An essential and integral quality for human pursuit is truth. What is truth? Merriam Webster defines truth as “the body of real things, events, and facts.” Can ‘truth’ be merely real and facts? This question must haunt the minds of people. Real is not everlasting, events are not everlasting, and facts are not everlasting. These aspects can and will change. Moreover, reality, events, and facts are anchored to a viewer’s perspective. What may seem real to one might be unreal to another. How do we anchor life when ‘real’ assumes varied shades? If different people come to different conclusions, then human species will suffer from disparate identities based on the orientation of real. Thus, truth must be far greater in quality for human acceptance.
We live in a world where truth appears to compete with various divisions such as right, left, or center of political leanings, with scientific and religious thoughts, communism and democracy, capitalism, and socialism, and in myriad ways it assumes different manifestations. Have we ever stopped to think if truth exists in a competition of thoughts? Can such a competition ever produce unalloyed truth to humanity? Truth must serve a purpose for humanity. Without a human purpose, truth has no merit in our lives. In our competitive world, truth is distanced from humanity. It exists, but we cannot fathom it because our judgement has been clouded by the constraints of societal, economic, scientific, political, and religious divisions. We exist in the silos of divisions. Truth is stranded in the crosshairs of artificial divisions. Arguments, conflicts, wars, and inequality conquer humanity when we distance ourselves from truth. If truth does not deliver life to us, then truth is a purposeless entity. A diluted truth only serves the narrow interest of the powerful. Just as truth, as far as enacted by the lawmakers, holds upper hand in the judicial halls; nature is bound by truth, truth of existence, truth of life. Truth is the only prevailing entity in nature. We cannot plead ignorance, just as we cannot plead ignorance with a police officer, nature is a police officer of all species. Pleading ignorance with nature is equally futile.
Driven by fabricated facts, our political leaders lead us into wars. Will the public approve war on the strength falsehoods? Yes, when lies masquerade as truth, wars break out between nations, communities, people, and religions. Ukraine war attests to the devastation that lies can unleash upon humanity. Truth has been cast aside in Ukraine war. Depending on the perspective both NATO allies, and Russia will appear to be engaging in a justified and truthful pursuit. Which nation emerges as victorious is not decided by the strength of defensive forces, but by truth of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Truth decides the victor. Where truth resides is where victor has a domicile. Western leaders proclaimed that sanctions on Russia would ruin their economy. Russia has remained economically viable and strong despite the sanctions. Russia will be isolated in the world, proclaimed US President, Joe Biden. Russia has more support in the world than the States and Europe since the war began.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran, Venezuela, India, and many other nations in the past by the West. The intended purpose of sanctions stands defeated because all these nations are thriving, some better than others. It has not delivered the fatal blow the sanctions intended to deliver. Why? Truth is our life is not economic-centric. Economic needs’ role in human life is minimal. Life in nature is built on cooperation and equality. Nature shares its abundance with all species equally. It does not distinguish between species is the truth. Competitive life is a modern concept in human existence.
We live with the illusion of economic ascendance due to price inflation of possessions, especially real estate, stocks, and other investments. We assume that the appreciation of asset value as truth! We celebrate profits from the sale of assets; have they been appreciated in value? The profit made from asset sales may not reveal the truth of appreciation. We need to measure the profit against the value of gold at time of possession and at time of sale. What appears like asset appreciation will prove to be asset depreciation. For example, a brand-new house in the 1960’s was worth about 500 ounces of gold at $35 dollars an ounce. The same house has depreciated to mere 200 ounces of gold at the current rate of $3500. A loss of 300 ounces. However, what we see is a gain of $732,500 of appreciation excluding maintenance and other expenses of owning a house. Therefore, is asset appreciation true?
Asset appreciation of gold, which does not lose the luster, is logical. However, how does real estate value appreciate that requires annual maintenance, and assumes an aged look without upgradation of the property? If we drive a new car out of the dealership, the value of the car depreciates immediately. Every item we possess depreciates in value by mere possession. Money depreciates too. Yet, we live with a miasma of improvement and appreciation of value of possessions in life. We measure our lives on the scale of wealth. The record of modernity on this scale is abysmal. It is astonishing that in the last two centuries of modern history less than 10,000 people have succeeded in achieving the goal of wealth accumulation. What can be the reason for 99% of the population failing to achieve the modern destiny of wealth acquisition? The broad nature surrounding us is a playground for human ambitions. We depend upon nature to build our wealth, but we neglect the source of our wealth. Whatever we manufacture for human needs is derived from nature. Nature is the source of nourishment and wealth for humanity. Yet, we disregard nature, completely, in modern times affirms the hubris of humanity. Can nature combat hubris of humanity?
A shallow definition of truth is unacceptable for human consumption. Truth without eternality reduces human life into an ambiguous journey. Our communication turns into arguments. Truth is the gel that binds humanity as one species. Else, we become disparate entities merely sharing living space. Collectiveness of humanity is unachievable. We may be one race, but our endeavors and subsequent results do not advance humanity. The process of life would be seen through a polychromatic lens, and our life as human species will remain vague and unworthy. Truth is the only bridge that connects humanity across the world. A superior race cannot succumb to a vague and unanchored existential truth.
Truth holds supreme power in nature. Sentient and insentient abide by the laws of existence. Each species is governed by the body it possesses, and the intelligence embedded in the body. Inseparable is the body and the quality of an object in nature; like a word and the meaning are inseparable in our languages. In an era of scientific skepticism, it is difficult to accept existential truth. However, subtly humans have accepted life as an ambiguous journey. We see our existence and external nature as distinct and unconnected entities. Our attention to existence is atomic, therefore our observational prowess is miniscule too. Yet we exploit nature recklessly. We are busy in our mundane life; the connection between us and nature, life and nature, quality of an object and nature, and the varied interdependencies do not hold value in our minds. The origin of our quest is from the perch of an accidental formation of life. We aim to climb the peaks of life with our imagination handcuffed right at the starting point. Ignorance has peaked in modernity because life’s journey has diverted from search for truth to search for survival.
Survival is not human’s domain. Survival is an instinctual process activated when we are pushed to a corner. Our existence is anchored to seek intelligence beyond the visible realm. In our lifetime, we have witnessed myriad life forms have taken birth and left us. They were subjected to the influences of nature, endured the hardships of life, survived for the duration they were destined, and left us. None of the departed ever thought of abandoning the birth and death cycles despite the difficulties they witnessed. They did not script their lives. They did not possess an individual identity. They are merely known, collectively, as flies, birds, aquatic, animals, or plants. The tragedy of life. Humans do not belong in this category. We are given a name, we belong to a country, we belong to a culture, we belong to the broader nature. We are the discoverers; we are the race aware of the vastness of galactically. How can such superiority be squandered to mere survival?
Superiority is not an inherited quality for humanity. Every generation must endeavor to discover the truth of existence. Else, we succumb to the vagaries of nature because nature wields influence on every object, sentient and insentient. We must be in awe of nature. The strength of nature does not lie in cataclysmic events; it exists in intelligence of every species. An entity that is unaware of existence possessing an ability to survive and spawn new generations demonstrates that intelligence is an integral quality in nature. That intelligence varies from species to species. In such a natural world of intelligence, humans possessing an awareness of existential reality of not only the self, but the wider universe is obliged to discover the vastness of life. Anything less is unworthy of human pursuit. If humans are not the discoverers, whom else can nature look upon? The secrets of nature are hidden in plain sight, and the most superior species on Earth have ceased to be enthralled with the ageless beauty of life.
Yes, we are not enthralled with not only nature but with our own existential beauty. We do not recognize that each dawn is a brand-new day and a brand-new body. Open the curtains of life to discover that everything has transformed; the Earth is a day older, the Sun is a day older, the mountains are a day older, the oceans are a day older, and the rivers are a day older but they appear ageless. These larger-than-life objects remain as radiant and young as before. The scientific community chooses to claim the age of Grand Canyon, the Himalayas, an ancient tree, or any number of objects, but their majesty remains ageless and timeless. Like a flowing river we witness changing right in our presence with newer water molecules replenishing what flowed downstream. Rivers eternally flow to join a larger body of water because the destination is the ocean. Do we witness diseases, conflicts, and strife in the flowing water? Rivers are intellectually aware of the truth of existence.
Humans, like the majestic bodies in nature, can remain eternally young and radiant by discovering truth. Existential truth. Truth of humanity. Truth of nature. How can we attain eternality? The answer is beguilingly simple. A male adult mosquito lives for ten days, yet they are eternal. The Sun has seen two billion plus years and remains ageless. Eternity belongs to neither brevity, nor longevity, but to truth. Each fulfills its role in balance. Selfless, in harmony. They, selflessly, perform tasks appropriate to their bodies. What are the tasks for humanity? Humans are the guardians of nature because we are bestowed with existential awareness. Every object looks up to humanity because we are a superior race. Nature aspires to reach the human body, because the journey to eternality is the intellectual domain of human species. Every other entity on Earth must endeavor to reach the human body. Humans are cultured to be individuals; all other species exist collectively as mosquitoes, cats, and various other life forms.
Humans as individuals must explore toward discovering the truth of life. Such a journey lifts not only the individual, but the community, society, region, and nature. The truth of life must be discovered by each generation. The truth must flow like a river from generation to generation. Without fluidity of truth individuals, societies, and nations collapse because the human pursuit of life stagnates. Stagnation invites disease and destruction in nature. The modern times is replete with stagnation of the mind. We may drive the best cars, own the best house, have the latest phones, and best of everything; however, over a course of time all these products neither nourish, nor protect the adorner. The only ornament that is worthy of human adornment is intelligence.
Discovering eternal truth necessitates an understanding of the natural processes in nature. Nature is an oscillation between ‘sath,’ and ‘asath.’ Sath means existing and asath is non-existing. Nature exhibits existence and non-existence in a continuous loop to create and dissolve. A substance exists, and nature’s transformative process converts it to non-existential. The new substance that emerges will become sath. This process is not exclusive to nature; human life and activities are predicated on an identical principle too. It is a transformative journey with intelligence remaining unperturbed. The object transforms, but intelligence remains unchanged. We are aware existentially and take ownership. Who takes ownership of the lives of plants, animals, and immovable stones and rocks? Nature executes tasks unaware of existence is illogical to accept. A sentient component must exist within the insentient object is a rational and logical conclusion. Nature is insentient; life is sentient. The broad nature is relentlessly working to provide abundance to all species, including humans, is undeniable.
Nature is not only working but influencing the life of all species, including humans. How else can we view the events of modernity because intelligence in nature nourishes? However, our intelligence in recent history is causing intractable problems. Can we call modern thoughts delivering problems to humanity and nature as intelligence? We need to question the depth of modern intelligence when the superior race in nature struggles. Modern intelligence is exploitative, competitive, servile to the corporate interests, and corrupted by hubris of the self. Truth is detached from modern intelligence. Intelligence, instead of illuminating like the Sun, is the domain of scholars disagreeing with each other in public forums. Modern intelligence is not working for the benefit of humanity or nature because we are selfish and unsympathetic. These two qualities are antithesis to nature.
Human race descending into survival mode has erased the meaning of superior race. Seeing the ascendance of diseases, conflicts, wars, competition, and divisions is proof of nature’s influence on human race. We have abandoned our intellectual curiosity. We see the galactic vastness looking up at the sky, but we do not recognize the planetary order as an orchestration of immense power of truth. Why should a vast system exist without a discoverer? We are the discoverers of the universe. We must elevate our intellect to see eternity. This is a journey of our mind. Mind cannot journey without allocating time for introspection and extrospection. Who we are is not defined by the degrees or occupation, but by our ability to connect with every soul in the universe. This is not an impossible task. Wonderful things in nature are easily accessible to all. The Sun, a great soul makes his appearance every morning. The beauty of sunrise, or sunset is indescribable. Humans are equally wonderful when we seek the truth. Else, the hubris of humans will yield undesired results is vivid in the most recent modern history. Truth is the ultimate weapon of humanity.
Fragrance of Humanity 
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