World Views

This experience by itself was fulfiling but it became unforgettable when we returned to the guesthouse and I picked up the newspaper. It was reported that the Mars Polar Lander, which was heading towards Mars, was on schedule and that the Mars Climate Orbiter had linked the previous day.

It was a strange moment while I balanced the two experiences of the morning. The temple experience was simple yet full of meaning and resonance, while the other spoke of endeavour and the yearning of the human mind to expand its horizons. For me, Mars had always belonged to the distant universe found in geography books or had the identity of the malefic planet that astrologers said it was. Influence of Mars, it is stated, leads to rash and immature behaviour, anger and aggression. And here was Mars now, suddenly within reach, with what looked like a harmless landscape. Now science was putting it ‘under scrutiny’.

What struck me also was the simultaneity of existence of two such diverse situations. And among other instances, I thought of the aboriginal tribes of the Andaman Islands and the North East who shared this simultaneity yet with a world view that belonged to another time. Time seems to expand endlessly into the past, infinitely into the future and we, the inhabitants of the earth, seem to belong everywhere.

How remarkable the capacity of the human mind to stretch in so many directions, such different realities, time zones and cultures. We can also not physically be seen moving, yet can travel beyond the stars in the knowledge and wisdom we acquire, be it scientifically, or spiritually.

All that is ‘modern’ need not be the best, just as an older kind of existence can have flaws. Everyone with a contemporary appearance need not have a progressive, open mind, while a villager can possess great understanding, which is modern. With the human mind there are endless possibilities and miracles.