Order emerges out of Chaos
We are benumbed by the inhumanity we see in the world today. We have become brutal beasts. Women are treated as chattels. Mauled and burnt at will. Presidential debates have devolved into verbal violence resembling brawls in a bar. Society’s boundaries of respect have all but collapsed. We have regressed to the way of the jungle. What is it that makes us relinquish all decency and propriety!
We have overemphasised outcomes to be achieved and not placed enough importance on the means to achieve them. So even if one has to resort to corrupt means to attain one’s objective it is ok. We have become a no holds barred society. All that matters is the attainment of one’s selfish ends. Whether it be the passing of an exam or the obtaining of a death certificate of a loved one who has died because of the pandemic or the killing of a relation because of a property dispute or the gaining of power through the dividing of a nation on the basis of caste, colour or creed; the ends justify whatever means are used.
And the ends themselves have devolved into an abject desire for scandalous amounts of money and power. We urge ourselves to make as much money and acquire as much power as possible in as short a time. Speed is of the essence. Instant gratification is of prime importance. Success is defined as the winner takes all. To think of human and spiritual fulfilment in an environment like this seems ethereal. We are told that we need to be pragmatic. We cannot see ourselves wallowing up to our noses in filth. There is very little space left before we drown in our own puke. The whole point of life evolving into a higher consciousness seems to be a failing experiment.
We find nation pitted against nation, religion against religion, man against man, corporate against corporate all trying to gain hegemony. Become the most powerful by climbing on top of the rest, buying them out, annihilating them, making them redundant so that there is ultimately no competition at the corporate level or between nations. Nations are working in cahoots with corporates assisted by technology to win this race and rule the world. Man has been reduced to being a commodity to be manipulated with no dignity, and made to live a fantasy of so called empowerment which resembles a little child playing with toys for its infantile distraction and entertainment. We have reduced the world to an empty yet scintillating prison cell.
But there is hope. In the science of complexity, life is seen as a self-organising criticality. Life emerges at the edge of chaos in a space which is not so ordered that it is rigid and dull as well as not so chaotic as to be meaningless. So if today we are experiencing total disarray this may just be a phase transition like when water turns from solid to liquid to vapour. There is a churn before life moves into a new and more fulfilling phase. We have reached rock bottom and the only way to go is to “wind upwards”. At the heart of any situation or quality lies its opposite. As chaos reaches an extreme, order emerges. And therefore all mystics even though there was chaos all around they felt that “All shall be well”.
We need to participate in this dynamic equilibrium of life. We can never know the full impact of our actions because of our interconnectedness and interdependence. All that we can do is to continuously discern the truth of our actions as per the golden rule of doing unto others what you would have them do unto you. And search for our true purpose in this opera of life. We need to sing our song and dance our dance as we journey through this life. Our unique song and our unique dance. Life may seem random and chaotic like the reverse side of a tapestry but only in hind sight will we realise the beauty we have created. We need to live life forward with hope.
