The Creation and Human Nature - Essay Example

Every human being, at some time or the other in life, contemplates on the nature, the creation, on the Creator, on human life, and on his or her own existence. We all wonder why we are here on this earth, who has created us, who is the creator, is there a creator of the creator, is there another universe similar to ours? Most importantly, we wonder who are human beings in the scheme of things. Sallie McFague, one of the leading feminist theologians, develops the world as God’s body. My response to the question begins in the readings of Migliore and McFague. Questions like the existence of human beings inevitably draws me back to the beginning of my life. The place was a fishing camp on Lake Winnipeg when along with my grandfather, I was gazing at the scavengers feeding on the carcasses of fish. This setting was filled with life, death, and promise of new life. My grandfather pointed out to me how our little relations gave their lives so others may live. I was too young to understand, so he narrated a story, "How the Creator gave all things a special work on this earth". My grandfather also explained how faithful each creation was to their role. I pondered over his words and the story for a long time until I could see the depth in them. Each element of the Creation is a teacher, from the tiniest insect to the massive expanse of the sky. The fish gives its life to feed other fishes, its four-legged, two-legged, and winged relatives. In its suffering and death, it does not forget the trees that provided shade when they were spawning. The relationship with the trees is honoured in death by giving nutrients to the tree. The tree incessantly provides fresh air, clean cool water, shade, and protection for generations over generations. I was further amazed at the shape of the tree which resembles an umbrella. An umbrella protects us from rain and heat; the tree provides shelter against rain and heat. The creator assures us through the tree of its continued protection for its entire creation, which includes the two-legged human beings. We as two-legged are mere witnesses, participants, receivers of all the gifts our relatives give us through the Creator. My grandfather cautioned me that we need to be wise, not to dishonour them and lay waste to the gifts we all share. All who experienced the fish camp that day were not aware that mainstream society viewed the world with different eyes. The assumption was ethnocentric; for us there was no other way of relating to the world. The pulp mills were spewing pollution and sickness as evidenced by the scum and fish carcasses washed up on the shorelines. I did not understand why these things were happening. However, grandfather had taught me that our lives depended on our giving up our life for another. This action I will call atonement with the creation. I further reflected upon the setting at the camp which depicted life, death and promise of a new life again. Why does death occur and then again a new life? I could connect it to the law of karma, which says that we keep taking birth to make up for our past sins. Karma literally means action. We classify an action as right or wrong, moral or immoral, and the meaning changes to suit each one’s convenience. Every religion teaches that virtue is rewarded and sin leads to suffering. Even a physical ailment is taken as a punishment for the past sins. What is the creator’s role in human suffering? Why do only some people suffer in this world? When a child does something wrong, we punish him and we punish only our own child, not a neighbor’s child. We punish him because we love him and we do not want him to repeat the same mistake. When a student makes a mistake in class, the teacher corrects him through punishment, so that the student can learn and move on to the next class. The teacher does not want the student to stay in the same class more than a year. Similarly, the creator too wants us to learn through our mistakes and evolve. Human sufferings do not reflect His indifference; it expresses His care and concern for us. He gives us an opportunity to make up for past, realize, understand and accept, and then move on in the discovery of the self. Every creature in God’s creation has a purpose, a role to play. An earthworm led to the discovery of penicillin. Suffering, violence, decay, the death of individual specimens, and the extinction of species have existed since the emergence of life on earth. Similarly, earthquakes and tsunamis too are God’s will to maintain the balance in the world. Cells have been programmed to die and new life can come on earth only through the death of others. God’s creation has both order and chaos, birth and death. This is a balancing act of the creator. Our hold on life is fragile. As stated in "Faith Seeking Understanding", the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer gave its creation a purpose and in that dance of life we all share and are dependent on God, the Creator. As everyone else, I was captured by consumerism and broke the covenant with traditional teaching. My eyes became clouded with the idea that what we were outdated and unacceptable in a modern world. The modern Indian needed to move from the pantheistic, stone age view of the world and scrounge for the world of Miss Piggy. In this world of glut, our purpose as a human was diminished, lost in a world that did not see the wisdom in what we have to teach, creating an environment of despair. So, many of us abandoned thereby breaking the relationship with creation and all living things. All the sweetness had left our lives and we became apathetic and despairing. We have learnt in school that the law of conservation of energy states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is merely transformed from one state to another. The whole universe is made up of energies, including the human beings. We know objects are made up of atoms, and human beings are made up of kazillions of atoms and atoms contain nothing but energy. The renowned scientist Albert Einstein stated the “Einstein’s equation of mass energy equivalence”. (E=mc sq). Now, all of us, human beings, birds, cows, tables, chairs, mobile phones, cockroaches are mass of energy. According to this wonderful gift from Einstein ALL mass can be converted to energy (and as I said, everything is made up of atoms...as atoms are the smallest indivisible existing particles). This vast energy system of which we all are a part is nothing but GOD – a name derived by humans for the highest form of energy. God stands for one who Gives, Observes and Directs. Energy does all this to us. When we realize and accept that this world is God’s body and we are a part of this energy system, we begin to live. We need to recognize that God is the ultimate source of love, life, vision, and energy. This itself will give us immense courage to live without fear. What is needed? Where do we go from here? How do we atone? How do we live in atonement with all creation? First, we begin to grow in understanding by listening with heart and spirit. Allowing the skin to fall from our eyes and be willing to die to self-gratification so others can live, breathe, and thrive in creation. We have to learn to living in right attitude and right action. My grandfather taught "always leave the campsite in a better condition than when you arrived". Death is universal, it comes to all things created, even the mountains. It is a necessary part of the life cycle and we as human beings need to attempt to leave a better campsite for the next generation at every level. Leaving the earth wounded would be to leave the body of Christ suffering. We need to learn to move from learned hopelessness to voice, resisting power and becoming fully human. It is important to assess: How do I live in the world today? The process has been slow but some changes are slowly taking place. Modeling a caring, intentional behaviour, marked with right actions towards family and others, willingness to learn, listen and act on wisdom received from all knowledge, for the benefit of all. Simplifying our lives through downsizing and consuming less, recycling and sharing our home with others, endeavoring to connect with the greater community and speaking against what is destructive, being willing to live with the consequences of that choice. Atonement with community and Christ, is the path of the little way and includes all creation. This is the Christ path: to lay down one’s life for another, friend, or foe. I believe God is within you, it is just how and when you realize it. It all boils down to same thing. One needs something to hold on to, that is God, the self. God is not that image of Christ in the grand-parents’ room which always has a lamp lit and incense burning in front of it. It is that ideal, that lamp of knowledge which always shows light to the self. A beggar does not have the money to buy an image, which does not mean he does not believe in God. The belief and faith in God has to come from within. And either way God does not ask for incenses to be burnt and lamps to be displayed. In fact, he does not even want our prayers. The need is the true knowledge of the self and the existence of knowledge. These days, everyone is turning spiritual. The right blend of materialism and spiritualism is necessary in each one’s life to understand, fulfill, and exhaust the karmas on this earth. Mind too is matter. Human beings have to travel beyond the mind, otherwise they would remain stuck in materialism. Journey inwards, journey to the inner self has to be undertaken; self-enquiry has to be conducted. It is by no means an easy feat to accomplish and comes with longing, love and pain. Mankind needs to awaken to the truth, to realize the truth, to be true. The more I travel, the more I long for it. As the layers unfold, I realize the true meaning of love. Love is in reality a longing. The more you get the more you long for it. Love for truth, love for reality is not a desire. Desire is to possess; longing is to know the truth. I realized as longing increases, love increases; as love increases our perception changes. We become capable of special perception. We are able to see the spiritual truth. We are able to see the divinity within us. Our vision goes beyond the scope of the physical eye. The intuitive power develops. I could feel the power of healing. I could feel the immense love that flows from within. I could experience the power of love. I could feel a sense of freedom. I could sense the true nature of love. I could perceive love from a different perspective. It is not the love for any object or physical form. It is love for the truth, for the divinity, for the reality, which leaves us enchanted, enraptured and magnetized. Love is for something that can be possessed, achieved, or enjoyed; longing leads you to become that what you long for. Once you become that the longing ceases because you are one with that, you are that! Hildegard of Bingen says there is no Creation that does not have radiance, be it green-ness or seed blossom or beauty. It could not be creation without it. If God had not the power to thus empower, the light to thus enlighten, where then would all creation be? It is in giving that we receive. In this love there is no desire for possession and pleasure; this love brings about the transformation and reveals the divinity. This divinity is the invisible nature that is the cause of existence. It is common knowledge that we become one with someone or something only when we long for it. Similarly, only when we long for the truth, when we long to travel beyond, when we long to know the cause of the universe, when we long to know the creator, in our pursuit we definitely can become one with the truth, with the reality, with God. And this alone is the purpose of human birth. Read More