FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024
Elwyn Decruz
The most solid conviction we must hold within ourselves at every given moment is that it is us, and only us, homo sapiens, that are capable of fully understanding and experiencing the why and how all life evolves on this planet. Our survival, for us and all living creatures, depends on how well we comprehend this absolute reality, which is the very basis of our existence. And the most critical condition we must comply with is the duty that goes with this untenable and non-negotiable responsibility. In truth, it is the sublime legacy that creation, in the process of evolution, has bestowed upon the Human Race. What therefore is our “duty”?
Nature has allowed us the option to toss it, or take it to its logical end, which is a state of infinite bliss. The Earth was presented to us in all its magnificent beauty and purity, a Garden called Eden, and we all now know how we messed it all up, an unfortunate and unforgiveable fallout of our pettiness, greed and ignorance.
This is our moment to start up all over again, no further chance may be forthcoming. Without any hesitation, we need to go through a moment of profound and complete transformation. This may seem like the most improbable and difficult task in all of human history. But instead, it just happens to be the easiest endeavour we can ever expect to undertake, and it takes less than the shortest moment of time to happen.
That may sound like the most perplexing and preposterous paradox that the postulating pundits will want to pursue. All it takes to bring back our precious planet to its optimum state of peace, prosperity and primeval purpose, is to transform ourselves. We were once dispelled from Paradise because we lost our true identity, and Mother Nature is about to exercise her right of eviction again. It wasn’t Paradise, instead it was us who were the ones who were lost. On her own, without Humans around, the Earth is a supreme act of perfection and beauty. The Air, the Waters, the Grasslands and Forests, the Wind, the Rivers, the Valleys and Mountains and the all-essential Fire of the Sun, don’t really need us in any way. Even though we are indeed made up of earth, which we return to the soil when we have to “depart”, we must turn around and rediscover who, or what, is the one that departs. With that query, we must now look to the proposition of transformation.
Act One. Transforming ourselves. First we must dislodge our biggest enemy, Ignorance. To regain Paradise, the only option we have is to turn around, go within our being to discover and welcome and recognize our true inner nature, our existential life. For therein lies everything we need to know and what we need to do to keep the commitment we have made with Mother Nature, that is, to maintain the world the way she wants it to be. Within every human lies the very essence of the infinite wisdom that created the Cosmos.
Act Two. Coming back to our “earthly platform”, what we need to do next, is to clean up and eliminate the mess of a mountain we have piled up over the millions of years we so compulsively created. Only this time we need to operate with our newly found state of Consciousness. The main culprit and our Enemy Number One, Ignorance, has dumped entire nations and innocent communities around the globe, into a bottomless pit of greed and selfishness and corruption. Governing authorities infested with this all-pervasive and debilitating disease of Corruption are the prime cause of universal misery and degradation of life on the planet. They need to undergo complete transformation, a one hundred and eighty degree about turn and restore the communities they administer and render their duties with a total sense of integrity and nobility.
This can soon bring about a total transformation in the way we live and the way nature and the earth wants to be. If the Earth belongs to us, and if indeed we are the very soil that is the earth, why try to degrade and destroy it so want only? How does it benefit anyone if we continue to destroy the environment by permitting and constructing wasteful public infrastructure? The planet and the environment are irretrievably damaged by blindly permitting public acts of destruction that devastate homesteads and farm lands. The power lies in our hands as to whom we elect to guide and administer the proper direction that we need to take and to deliver all the benefits that life can bestow upon all beings and creatures, animate and inanimate that exist and inhabit our world.
Power dispensed into the wrong hands, soon corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. That was what Lord Acton of England said over 120 years ago. The next time we are at the Ballot Box, we must be aware and alert and apprised of the right person we intend to vote for. A true and wise “leader”, follows the peoples’ wish.
Act Three. Laying out Projects and Plans that are conceived and directed towards public welfare. The care and well-being of citizens is of course Priority Number One. This will include well-planned systems that provide for the right Education and Health platforms accessible and affordable for one and all.
Projects for clean air, clean water and uninterrupted electricity supply, public transportation, roads and waterways must be planned employing all the highest and most advanced the technologies available. Nothing less will, or should, do.
Act Four. Agriculture and Forestry must be allotted the maximum official care and attention. This is the basis of our survival, and a line of “business” activity that can never fail. Commercial manufacturing is also an important area of human endeavour that needs government encouragement and support,
Take courage, there’s nothing we cannot achieve. All the answers lie within, we only need to wish it and it can happen without raising a finger.
(The author is now a permanent resident of Goa after many years of living in Mumbai, New York & London)
