Life, God’s greatest gift

No other creature on earth can value and understand the worth of life as human persons. The Bible goes to great length to bring home the point that the life of the human beings is but an extension of God’s own life. If we look carefully at how the Holy Bible presents the creation of Adam, the first human person, we are told that God “breathed” into Adam, and he came into being. Such was the greatness and privilege that human beings enjoy. We have been freely bestowed this special privilege of sharing in the very life of God, and we have the duty and responsibility to safeguard this life at all cost. We have no right to take it away for whatsoever reason. Doing so would be undoing what God had destined for the human race, and indirectly bringing dishonor to God’s goodness.

All the creatures around us on earth strive hard to cherish this life, and they put no artificial obstacle to bring an end to this life. Look at the animal kingdom, there is no animal which would voluntarily seek to end life; they would allow the natural course of life to terminate, and they would fight till the end to keep life going. That is a wonderful lesson for us, who try to find shortcuts to run away from life, especially when we find the going is tough. Even in the midst of worst adversaries, and threats some animals have devised mechanism to fight untimely termination of life. Such is the case it is said with mongoose, who would look for certain herbs after being bitten by venomous snakes, to counter the venom that might have gone into their system.

How many of the human persons do behold the life they have freely received, is a big question. We have not chosen life, it has been freely lavished on us through the coming together of our parents, and we can ennoble their union (which goes far beyond mere physical), by living life to its fullest. But in today’s world, is it possible to live life to its fullest without being coerced by external forces? It is not difficult to find fault with the social structures in order to blame why we are forced to corners, and find it hard to extend the thread of life go on. Ultimately it is within the power and control of every human person to let life take its own turns and twists, and when the time is ripe (and if it is the will of God, as God-fearing men and women might hold), we may have the humility and generosity to pass into another phase of life, called death.

What can we say of the artificial means of terminating life, such as violence, accidents, murders, killing, assassination, feticide, homicide, to name a few. There is no dearth of means to take human life forcefully, without the consent of the persons concerned. We come across events and incidents where human life is not given its due worth and importance. Even as I write this blog, I see the visuals of the train accident in Uttar Pradesh where several men and women had died. This situation is merely human-made and it is not impossible to prevent such accidents, if only the social structures do their part. These are cases where we have no control, and therefore we may not consider these as ways of forceful and voluntary termination of life.

We have innumerable accounts of men and women who had withstood all attempts made of them to rob their precious life, and they had lived to tell their stories, in spite of torture and cruel pain inflicted on them, just because they had been determined to live life to its fullest. This is one thing that goes beyond all science and human experience. If one wishes to live despite deadly disease throttling one, even if cancer cells are fast spreading, mere will power and determination may prolong the life of the person for a few more days, if not months. I have come across men and women who had been fighting a fierce battle against cancer and had proved medical science incorrect when it came to living life in its fullness.

Every person who lives lift to its fullest brings honor and glory to the creator, who created them to savor life and thus honor his creative power. We can live this life one day at a time, being grateful to God for this greatest gift he had bestowed on us, and live it to its fullest each day!

In Support of Serpents

Snakes! the proverbial enemies of humanity from the time of the first parents, Adam and Eve, there is hardly any who would say something in support of these animals. They are a cursed lot, already from the time of the genesis, and they are still so, except for a few minor religious sects who have taken shelter with snakes as their deity, as is the case with Manasa Devi in Bengal, and Naga Devadai in the southern India. But that does not stop the snakes from harming even the very people who worship them as deities! It has gone deep into human mind that snakes cannot be allowed to live!

We are taught already from our childhood that snakes are evil, and they are all poisonous. They cannot be allowed to prawl around in our gardens and fields, but they should be killed on the spot! We may even allow our enemies to escape our beating, but cannot allow snakes from escaping, leave alone letting them run away peacefully! Much of our understanding about snakes is faulty and erroneous; and quite a bit of it is based on prejudice. We cannot think that the snakes also have the same right to live on earth as any of us is! We often claim that the earth belonged to us, and not to these, and so they can be dispensed with without any hesitation.

It is basically ignorance which make us conclude that all snakes are poisonous; even the harmless grass-snake are killed at the very first sight, and we have great pride in proclaiming to the whole world that we had killed a very poisonous snake! One of the environmentalists had recently announced that out of all the snakes commonly found in India, only two varies are really poisonous and so are fatal, and most others are not poisonous. They may bite others, but people cannot die due to poison. There may not be too many people who would bite this idea, even if it is based on facts and scientific data.

I have heard several stories in our village, where people had died due to snake bite, and have also heard about those men and women who recovered after snake bite! But generally the stories of the people who have succumbed to poisonous snakes had been doing extra rounds than those who had recovered from such a bite. Now the point I would like to propose is that it is time that we think twice before we look for sticks and rods to kill snakes. It is said that snakes would not deliberately harm anyone; until they are provoked, they would mind their own business! After all, they are not after human blood!

If the human race claims a rightful place on earth, then the snakes too have a rightful place here, and the fact is that these creatures are more friendly to the earth and the universe than humanity! It is time that we stop condemning all snakes as poisonous and kill them instantly. The number of snakes in our villages and gardens and fields have reduced considerably. If this situation were to continue, then after some years, we may not have any real snake to show to our children; the snakes might have then become like what dinausours are for us today. Let us give the snakes their rightful place on earth, and they too would honor us for that act of charity and kindness!