20250703 - From nature to karma...

 Thoughts are not linear to easily understand how we came across some line of thinking. It jumps from one to another seemingly unrelated thoughts. This is one such thing. I have no idea why I started thinking about this...

Note: as usual, some of the things I have said might not be relatable ​to everyone and even offend ​some of you. Please ignore and read no further in such a case...

"Survival of the fittest by natural selection" - that is Darwin's famous and well accepted theory explaining evolution. 

According to it​, simply put, evolution is a random series of mistakes (genetic mutations) which makes specimens of species either fitter or weaker and subsequently, nature has a brutal mechanism of weeding out everything that was less fit as against a fitter specimen and the better one survives. It applies to everything from animals, plants, insects, birds, fish, etc., etc.

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That is how any species has not just survived but gotten better and better over the years (millions of years). Conversely, species which were not up to the mark in this lifecycle, have gotten extinct. 

It is a very elegant way by nature to ensure every species on the planet gets better and better and every generation that survives is the same or slightly better than its predecessors. In theory, everything surviving now is the best version of its species that have ever lived on the planet.

This,​ in my opinion, was the case for humans as well till about 200-300 hundred years ago. That is when I think modern medicine started taking off. 

The gradual improvements in medical interventions and medicines are completely against this aspect of nature. When nature is trying to identify and weed out human individuals to make the species better, we are busy protecting and saving the same individuals and helping them survive, thrive and even propagate.

On top of this medical advancement leading to improvements in scaffolding of health, over the past few decades, we have made rapid advancements in technology - because of which we have become more "efficient" and "productive" (economically speaking - because that is the only lens we measure up the world in nowadays). But, as a species, we have accelerated our decline rapidly (think diminished memory, diminished attention & focus and diminished activities, health & fitness). You can add advancements to food manufacturing and processing as ​well. Recreational drugs and its abuse is the insult to injury overall. 

In a nutshell, everything we consider as progress, is maybe progress for some individuals from the economic lens​, but a certain regression to us humans as a species. 

It is a very blunt way of looking at things from a nature and evolution point of view. It basically means many humans (friends, family and loved ones) shouldn't have survived but only did so because of modern medicine. That's frankly a nasty thought...

I then started thinking about it in slightly philosophical terms and whether I can think of it any other way. 

Unfortunately, my knowledge is very limited with respect to philosophy and such matters. I don't know if religions have anything to say about it as well - which I am not aware of​ either. 

I do know one philosophy which probably caters to this aspect. 

I am guessing you have heard of the philosophy of "karma". The boomerang philosophy if you will. What we do to others we will reap the consequences for doing it. It will not be the exact same thing but something in similar proportion - good or bad. 

Most of us interpret this karma boomerang to come back to us in this lifetime. However, there is an extension for this philosophy. A "convenient" extension. 

This extension implies that the consequences of our karma is not limited to the current lifespan of our body but the boomerang stays in flight across bodily incarnations and can come back to us in subsequent lifespans. 

It explains many unexplainable things. Ex.,

* Why does one child take birth in a poor household (and struggle with its consequences), whereas, another child is born to a rich household and reap the fruits

* Why does one child take birth hale and healthy whereas another child is born with disabilities crippling it for the whole lifespan.

I know, I know, it is so much simpler and practical (maybe even fashionable) to say I don't believe in such things and everything is just chance or coincidence. 

Thing is, as long as we are pulling the long straws in the game of life, it remains easy to remain practical (and fashionable).

But when we have pulled the short straw, such explanations as chance and coincidence are not possible to digest easily - no matter how practical we are. 

Even though the karma philosophy is a little too fantastical to believe completely/ wholeheartedly, like a drowning person clinging onto straws, it kinda helps the mind to remain sane I guess... 

So, coming back to the philosophy, I also say it is convenient because it can be used to explain everything. Anything happening to anyone can be conveniently attributed to the consequence boomerang from a past life action. Almost to a point of "maybe it was deserved" and not doing anything to help - hence not making an effort to change anything/ make a difference. 

There is no way of figuring out what anybody did in their past lives so it is equally not possible to refute it​ either. 

Which brought me to thinking about my situation.

I had very clearly hit the eject button on 6-Feb-2019. But instead of bailing out with a parachute, medical advancements kept me strapped to the seat and I crashed ​w​ith the aircraft. Unfortunately, the aircraft​, though very badly ​damaged and never to fly again, just crash landed without fully exploding. An anti-climax unfortunately.

Very clearly, from nature and natures scheme of things, it is very wrong and absolutely unnatural. I am just being kept alive for what? I don't know and I don't enjoy being propped up artificially.

What about the karma philosophy?

It can be interpreted as 2 things in my opinion:

1. Maybe I had finished discharging my past life​'s (& this life​'s) karma debt as of 6-Feb-2019 and was ready to go. At the last minute, the karma auditor realised a mistake in my karma balance sheet and decided I still had to ​more debt​ to repay ​(a lot of going by the tenure) and I had to stay back. It is a bit hard to accept that the auditor who manages the world of karma balance sheets made a calculation mistake. But who knows, maybe that is what happened...

2. The other possibility is that I had indeed discharged my debt, but due to the medical technology advances, I was held back forcibly and am being punished to ​stay back and suffer longer - in which case everyone (right from the doctors to everyone else) who is dishing out this punishment is accumulating their own karma debt which might boomerang in some other lifetime of theirs.

Which one it is, only time will tell. I got to eject fully first to find out though...