Heatwaves have struck North India; the temperatures have risen without any respite in the near future. Coupled with contamination of the atmosphere with construction debris and vehicle emissions, Indian cities have been rendered as a pathetic place to live. We will need to start preparing for the series of catastrophes that will befall us on our way to adapt to life at warmer temperatures.
We are bringing online at least 1000 new coal fire burning plants, one per week in China alone. India is catapulting itself to catch up, with its frugal savings and foreign investments. These foreign investments want Indians to consume assuming that resources are infinite and there are no entropy disturbances in the process. We will add 2 billion additional automobiles onto the world’s highways and fossil fuel engines will still power 70% of them.
We have now changed our atmosphere that has been stable for the last 650,000 years by digging up ancient sunlight stored in plants through photosynthesis. When the plants died they were buried in the earth where pressure turned them into carbon fossils of coal, oil, and gas. We are now digging up those ancient carbon deposits and burning them for energy, re-injecting the C02 and other greenhouse gasses like methane and nitrous oxide back up into our atmosphere.
We have debated and denied away our best opportunity to address this problem over the last decades because of individual greed. My old house colony in Patna is most sought after by the people for offices and residence because of the power supply. The colony boast of power supply case which even places like Mumbai in India can’t match. As a result real estate is on the rise, every inch is being valued. People have mowed down gardens and build complexes along the narrow streets releasing construction material on the road which in return is again trapping a lot of solar energy. I fear that the soil condition might not support such massive construction and the water table is suddenly frowning. The consequences are visible in some of the cracks of the old house. This is an example of how individual greed fails to see the problem by and large. People capitalized on the opportunity cost without understanding sustainability. We are now heading into a war with nature that we cannot win and may not even survive.
We have debated and denied away our best opportunity to address this problem over the last decades because of individual greed. My old house colony in Patna is most sought after by the people for offices and residence because of the power supply. The colony boast of power supply case which even places like Mumbai in India can’t match. As a result real estate is on the rise, every inch is being valued. People have mowed down gardens and build complexes along the narrow streets releasing construction material on the road which in return is again trapping a lot of solar energy. I fear that the soil condition might not support such massive construction and the water table is suddenly frowning. The consequences are visible in some of the cracks of the old house. This is an example of how individual greed fails to see the problem by and large. People capitalized on the opportunity cost without understanding sustainability. We are now heading into a war with nature that we cannot win and may not even survive.
In short, we may have already lit the fuse of our own demise. The only question that remains is not who or what is causing it, but when will the Eco-Bomb go off and will we have the ability to adapt to it once it does? When civilization has disappeared in the past it has never been just one thing but a combination of calamities that combined to batter the inhabitants until their societies collapse. The requirement of food and water would propel civilizations to the war. The time has come to act, I see no second option or we are rooting ourselves for demise in waiting, a collapse of civilization where we would be turned into a mute spectator struggling and waiting for our chance to come or succumbing to one without even realizing.
I only wish that the assumption above is wrong the global happenings a mere cyclical event and the environment initiates self-adjusting system bringing itself back to normal soon but the only apprehension is the current population and the consumption level.
Comments
He had a debate with Mandan Mishra which Mandan lost. But Mandan's wife made a very womanly argument, which only women can make. She said, "Only one half of Mandan Mishra has lost. I, the other half of him, am still alive. Until you have defeated me, you can't claim to have defeated Mandan Mishra totally."
Shankara was put into difficulty. Although what the woman said was right, it didn't really carry any weight. Mandan Mishra was fully defeated. One doesn't have to defeat Gama, the wrestler and his wife too in order to become the winner. But the wife of Mandan Mishra, Bharati, was worth having a debate with. The world has seen very few learned women of her caliber. So the idea of debating with her appealed to Shankara. He thought it would be fun. He figured if Mandan couldn't win, how long would Bharati last before him? But he was mistaken.
It is very easy to defeat a man, but it is not so easy to defeat a woman, because the arguments of man and woman, winning or losing, are never the same. They follow a different logic. That's why so often husbands and wives don't understand each other. Their ways of reasoning are different, they are never harmonious. They often go parallel, never meeting anywhere.
So Shankara thought Bharati would discuss matters like Brahman, etcetera. But she didn't raise any issue regarding Brahman, because she had witnessed how Mandan Mishra had got himself in trouble on that ground. She knew very well any discussion of Brahman and maya will be of no use. So she said to Shankara, "Please say something about sex."
Shankara was at a loss. He said, "I am an accomplished celibate. Please don't ask me anything about sex."
Bharati said, "If you know nothing about sex, then what else do you know? When you don't know even this much, I wonder what you may be knowing about the Brahman, maya and so on. You will have to say something about sex because, after all, it is the very source of this world you call maya. I will debate only on that topic."
Shankara said, "Please allow me six months' time to learn about this subject. I have no knowledge of it, no one ever taught me. I don't know the secret of sex."
In order to learn the secret of sex, Shankara had to leave his body and enter into another body, that of a King in Kashmir. It was only later that He could beat Mandan Mishra's wife.