes, killing us randomly?
Are earthquakes, floods, destruction a part of God’s plan? Is he an angry punishing God or a loving God? These ancient questions exists even until today whereby modern day rationalists and atheist question the bhakts of organized religions, as to why certain animals are termed holy or did God come down and declare “Sunday” as a day
of rest!
As much as religion started to bring about discipline via ritualism and fear of the Almighty, science too played its role to explain mankind that there is nothing godly in nature, and it is just simple laws of nature. Gravity, evolution of storms hurricanes, volcanoes earthquake, etc. are results of interactions of air, water, atmosphere; effects of moon, solar influences; orbiting of planets, and their influences etc. Science helped man to understand and harness nature. The importance of harnessing the forces of nature using; technology to generate and transform energy soon emerged. Needless to say, instead of using knowledge to harness energy for peaceful co-existence and prosperity of mankind, man started misusing science and technology to take totally control of planet earth.
One may dismiss very lightly that every religion promotes love, and hate, terrorism and destruction are evils due to scientific growth and technology and no way connected to religion. However, if you scientifically, rationally and impartially analyse, you will see that every religion latently focuses and promotes the way to salvation is only through the religion espoused by their preacher.
Whist promoting one way to seek heaven, hate and repulsion to other religious beliefs was latently inherent, even today. However we deny; crusades, jihads, saffron terror etc., emanate from radical religious beliefs. The brain washing of the common man by radicals and fundamentalists to appease the Almighty and seek heavenly bliss are today the salvation mantra. The abuse of science through technological controls is today a reality too in the world divided by political
religiosity.
The modern day man is at the cross roads of his destiny. In the pursuit of comfort, luxury and power; man has been using or rather misusing religion, ritualism and technology to achieve his goal. Man is essentially a selfish, self-seeking and very destructive species.
Although man is on the top of the food chain, he considers other animals as created for his glory and use. We pollute rivers, concretise jungles, and build housing on hill slopes.
Mother Nature rewards or punishes the society as a whole. It is a sad reality that the utter contempt and neglect towards “Mother Nature” and the pseudo belief that only super natural forces alone provides success and security is today causing rise in kidney ailments, physiological disabilities, cancers, respiratory ailments.
In Panjim particularly; we have totally ignored the rise in atmospheric pollution, water contamination, decay and destruction of River Mandovi by casino, cruise boats and CoP, who has, by promoting gambling and cruise boats increased the levels of enteric bacteria, heavy metals in garbage, mineral oils discharged by casinos to biomagnify
in fish and catalyse morbidity and mortality.
We must realize at the earliest that work is worship for God helps those who help themselves and Mother Nature would surely bless us all once we start performing instead of merely praying for divinity to protect us.
