Fearlessness...

Witnessed the recent pre-quarters of FIFA World Cup between England and Germany. Was thrilled by the manner of German victory. If one word characterised their performance, then it was fearless!

If there is something magnetic about the youth, then it is the willingness to be bold, fearlessness, freedom from dogmas and readiness to try things without worrying about failures. There is a certain certainty about being able to bounce back from defeats and reverses and conviction in one's ability to fight it out in a determined way. Exactly the opposite was England's attitude - both in attack and defense - utter dubiousness and complete lack of conviction. It was almost apparent that they were fearful of defeat!

Now, I may be a bit biased about Germany, more so because they came into this fixture as underdogs. But, I know in my heart that I am not far from truth in the above conclusion.

But, that is just an example of what fearlessness can bring to an individual and a team. In cricket, it is said that as one ages, one becomes a better batsman as he understands what he can/cannot do. I beg to differ. I think more than anything, one becomes an average player as one ages since he doesn't want to try harder! The hunger has already given way to 'adjustment' with the 'as is' situation - forced out of conviction that one cannot transcend what one has perceived to be personal limitation in terms of skill and also the fact that it might be too late to learn and try newer things. So, I believe that one becomes a better survivor and economiser. But, not necessarily a better batsman.

Similarly, in life, one becomes a better manager of his/her own destiny and living conditions. But, not necessarily a better human being. We all (or most of us!) are guilty of weaving a comfort zone around us. A sort of cocoon of limitations beyond which we hardly have the courage to venture. We will venture and test the air outside the cocoon only when we are forced by some calamity or personal problem. And even that effort will be just enough to regain the comfort of another cocoon and immediately, we are ready to abandon the few courageous breaths in fresh and free air.

It takes courage to not use the beaten path and to go and walk in tall wild grass right next to the pathway taken by millions and billions before you. You are more capable of it when you are young and have not yet found your heart's calling.

How about you have a heart's calling and you keep yourself alive to possibilities outside that calling. You love your cocoon, but there are other cocoons you want to experiment too and experience! You will have to cross  the threshold of your comfort in your own cocoon. You will have to learn to become fearless, and fly to weave a new one.

What that means in real life is, we should not be content with what we have learnt and learn more. That is what life is all about. That is what our scriptures tell us: go ahead and find the truth for yourself! The Vedas tell us this. They give us fundamentals and exhort us to be courageous and explore. Every time we stop at something, we must make sure that this pause is only temporary.

Every time we find a cocoon, the threshold to climb out of the comfort offered by it will be higher than the previous one and it will progressively only get higher. Just like in a computer game! Once you cross a level, the next levels are going to be progressively tougher. What carries you through those levels is your conviction in your own ability to break those thresholds. And this conviction probably comes from our fearlessness towards the game and its challenges. But, it also comes from the known fact that not much is at stake here.

Also in life, the progressive thresholds will always get tougher. But, it is important that we develop the conviction within ourselves to venture out of our cocoon and breathe fresher air every time we feel comfortable. It is imperative that we regenerate our will to learn more and know more. That is the essence of youth, the essence of life and indeed the essence of the great Vedas which exhort us to become better human beings. What is it then that will help us become fearless and bring conviction to each endeavour of ours?... That probably is the true holy grail ...

Better development?

Okay for some more serious ramblings ... the readers may switch off when dozed!

I was watching the Discovery channel's wonderful documentary about the lost ancient temples of India and they tried to derive the methods that Raja Raja and his people would have employed to get those huge 40 ton granite blocks to the Thanjavur temple top.

Obviously they employed the elephants they said. And apparently they successfully experimented using the logs of wood and the elephants did indeed push those experimental 25 tons of granite blocks! Also with ease claimed the voice-over.

Now, I must say here, that if there is any one animal on this planet I absolutely love, then it has to be the elephant. Nothing is more intelligent and graceful a creature outside the human race as the elephant. To top its intelligence, the inherent compassion in the animal and its social nature in general endears it to me. When in the company of an elephant, the tamer creatures do not fear for their life as even lions and tigers are supposedly not ready to attack tamer species in the presence of an elephant. Such is the patriarchal nature of this huge body of compassion. In India and in Maharashtra in particular, this particular species is extra adored as the elephant headed God, Lord Ganesh.

So, naturally, it pained me to see those elephants rudely chained across their bodies and made to pull and push those heavy granites using their teeth to pull the heavy ropes tied to the block. It made me sick to the intestines. Try putting a rope in your mouths and pull something, I wanted to blurt out. The pain in using the heads to push that block was visible clearly in the eyes of the elephants. It was cruel to do that to another living being and for what? To re-establish how it was done 10 centuries back!!!! For what?

I am all for the research and unearthing the truth. But, not in this way. The research has to be first done of the scriptures and talking to locals who have preserved all this knowledge in their local folklore. And it's impressively wonderfully preserved in the local Tamil folklore, if only the discerning care to talk to the people who live there!

Come to think of it, we are harming the environment today with our polluted development. Yes, it is bad. But, we are at least directly not harming many species the way we did in the past. Is this not a better development? Probably. But, I am a little sceptical of this statement too. Come to think of it, we have abdicated our responsibility to maintaining the balance of nature to the sheer human greed. Probably we do not have much use for other animals any more and hence, we do not care for their survival.

But, history teaches us again and again - even from the times of Ramayan and Mahabharat - that, the victor has to take upon the burden of the vanquished in a war - look no further than Iraq and Afghanistan! If one doesn't want to do that, he should provide for the protection of those entities which are not as powerful as oneself. Also, a very important factor we forget in not protecting those species and their habitats is that we are endangering our own survival. We are still a part of the food chain after all!! We have a responsibility towards those species which have no control on their destinies thanks to the greed of humans.

So, this is a comparatively (and probably, qualitatively too!) better development today we are having without directly using the species like elephants and horses... But, it is time, we take up the mantle of being protector and stop encroaching wildlife spaces and habitats and disturbing and making a hell out of the wonderfully wild life that these species are having. We should be 'man' enough and say thank you to them and show them gratitude for their help through out those important millennia of discoveries and inventions without which today's world would have been an improbability. Remember that today's horsepower came from the measuring of forces based on horse's abilities!

It is high time that we stop this tinkering with our own survival at once... otherwise, tomorrow may never come ...