The Emerging New World

Over the last century, planet Earth and condition of all life that dwells upon it has entered a completely new phase, vastly different from any that existed in the past.

The first striking difference is the burgeoning population of humans on the planet. They have crossed seven billion and are heading towards ten billion strong in the coming decades. The invention of antibiotics and vaccines has contributed to this increase. The increasing population of humans and their needs has displaced not just much animal life on the planet but also the green side of it so that many species have become extinct or are on the verge of becoming so.

The second huge difference is emergence of technologies that were once visualized only in fairy tales. Computers, television, mobile devices and nuclear devices are all inventions over the last century. They have changed human lives and behavior in drastic ways.

Thinkers and philosophers wonder where humans and the planet they occupy are headed. There are both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The optimistic one is that population will stabilize soon and with help of increased communications and knowledge, humans will soon overcome problems such as pollution and greedy exploitation of many by the few and enter a new more evolved era. The pessimistic scenario is that humans will just blow themselves apart sooner or later since they now have the power to do it with nuclear devices. Whatever happens may be of huge significance to humans but our planet is just one of many in this infinite universe and to the universe as a whole it is not such an important issue surely.

No doubt whatever happens to humans shall depend not just on technologies but inner emotional and character development, the spiritual side. For this development humans need to refer to older spiritual knowledge for that development among humans preceded technological development by some thousands of years. No doubt there will be need to reject some of the old that exists while accepting some of it, interpreting and developing it further. A common method this author has used for this purpose is to accept readily what has been common to different spiritual traditions across the world while viewing with much discretion parts that contradict each other.

In the end the ultimate goal is to improve quality of life on the planet. Sadly that does not seem to have improved for very many despite technological advances but rather it has worsened. Improving quality of life also means that humans would have to improve the quality of the green side of life, plants and trees because that is a complimentary life form required for existence of all life.

Within this mix, the condition of each individual on the planet varies vastly. Some are considered successful. The majority considers those who have earned much wealth, fame and power as successful. It is an erroneous view because what use is wealth if a human suffers a continuous pain in his lower end and turmoil in the upper? Ultimately, a human is successful if he becomes more evolved in his or her journey through life for mystics say that soul survives death and continues its journey through the universe in new bodies, beginning where it left off. This author believes this too. The journey may pass through difficult times but it reaches pleasant times if a human is able to get up every morning and choose to do what pleases his or her soul through the day, and arrive at sunsets in peace if not singing a song, and then go to bed in peace for yet another new day.

Image with this post is public domain image from/with thanks to pexels.com