The Highest Possibility of Life
Like many or all of you, I go through the same set of existential questions. As you try to answer one, there are three more that arise. If I had to sum all of my questions into a single phrase, it would be the following from Peggy Lee’s popular song: Is that all there is?
With the universe spanning some 93 billion light years in observable space and 13.7 billion years in time, I am not convinced that a lifespan of about 100 years inside a pale blue dot having a diameter of 12,742 km captures our existence fully. How did we end up in this planet? What is our purpose here? Where do we go next? You were cautioned — three more questions and no sight of answer for the first yet!
The most scientific speculation we currently have is that life started on earth about four billion years ago in the form of a molecule in undersea alkaline vents. It took half a billion years for that molecule to evolve into a single cellular organism. Evidence suggests that the ancestors of modern humans split out of chimpanzees six million years ago and progressed in their evolution. Humans, in the current physical form, started to exist only for the last 300,000 years. This theory is constantly challenged by new scientific findings but it still helps to broadly understand where we have come from. Our physical bodies are the culmination of the most complex experiment lasting over four billion years in the earth’s laboratory.
Humans are currently considered to be at the top of the evolutionary ladder. How we evolve further is a topic of great research interest. Our physical evolution depends on a whole host of factors including the earth’s location in the cosmic map. While humans exist in different colors and sizes, no further change in our fundamental anatomies, such as the size of the brain or heart rate, is expected until there is a major shift in the earth’s position in the universe.
But humans don’t exist just in the physical form. We have memories, thoughts, emotions, and consciousness. They are not made up of matter and are part of the subtle (non-physical) form of our existence. Do our thoughts and memories die with us? Or have they been evolving just as the physical body evolved from a molecule to the human?
Similar to how the existence of different species is proof of physical evolution of life, differing levels of thoughts and emotions in the beings should justify that subtle form of life has also evolved. A leader of a country and an athlete have their lives evolved into much different possibilities and as does a sage with mystical powers or Einstein with his gifted mind.
Are some humans more evolved than others? Among all the possibilities, is there an ideal path to evolution that life is mysteriously progressing on?
Science has made great leaps in understanding evolution through the study of genes. However, genes contain information about the physical processes and can at best be used to study the physical evolution of life along with some behavioral traits. The correlation between the physical and the subtle is still alien to science. Hence, there is no conclusive theory about the mechanism of evolution of the subtle form of life. I hope that you will bear with me as I drift away from science into the realms of philosophy in search of an answer.
Life is not just a piece of breath that is released into the atmosphere when we die. As soon as life is free from the physical body, it looks to evolve. How life evolves depends on its composition. Everything we think and do is witnessed by our life and hence its composition becomes unique to us. This is what the entire concept of Karma is about. The thoughts and deeds are captured in the karmic memory and are carried by life into the next being after the death of one. Similar to how genetic memory is key to studying the physical evolution of life, the evolution of the subtle form of life can be understood by following the journey of the karmic memory.
When life takes rebirth in the form of a new being, it is forever eager to settle all the karmic dues it has been carrying. A scientist who has toiled his entire life chasing a problem and arrives at death with unfulfilled desires is likely to be reborn and in the new life, he wouldn’t have to start from scratch. He will be supported by the karma from the previous life and would be born with a higher possibility than an average human to excel in scientific pursuits. Whether a person ends up as a beggar or a celebrity has a lot to do with what karmic memory he or she has brought from previous lives. It is slightly more complex than just a carry-forward though.
Consciousness is another subtle dimension of life, except that it is not sullied by life experiences like that of the karmic memory. Consciousness is all-pervasive and is above karmic memory if you want to picture them in a hierarchy. Both of them remain elusive to the experience of most humans although they exist within us. Karmic memory can be considered as an invisible friend who has an overbearing influence on our thoughts and deeds in every step of life. Consciousness is like a hidden treasure. The intellect, all our memories, and our sensory perceptions act as a shield to it. We have to learn to wield all of them and then the consciousness opens itself up. Only those with higher level of consciousness can access their karmic memory and change its course at will. That’s why they say humans are the creators of their own destiny. However, not all humans have the same level of access to their consciousness. There are a large number of other species who have zero access to their consciousness. Their life is pre-destined. It runs in an autopilot mode using the program in their karmic memory.
How many times does life go through the cycle of births and rebirths? The answer to this is key to understanding the future of our evolution. I realize that life’s ultimate goal is to shed all its karmic memory through multiple rebirths and become free of the cycle. It happens when a particular human fulfills all of the desires or gives them up. Interestingly, the Sanskrit word Moksha, which signifies the liberation of life, translates into giving up of desires.
When life is completely free of all its karmic memory, it doesn’t take rebirth into a physical body anymore. It has no business on the earth and other such planets that are meant for physical existence only.
Life’s journey now starts in the subtle planes of existence. I believe there are multiple such subtle planes in our universe that life has to travel through until it can realize all of its infinite possibilities. This can be considered as the final stage of evolution. At its highest state, life exists in the entire universe. There is no physical boundary that can confine it. It will then have the potential to create new lives and hence turn into the creator. I realize people before us have already evolved into that state. Maybe those are who we worship!
“The lord is not a person with sense organs, but consciousness itself… God is consciousness. There is essentially nothing in the universe except mind or consciousness.” — Paramahansa Yogananda
There is one other question that remains unanswered. What is our purpose here? I believe our life is in this long journey of a few billion years of time and some billion light years of distance. Our stay here is transient and not too different from a layover at an Airbnb. We have a duty towards the house we are staying in (analogous to nature) and its cohabitants (analogous to society) but our primary responsibility is towards our true self. We are required to nourish life and prepare it for the next day’s journey. If we get too attached to the house or its people, the extended stay and the eventual departure are going to be that much harder. The best way to spend time in the house is to focus on being happy and then radiate it outside such that we become a source of joy for others.
There are enough studies to show that true happiness in life can only come from within. Yet we keep chasing it in the houses we build, the cars we buy, and the recognition we seek from the society for our work that is ever elusive. It is still okay to do those things to earn physical comforts and a feeling of security but that is all there is to it. Power, wealth, and fame as primary goals in life will inevitably bring us misery. In contrast, following our passion and facing our fears might put us on a painful path but will liberate us from the sufferings. Living with meaningful goals and minimum desires is the key to further evolution of our life.
There are umpteen number of quotes on the purpose of life. Eleanor Roosevelt had put it beautifully, to which I relate: “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” But, if you consider the larger framework of life that is shared by all the species, the purpose of life itself is just one and that is to evolve to its highest possibility.
