Humans indulge in a rat race their entire life, even though the inevitable event of death nullifies all lifetime achievements and possessions.
Such behaviour appears to be almost similar all over the world. Historical human behaviour over the last several centuries clearly proves this.
From childhood, humans set certain goals for themselves based on their likes and dislikes and their own assessment of their capabilities, which are largely based on wishful thinking. Such ambitious aims are inevitably accompanied by a complex thought process, sometimes with greed and jealousy and sometimes with love and passion. This thought process born out of wishful thinking blurs the life process itself, making it confused and sometimes even chaotic.
Some people achieve success in their aims and some others face failure in the eyes of others. In any case, whatever is achieved or not achieved, done or undone, the ultimate event of death clearly proves that such preoccupation with activities amounts to nothing in the end. Does this not show that humans are unwise and are inclined to refuse to appreciate the ground reality that life is essentially a time-passing exercise, where there is no permanence?
It is particularly strange to see people even reserving land for their burial and memorial after their life ends, especially when they do not know their destination after death. What does it matter to those who have passed away whether they are remembered or forgotten after they leave?
Several saints and deep thinkers have pointed out this lack of consciousness about the uncertainty of inevitable death, which may come at any time due to natural or unnatural causes. Adi Sankara, revered as one of the greatest Hindu saints in India, in his classic _Bhaja Govindam_, called humans who live with greed for power and wealth and indulge in pleasure and violence to settle scores as "mudha" - a Sanskrit word meaning fool.
Several historical events and present events between individuals, groups, religions and countries have shown how greed for power and territory and the desire for vengeance have only resulted in innocent people losing their lives for no fault of theirs, soldiers getting killed, property and infrastructure getting destroyed, and ultimately no one gaining anything decisively. Yet such conditions continue to exist from historical times until today, indicating that humans continue to remain unwise, with greed or passion clouding their vision. It also indicates that, by and large, humans have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing over centuries.
Take the present wars between Russia and Ukraine, Iran and Israel, Iran and USA, and Houthis and Saudi Arabia. These have been caused only by greed, prejudice, and hatred among those involved, and in the process, no one gains, with the likely result being only destruction all around. Are the people who caused these conflicts wise and matured? They foolishly think that despite the destruction caused by their decisions, they will remain forever and ultimately have their way. But they too die at one time or another, just like the thousands of people who have lost their lives due to their greed and prejudices.
Hitler had the ambition to dominate the world and Churchill had the ambition to overpower Hitler. Both were preoccupied with fighting each other and finally both ended in death - one reportedly by suicide and the other due to natural causes - with their destination after death being unknown and incomprehensible. Have these two men really gained anything for themselves? They may have gained historical attention, with praise or hate from successive generations. It is strange to see people putting up statues, building monuments, celebrating death anniversaries, and even honouring the dead with posthumous awards. Does such honour after death really matter to those persons?
Such events conclusively prove that humans have remained unwise from historical times until today, and there is no indication or prospect of future generations becoming any more mature or wise than they are today.
Over centuries, the world has seen several religions spring up and several saints advocate peace and harmony, pointing out that the ultimate objective of humans should be to attain the feet of God, wherever He is and whatever He is. Many humans follow such religious teachings and the advocacy of saints, but their behaviour and attitude to life do not become any wiser over the years. Even those who believe in God do not become wise in their day-to-day living and continue to remain with negative attributes.
While a large number of people believe in God and the methodology advocated by saints to realise God, humans still wonder what to do with this human body as they live on. They certainly need activity and need to keep themselves occupied in some pursuit or other. Saints and religions do not ask humans to remain inactive in life but urge them to pursue their activities without ego, greed, and jealousy, and with truth and fairness in all pursuits.
It is seen that all such advice from deep thinkers and saints has really fallen on deaf ears, even though most humans are followers of religions and saints. This obviously implies that humans remain unwise lifelong.
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*Trustee, Nandini Voice For The Deprived, Chennai
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