Skip to main content

Death and new life


Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the soil, it cannot grow into a new plant.  Jesus said that, but it is a very obvious truth. 

The mailbox in the picture is one which was in function until a few years back.  Now it stands like a relic in Fatehpur Beri, South Delhi.  It will gather rust and fall down one day.  Civilisation has killed it already before time will kill it once and for all.  No one will mourn its death any more than anyone will mourn the death of the cassette player or the typewriter.  The new takes the place of the old.  And the old dies.  Naturally. 

Civilisation keeps moving ahead with new technology and better ways of doing things.  Life becomes easier and better.

But
has life really become easier and better?
Is the new life better than the old?

Such questions are silly because their answers are as obvious truths as what Jesus said about the grain of wheat.  Everything has merits and demerits. 

Life goes on.  Changes are as inevitable as death and new birth. 

But
I’m just wondering why we, who keep creating marvels in technology, architecture, medicine...
why we can’t create the marvel of tolerance in place of strife,
cooperation in place of terrorism...

Well
maybe a genetic mutation is awaiting mankind.

Maybe the ape who walks on two legs will die to give birth to a new species.

That's a better hope than awaiting heaven in the hereafter :)

Labels:

Comments

  1. Datta GhoshSeptember 5, 2014 at 4:05 PM

    we are slowly evolving technically speaking..The Homo Sapiens has become Homo Sapien Sapien. Wonderful post Sir

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 5, 2014 at 8:35 PM

      There's another evolution that we need, Datta: at the consciousness level. A lot of people had imagined it, Bernard Shaw, Nietzsche, Teilhard de Chardin... Evolution is a slow process, I guess.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2014 at 9:35 PM

    Something profound in this

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 6, 2014 at 8:58 AM

      I kept it short in order to prevent scaring readers with too much "profundity" :) Thanks.

      Delete
  3. PurbaSeptember 6, 2014 at 6:27 AM

    We have reached a stage when we are realizing that progress came with a cost. Some us will learn and change and the rest of us will adapt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 6, 2014 at 8:59 AM

      True, the change has already started with quite many people questioning the prevailing dominant world view.

      Delete
  4. Nima DasSeptember 7, 2014 at 5:01 PM

    The old gives way to the new but always at a cost! Good read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 8, 2014 at 9:31 AM

      Many civilisations perished when they lost touch with the roots (traditional ways), according to a scholar on the topic, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ivan the unusual friend

When you are down and out, you will find that people are of two types. One is the kind that will walk away from you because now you are no good. They will pretend that you don’t exist. They don’t see you even if you happen to land right in front of them. The other is the sort that will have much fun at your expense. They will crack jokes about you even to you or preach at you or pray over you. This latter people are usually pretty happy that you are broke. You make them feel more comfortable with themselves even to the point of self-righteousness. Ivan was an exception. When I slipped on the path of life and started a free fall that would last many years before I hit the bottom without a thud but with enormous anguish, Ivan stood by me for some reason of his own. He didn’t display any affection which probably he didn’t have. He didn’t display any dislike either. There was no question of preaching or praying. No jokes either. Ivan was my colleague for a brief period at St Joseph’s
14 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
14 comments
Read more

Joe the tenacious friend

AI-generated illustration You outgrow certain friendships because life changes you in ways that nobody, including you, had expected. Joe is one such friend of mine who was very dear to me once. That friendship cannot be sustained anymore because I am no more the person whom Joe knew and loved to amble along with. And Joe seems incapable of understanding the fact that people can change substantially. Joe and I were supposed to meet one of these days after a gap of more than two decades. I scuttled the meeting rather heartlessly. Just because Joe’s last messages carried words that smacked of intimacy. My life has gone through so much devastating fire that the delicate warmth of intimacy has become repulsive. Joe was a good friend of mine while we were in Shillong. He was a post-graduate student and a part-time schoolteacher when I met him first. I was a fulltime schoolteacher teaching math and science to ninth and tenth graders. My dream was to postgraduate in English literature an
11 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more