Man has along been wondering about the laws and the powers that govern this universe and his life. He has been at a loss to find out the purpose and meaning behind it all. It is true that he has come a long way from being a nomad to leading a highly developed and civilized life. He has been able to harness the forces of Nature for a comfortable life, overcoming severe odds, thanks to phenomenal strides in science and technology. But he has not made much headway in finding answers to the basic queries regarding the universe and his life. Nature does not tell him anything. Nor anyone has descended from the skies to tell him anything. People believe in many concepts like a soul that survives death, rebirth after death, the law of karma etc to explain one’s fortunes and misfortunes. Many believe in hell and heaven after death. There are tons of literature in various religions on this subject, though there is no credible evidence to believe in any of it. People still believe that some god or gods descended on this earth in a distant past to hand over man all this knowledge. Most of them are however based on blind faith and sheer superstition.
Let us take some logical steps based on reason to find the answers. Take the basic questions – Why does this universe along with life exist? How they happened to be here? What is its ultimate destiny? , etc. Basically man has a right to actually question the motive and meaning behind only what he does and his actions. It is inherent weakness in the human mind that he necessarily tries to look for meaning and purpose behind every thing. Actually he has no authority and the capability to find out the purpose and meaning behind what nature does. The stars and the planets were not made by man and life on earth was also not his work either. Man has not made any contribution for this universe to be in its place, nor he is responsible for life to emerge on earth. Man himself is a product as well a part of nature like any other life form. So his quest to find the purpose behind this universe and life is meaningless and untenable, as it is without any authority and capability. Further man is also basically like any other life form on earth in that he also has to mainly go through the basic functions of any life form viz, birth, growth, reproduction, decay and death. Though he has some control over his external organs, he has no control at all over his internal organs, like heart, lungs, liver, kidney etc. He performs the life functions as per nature’s programme and vanishes after death. He can prolong his life to a limited extent with the help of medicines, but death is inevitable any way and he has little control over it.
Nature has bestowed man with tremendous intelligence only to help him carry out the basic life functions efficiently. Just as he has physical limitations, his mental capacity is also limited. He is deluded into thinking that he has the free will to think and analyse about anything, but this is a delusion only and the options for his mental imagination and analysis are limited at any given time due to limitation in his intelligence itself. This intelligence is definitely not meant to question nature itself over its purpose. He has no business or right to question as to what happens after death, because he himself does not survive death. Man is part of the cosmic programme that has made him and the role of man in this scheme of things is clearly limited. That is the reason why man has no answers for these basic queries, except those based on myths and blind faiths. Man should be more concerned with his own life, like how to lead this life peacefully through love, contentment and compassion than to worry about any after-life and the larger picture of purpose and meaning behind this universe.
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