Citizens of the Cosmos

Citizens of the Cosmos

Man, despite his technological mastery, is still powerless when Nature unleashes its full might. When natural disasters on such a scale strike, mankind realizes how fragile they are--tiny carbon-based creatures trying to so desperately to harness and control its environment with its still imperfect knowledge of the universe.

It takes global disasters for people of the world to realise that we all have a common destiny and that all our quarrels are very petty when viewed from a cosmic perspective. We are but transient inhabitants of this pale blue dot floating in the immensity of space--a flicker of an existence, a small insignificant ripple in the ocean of the cosmos, from which the forces of evolution had sparked a faint glimmer of consciousness.

When we worship and surrender to God, we acknowledge the infinite vastness out there and the great powers of the universe that we, its humble creatures, have not been able to fully grasp. Even though our understanding of the universe is still at its infancy, we sometimes behave as if we have all the answers. We slaughter and subordinate our fellow human beings for not sharing our own beliefs; we force uniformity when diversity is the natural tendency of nature.

The ancients worshiped the forces of nature not because they were more ignorant than us, but because they had a closer connection with the universe and understands intuitively, the intimate relationship between Man and Nature.

We have unfortunately lost our ability to listen to the whispers of Nature. We are creatures of the mind who listen to the deafening voice of the ego within. The ego seeks to obliterate and shape nature to satisfy its craving for possession, control and sensuous gratifications.

In times of tragedy, it is perhaps no solace for us to realize that Nature is neither an ally nor an enemy; it is neither cruel nor benevolent: Nature is there as it is, dispassionate and incapable of discrimination. And we the human species and other lifeforms--be they dormant, emerging or advanced--are all equal citizens of the cosmos, to share and suffer alike, to participate in that eternal dance of creation and destruction.