Karta: Life-Inspiring Essays On Cognition, Consciousness & Causality by Santosh Jha (book suggestions txt) 📕

The goddess replied, “you yourself said, humans are the most evolved and conscientious animal. This is the reality. Humans are the most ingenious and very inventive animal. They have the ability to invent not only resources but also all vices and cunningness. And, still, they have the brilliance of mind to justify all vices as virtues. The mighty lion and elephant too do not have this ability”.

The man asked, “but how can it be? The god designed the humans and we cannot expect and accept a faulty design by god, can we?”

The goddess replied, “what you say is the most ingenious and cunning inventiveness of humanity. God’s design is the same for all creatures but, humans in time evolved out of this original design as it grew up its brain to defeat the purpose and design of god. Now, humans have become so inventive that they are even using god for all of their selfish designs. Human mind has grown beyond the god’s design”.

The man showed his unwillingness to accept the idea. The goddess smiled and offered an alternative idea, “just accept it this way that when god created creatures, he knew that in course of evolution, what shape of things shall happen. Therefore, he designed humans this way so that its mind would evolve the way it did and would finally be the singular source of final destruction of the earth and all lives.”

The man was still not convinced. He accepted that what the goddess was saying might be right but he was still hoping that god must have some contingency plan to reverse this trend and lead humanity to a loving and compassionate situation.

… human inventiveness is so powerful that it cannot accept defeat… the man decided that he would learn the language of all animals so that he could warn them against the predators. The nature goddess smiled…

… before saying goodbye for the day, she said, “you are the scholar, master of many languages humans speak, still you left society and headed to jungle a sad person. Are you sure that even when you would learn all animal languages, they would listen to you and accept your warnings as true?”

… the man was shocked… he went inside his hut and pondered… was she right…?

**

The Intruder

AS IS CONVENIENT for the navigation of a story, at times, something stupid has to be accepted as situational start of a journey… so, it so happened that there were five people sitting in the waiting room of a small railway station at night and suddenly, lights went off. There was complete darkness in the room…. and, minds started lighting up:

A young lady in the room was initially apprehensive of darkness… instinctively concerned and thought of taking out the match box from her purse. But, it came to her mind that darkness was rather more acceptable. She could now sit comfortably without worrying for her pimples on her otherwise beautiful face, which she had to cover up as a handsome guy was sitting just next to him. She was confident, in darkness, the guy would find her more acceptable and approachable….

She was right, the guy was really thrilled to have darkness around and even was praying that the power outage should last forever… he wished to smoke but did not as he was averse to disturb the joy of darkness even for a second. Also, he was afraid the lady could sense his intentions from his face if he lighted the cigarette. He rather pulled his chair close to the beautiful girl, taking advantage of the darkness, which eventually fulfilled the lady’s wishes….

An old man sitting far across the lady was engrossed in his thoughts and as darkness set in, he stretched himself on his seat and became more relaxed. He was happy that darkness would help him take his mind off his thoughts, which nagged him no end. He had left his home after his only son abused him and despite his best efforts, he could not close his eyes to sleep over the issue…. in the dark, sleep crept in his eyes….

A mid-aged man sitting next to the old man initially got nervous but seconds later, he smiled at the comfort of darkness around him. He was carrying huge cash money in his bag and was nervous that someone would get a whiff out of his face which he could not make look normal despite his best efforts. He clutched the bag in between his legs and a relaxed look was parched on his face…

A teenage girl was sitting on the farthest corner of the room and ever since she entered the room, she wanted to smoke. She was very disturbed as her boyfriend had just smsed her that he had moved on and had another girl in his life. As darkness set in, she was happy as she could smoke which she could not in the lighted room as she was shy of smoking in front of other people in the room.

As stories must end with something interesting, in this story too, a young man entered the room and flicked his lighter to find if there was some space for him to stay for a while till the power outage was restored….

As his lighter disturbed the peace and comfort of the existing five, they all shouted in unison, “… stupid man… can’t you see… are you blind… put off the light…!”

The intruder could not understand and stepped out of the room in complete bafflement… He could hear someone among the five saying, “… irrational fellow…!”

**

It Shall Be There, I No More

THERE IS A RIVER a few meters away from my house…

In monsoon, rainwater gushing from mountains fill up the entity of the river and it flows, dances and sings like a young lass, oblivious of her surroundings and all other beings. Whenever at the pinnacle of my unattached consciousness, I prefer to sit down, by the riverside. The young lass has the charm and charisma… she has a filling flow and fruition of finiteness…

… early morning, I am there… not alone… more than 20 dogs and nine cows are idling around me… they all look mesmerized… some in deep slumber… the river sings loudly and the gushing flow ensures, nothing else moves but the furious water in bulk… the charm draws all beings to her…

Usually, the river talks to me… today, she is not… she is in pride… the abundance and the fullness of her youthful being makes her a bit self-possessed… youth, possession, pride go together and gel well… she is not responding…

A small, worn out and rounded pebble lies on the bank, just in front of me… water flows over it. As the pebble is small and well rounded, he is not offering any resistance to the water flow and no ripples are made. Just ahead, almost in mid stream is a large boulder… it is offering struggle and ripples are visible… rather, it is making the roaring sound… water attempting to flow over it and sometimes, river wins, sometimes the boulder wins…

I pick up the small rounded pebble in my hand and he starts talking to me… I can feel the same energy of my unattached consciousness in the pebble. The pebble says calmly to me, “two thousand years ago, I was there in the middle, where the boulder is now and was bigger in size, shape and almost everything. My edges were very sharp… ever ready to resist anything… now, I am in unattached consciousness, shed all my useless and painful edges; also shed the pride of my bulk. Now, you can see, I am painlessly small, well rounded and at peace… no pride of fullness, no pain of rough edges, no nothing… I just be…”

I asked the pebble, “can I take you with me”… he smiled… I put him back where it was… it shall always be there where it has been… I shall come whenever I shall need him… I know, it shall be there even when I shall be no more…. okay… bye friend….

**

Of Heaven & Hell

TWO PERSONS DIED on the same day and both were presented before God’s court to decide on who goes to hell, who goes to heaven and who shall be made to reborn….

First was a saint and he had a huge following of devotees… he had done a lot of charity and looked like a fit case for a long stay in heaven…. but, God ruled that he be sent to earth to be born again so that he could get another chance to earn his chances of heaven….

The second man was a poor peasant who died with loan on his head and also a borderline drunkard…. he looked like bound for hell…. but, God ruled that he stays in heaven for some good many days, before being sent to earth again…..

An assistant of God, who kept all records of human deeds on earth could not understand God’s rulings and he very humbly questioned his jurisprudence…

God told him, the saint did so many good things which might have benefitted a lot of people but, every charity and good deed he did during his life time was done with an intention and emotion of earning name and fame for him…. and to ensure that he was popular and revered as a saint.

He also resorted to some clever tactics, which actually misled many…. The peasant did nothing remarkable as his position in life and resources never allowed him to. But, he was always very humble and year after year, he planted his crops and cared them like his own child, always thinking that his crops must feed many hungry stomachs in the society, even when many times, the crops failed despite his best care. And that landed him in debt… his intention and emotion towards his work was very pure and exalted…

The difference is in with what emotion and intention you do your karma… your duties of life… the former’s case was an action of goodness but for self-aggrandizement whereas, the latter’s action was of goodness without selfishness. The amount and size of goodness does not matter a lot, what matters is with what emotions and intentions you do it…. karma is important, but more important is the energy of intention that decides it….

**

Mishandled Potentials

HE MUST HAVE been six years old and his brother a year elder. As kids must, they were onto all sorts of childlike tomfoolery.

It would be summer holiday and as their dad would leave for office, they would be off to their usual devil tour, and they had a business at hand….

In front of their house, there was a large mansion of an old man, who lived alone. On one side of the mansion there was a tree of luscious berries and on the opposite side, there was a mango tree. In summers, both trees would be full of fruits.

The old man had a virtual tough time. He would chase the two kids away from the berry tree and they would attack the mango tree. As he would limp to other side of his huge mansion, they would have enough time to have their fill.

The old man would be exhausted. He would abuse them and threaten to break their legs and the kids would be no less polite. They would make faces and laugh their hearts out to tease the old man more.

Think of the whole thing; was this all necessary? They should have been good kids; they should never have bothered the old man and what for? These fruits are anyway sold dirt cheap in the market and the kids were not actually hungry, they did it for fun, so bad….!

However, one also cannot resist the thought that if the old man could have understood their childlike stupidities. If the old man could