Waiting To Be Known

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Is There A God?

All of us have different perceptions and meanings associated with the word “God”. For some, it would mean the person who sits up high in the heavens and watches us all over all the time.

Others probably would say that God is someone who has unlimited powers and perform miracles when he wishes. Some would want to think God as an architect of the entire universe.

In this context, when Carl Sagan, the famous cosmologist was asked this question about what are his views, he refuses to use the very word which is ambiguous and would mean different things to different people.

He emphasizes that even if he answers either yes or no about existence of God, we wouldn’t have learned anything from that answer.

He mentions about the name God being given to someone relating to the laws of Universe which Einstein surmised and agrees that God exists in that context. He beautifully ends his answer by saying that we need to sharpen our language when discussing such things.

See the below video to get a glimpse of his superior personality and ponder on the question "Is there a God?"

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No Evidence?

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The Butterfly Brain

The various bright colors of a butterfly are a feast to our eyes. There is such variety in the fauna that we will be dumbfounded seeing the wonderful winged insects flying from one flower to another.

It is quite amazing when we realize that right from its birth the butterfly religiously gathers nectar, plays its role in continuing its species and then bids goodbye to this world. 

How long do you think a butterfly lives? The average adult lifespan of a butterfly is around 2 weeks. Such a short time period, isn’t it?

Now just change the scale from level of a butterfly to that of a human. A butterfly’s entire lifespan is too puny in our scale. But having forgot that we are still on the same scale but only on different levels, we humans think that we are here for eternity. 

Either we choose to conveniently ignore the fact or we don’t realize the universal truth. Thus the famous cosmologist Carl Sagan quoted 

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever”.

This significant realization finds mention in yaksha prashna when yudhishtira answers one of the questions posed by yaksha. He indicates that it is the most surprising thing on earth. 

When we find ourselves in a different level on the scale compared to a butterfly, in addition to an increase in lifespan we are supposed to have an evolved brain. 

The butterfly’s brain may treat its short lifetime as perpetuity but the mature brain of humans should lead us towards the right direction. 

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Pale Blue Dot

What is our purpose?

Ever since my intellect prompted me to think about life on earth, I've been wondering why we, human beings, have turned a blind eye towards our origins and purpose. We have made superb advancements in science and technology. We have built huge, powerful telescopes to look into the sky and understand the universe. We have even witnessed creation of planets. 

We have gathered information about a star's life cycle, solar system, asteroids & comets, moons of different planets, galaxies, black holes and the list goes on. Never before we did have access to so much information about Earth, our own home, and our surroundings. 
Armed with this information, now we know how puny our own planet is in comparison with other celestial bodies. But does each one of us realize this ? Perhaps not. And that's one of the reasons why earth is plagued today by hatred, corruption and other social evils. 

Image source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PaleBlueDot.jpg)

Carl Sagan & his work

This precisely is one of the topics articulated by Carl Sagan, a famous American astronomer & cosmologist. A few years ago, one of my friends introduced me to the great work done by Carl Sagan and one particular piece struck a chord with me - "A pale blue dot".  The Pale Blue Dot is the title of a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers. 

In this photograph, Earth's apparent size is less than a pixel; the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight scattered by the camera's optics. In his book by the same title as the photograph, Sagan reflects that "Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."..."To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known..."

Please go through this impressive short video that shows a glimpse of Sagan's work with a beautiful narration that would certainly captivate us. I believe it would help in appreciating the deeper meaning of seemingly just another photograph, prompting our minds to think in the right direction and enable us to lead a peaceful life thereby making Earth a better place.

Video source: Youtube (https://youtu.be/p86BPM1GV8M)

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