Acknowledging the limits

When I was a small boy, my father used to bring wall papers, We pasted some of them on the walls of our room. One such wall paper had a beautiful picture of a boat sailing and the background was that of a setting sun on the distant horizon.The caption read "Lord! Your ocean is so vast and our boat is so small." Somehow I still remember that picture and those lines. And as days go by, I feel that perhaps there is no truth more universal than those lines.

The intent of the blog is not to demean any human being or his achievement; it is to highlight the fact that our achievement is almost insignificant to that of the Almighty. We scaled the sky-kissing mountain peaks, we went to the Moon, people swam across oceans , travelers walked across continents and went to the poles. We hail all these achievements as outstanding. No doubt they are commendable.But they are commendable within the boundaries and limitations of the capabilities of human beings.
In the first place, the achievements that need to be hailed are the creation of those mountain peaks, the Moon, the oceans and the continents. We hardly acknowledge the fact that most of our outstanding achievements are those where we came face-to-face with Nature and were able to leave a very small mark over it, where we added a drop of water to the ocean. Our problem lies in the fact of taking the ocean for granted and adding all the significance to that tiny drop.

We have created robots, computers and super-computers and think that they are highly
sophisticated gadgets. We hail them as proof of the fact that we are almost there when it comes to creating something close to the human being. Firstly, the fact that we acknowledge that we intend to create something close to human beings is testimony to the fact that we think creation of human beings is the be-all and end-all creation in this field. Secondly, the truth is, we are nowhere near to creating something as complex and as compact as human beings. The simple fact that to decode the human body functions there are millions of doctors and lacs of super-speciality hospitals is a testimony to the fact. And yet there are many mysteries in the body of the human beings that doctors and scientists are yet to crack. If any body parts goes wrong and stops functioning then we get to realise more how limited our knowledge is. Each part of the body is created with surgical precision.

Even if we take other animals in the animal kingdom, we are inferior to many in many aspects. We dont have the smelling power as strong as dogs; we cant fly or track our distance and direction like the migratory birds and other animals, we cant see in the dark like cats, we cant leap and jump like monkeys, we cant swim like fish, we cant sense infra-red rays like the bats do in the dark...the list is endless. Overall, we are a better package than these animals, but not in each and every aspect. When we went out to invent airplanes, we designed it like birds; when we went to create something that can swim in water, we created submarines that are designed like fishes. Aren't we actually imitating the Ultimate Creator - the Almighty? And yet, both airplanes and submarines need so many radars and satellites to guide and control them, unlike the migratory birds and fishes. This proves, our inventions, however sophisticated we think they are, fall way sort of those created by the Almighty.

Let me take another example. The fastest man in the world runs 100m in a shade below 10 seconds. It is a great achievement. But, a great achievement within the limitation of human muscles and speed.If we take the figure to a leopard, then its way below norm in the leopard kingdom. Their average speed is something like 75kmph. Doing a bit a maths, it comes out that they run 100m in approx 5 seconds! So, in their kingdom perhaps only a very old leopard will take the time that the fastest man in the world takes!
So, what I am trying to say is, we are achieving and striving to achieve the best within our limits and capabilities. In some cases, we are trying to duplicate some things. While these may be a huge commendable thing in itself, we should not lose sight of the bigger picture. We should not confuse the drop of water with the ocean.And this should make us humble for all the achievements that we think we have done in our life or as a human being.

The duplicate of Monalisa is,at the end of the day, the duplicate of Monalisa. The painter might have given his best and feel content with his achievement; his friends might applaud him for the same, but that does not make him Leonardo Da Vinci and he must never think him so. There is,but only one Leonardo da Vinci.