Being pretty or considered holy has its own advantages. The prettiest things get picked. The holiness attached gives an advantage over something that isn’t considered holy. For instance if you are the prettiest pup in the litter, you get picked by someone before your siblings. Is that what the prettiest pup desires is one question that must be asked and we shall discuss that another time. Similarly if you are a picture of a deity as opposed to the monthly wall calendar hanging next to you, the sweeper tends to not use the same broomstick to wipe across you but uses a relatively dirty rug instead. Life is longer too since you will be held on to well beyond the required duration like the satin ribbon from a gift being safely stored in the drawer even after the gift is unwrapped and used.
With the passing of time and evolution of thought and beauty standards the things that were once considered beautiful or holy get diluted or entirely taken off the list. Considering the many disadvantages that the notion of holding something above another not in terms of utility or capacity but by superficial and shallow features pose on the society, it is wise to not attach any such value to a person or an object for a higher standard of living. This might take some time to get accustomed to but in the long run this is the most advantageous means to live.
During the ninth century gold fish was considered lucky and was rare. Any gold fish that was caught was left back into a pond in the care of Buddhist monks as an act of self purification. Ten centuries later the fisheries commission of Colorado was ready to electroshock the lake to get rid of them. This gruesome act however did not happen, not because the officials had suddenly taken the path of self purification but due to a flock of white pelicans choosing to feast on them. Nature in this incident had a better path for people to tread on while trying to maintain the ecosystem.
The Russian army drove the Caspian tiger into extinction to steal its habitat and convert it into plantation area. Wild pigs were similarly driven to the point of extinction due to over hunting by Russian soldiers.Chinese tigers were marked as pests and hunted down to extinction.Europeans and Japanese considered wolves as pests due to their disturbance to sheep rearing in those areas and got them extinct.
Water lilies have always been considered holy from Mayan civilisation to Buddhism and Christianity. They have a variety of uses from being beautiful to being pollutant scavenging, protective, medicinal and source of food in an ecosystem. Still when their population increases assortment of physical, chemical and biological methods are utilised to reduce it. Why in a world where 733 million people remain hungry everyday something that can be potentially used as a food substance in a variety of methods and has good nutritional value must be eradicated in a manner that leaves it unfit for consumption afterwards eludes me. The logistics involved might not be known to me but when one considers the number of stomachs thus fed shelling out a little more money that that is intended should not be an issue if one is to think with their heart.
Rocky Mountain locusts lost their lives in the process of their habitat getting converted into farmland.
Dodo birds,Stellar’s sea cow, Passenger pigeon, Eurasian aurochs, The great Auk and the wooly Mammoth are all extinct toady. Do you know how they went extinct. They were eaten to extinction by humans! Today we are killing people over their food preferences. The human being who ate all varieties of living oraganisms who mainly chose vegetarianism only to reduce the risk of increasing episodes of food poisoning due to consumption of diseased meat majorly after the preachings of Buddha, beating a fellow human being for the simple reason of having meat in his freezer within a few centuries seems a bit extreme. After all going back the same centuries on a time machine all our ancestors seem to have devoured all sorts of animals to the point of extinction.
Human lifespan is at an average of 71.3 years now. Within this short span a person doesn’t actually go through all the tedious century long trend changes to be put in another person’s book of favourites. I, in this context have a very interesting relationship status. The people I know either love me or hate me majorly. Only a very few have me in the neutral zone where I am taken at face value. Whereas I, keep majority of people in the neutral zone. I neither love nor hate them. I have a very small world and they simply do not exist there making this possible to be applied to all those acquaintances. I rarely do love a few people and very rarely hate anyone.
One does not take too much time to place a person in the love, hate column is how my understanding is at this moment as that is how people act around me.
I had the opportunity to assist a senior surgeon and be an observer at his centre for sometime. Once we enter the OT we shall not have any minute to spare. Between the cases when we were getting the next patient scrubbed and intubated he would call me to have a little chit chat. He was impressed at how I had read his recent article on a special technique that he had developed and asked him if he would be operating on a patient using that technique when he was seeing OP. From then on he would spare some time to give me pointers regarding the cases in between OP cases and definitely in between the OT cases. One day there was a journal club and he took me along after which we had to go around the hospital before reaching his chambers to continue the OPD duty. He had barely entered the consultation room and about fifteen patients came bursting through the door behind him. Having tried in vain to get a cup of coffee when he completed the scheduled appointments he turned towards me and said “ I used to love this. Being wanted.When I joined this place fresh after the completion of my post graduation I took it upon me to spend all my time here.I would never go home.I took care of everything. Now everything here needs me. At this point I am wanted here constantly. I do not get to spend time at home. I really get time to grab a beer with my brother. I do not even have the freedom to branch out or work on something that interests me. It is good for a while to be wanted but the feeling never stays. After a point when you have made yourself available for something for an extended period of time and you become indispensable its not you who gains anything. Do not make that mistake “.
Fundamental human nature is to be liked and loved. However one need nor desire the same from all human beings. One need not be good to everyone he meets. One must not resort to anti social behaviour either. One can simply be and let others be in peace.
While some people are loved for being pretty and some things are valued for being holy, this isn’t a strong phenomenon to build upon. As time has shown so many times beauty fades and the idea of attaching something to a superior state might get modified and mutated. If neither even the increase in presence and constant increase in number might lead one to the end of their existence - physically, mentally or emotionally.
My grandmother was wanted by so many people. Whenever we went out people gathered around to get a word with her. Most of these people where our distant relatives. Few of these people would come home and not leave as they needed her constantly for her mental, emotional or monetary support.
My grandfather was savoured by a bunch of people any time he was seen walking outside. His friends would start discussing with him and not let him go. Every day this happened and he would become so excited and so will everyone else when they see him. I have spent hours standing near the window of my house looking down at him and his friends having a heart to heart. I have always been trying to make sense of only one thing, of how this universal lovability was attained? After all every one has the basic desire to be liked and loved. Turns out they were all attracted to his knowledge and belonged to the same ideology. It’s wonderful to find such bondage in life. Finding an ideology that suits you and finding a set of people who follow the same. This is the basis for people going in groups to temples. They are supported in their basic ideology which gives them a sense of belonging.
Living is one thing.Living long is another thing. Being loved and appreciated while you are alive is the best thing.If you live long enough chances are the love that you got might have run its course and is long gone. But attaining that while while you are in your eighties for your knowledge is what makes the life that you lived meaningful. Being loved for being beautiful and holy are definitely desirable traits too if the beauty is the beauty of the mind and personality and the holiness is the righteousness of the heart and not superficial shallow features like an attractive face or a religious belief induced holiness.
-Dr Thenaruvi Marimuthu🤍
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