Introduction

Why do we humans always want to explore? Even the young child is constantly moving around like a robot looking for something.

The eagerness to search and explore appear to be an inherent part of not only the human species, but also other species as well. In people, this amazing similarity could be observed in toddlers through to adults, who want adventure all the time, and are always looking for something, surprisingly, sometimes not even knowing what they want!

It appears that the ‘mind,’ which is always wandering, could be one of the reasons that the young and old alike appear restless in their physical state also. One would agree to this, because we all were young once, and full of curiosity and high energy levels, we always had a tendency to explore everything around, as our mind is always keen to discover this world that is filled with mysteries.

For millions of years, knowledge was continuously gathered by experiencing the environment and applying its intelligence. Therefore literally every species has been scouting its surroundings to come to terms with nature, trying to establish itself to survive the odds. We are all aware that humans have been investigating for some hundreds and thousands of years by trial and error to gain knowledge and apply it to their day to day life.

So what is real knowledge? There seems to be a misconception between knowing and experiencing, because of the stream of information that is available to each, these days on the television, the internet, and smart-phones. So much news is coming in so fast that there is a quantum information overload and it is so varied, and coming at such an accelerated pace that the human brain is struggling to keep up with those inputs, and therefore there arises lot of confusion. Even matured adults are in a chaotic state of mind, not to mention children who seem to be getting misled due to the information chaos. On some occasions, decisions are made too fast and too soon, because the time taken to think constructively is not available to the brain, and this has now become a trend, and people say that we are all living in a fast moving world where things are bound to change very rapidly.

All of us notice that when a child is born and gets a chance to see this world, it is filled with curiosity to experience everything around him or her because the explorative nature is inbuilt into the genes. It is not uncommon to see a child’s exuberance as soon as it starts walking, but now in the twenty-first century unlike the olden days, the child is not only physically caged within four walls but also mentally shackled by limiting the frontiers of real learning. The existing education system, especially the primary schooling, and even college education is so poorly designed that it appears the consequences are going to be very harmful to the human society in the future, especially due to lack of creative minds rather than paucity of work. One major problem today is that an individual always thinks in terms of a well paid job but nothing much about the passion with work and perhaps one of the reasons could be that a working adult is unable to do what he or she thinks would like to do due to the eagerness to earn a tidy sum of money in the shortest possible time.

When a person attains adulthood one is always saddled with worries, but the childhood years are supposed to be playful days, although there could be exceptions. But it is sad that today we see most children not enjoying, but rather getting worried about the unnecessary fear which is introduced into the innocent mind. As a child one would always think outward, trying to explore the new world that comes as a gift to all, but these days children are getting scuttled much too early because the child’s curiosity or natural exploration habits are getting restricted within set boundaries. These days, most of the children are trapped in the virtual world rather than the exploring the real world.

However, we also see lots of youngsters highly vibrant and also very ambitious to achieve something or, many things, and a vast majority have the determination to go ahead with what they want. Most teenagers, the hot-blooded youngsters, think of the experienced elderly folks who invariably look tired and worn out, as less enthusiastic and cold, and sometimes roadblocks for their hopeful future. It is a fact that the old do not exhibit characteristics very cordial toward young ones, and also have a tendency to be always judgemental towards youngsters and would rather advise caution on most occasions. But then, it is also very difficult or rather almost impossible for anyone, including kids, to gauge the internalization of experience which runs inside the blood of every human being and in particular the old.

The human civilization has come a long way. To begin with, it was hunting and gathering food for survival, and to maintain procreation, defend against predators, and overcame the odds against natural calamities. Then it was bringing peace amongst the violent and chaotic, developing important means of communication to make people understand to maintain a peaceful atmosphere. Finally, the religious fervour was introduced within humankind which was one of the key factors in the development of modern civilization, besides arts, culture, science, and technology. It now appears that human race has come to a full circle because we are back again to the beginning, struggling to produce food to feed all the population- which automatically puts pressure on procreation; defending terrorism and natural calamities, and fighting to maintain peace due to dwindling food reserves and job creation. Therefore, the so-called modern civilization is, going back to where it all started.

Every human being has an ‘ego,’ because we are all egoistic, and at times we are also stubborn and our pride always makes us think we can do anything. The fact that life always offers us several opportunities, with the young ones having the ability to burn lots of energy, running around to get things done, and it is always a daily challenge for each one of us looking for prosperity as a means of happiness. Although ups and downs are part of life, our determination keeps us moving forward most of the time, if not all the time. And it is not unusual for almost all of us during younger days to think that way because of the fundamental reason of our outward thinking. Therefore, it is pride that makes us believe we could achieve anything due to our capabilities like physical strength, educational background, intelligence, money power, determination, hard-work, etc.

It is a fact that none of us usually think regarding giving credit to Providence, though we do occasionally acknowledge some people who have always supported us along the way. But we seldom believe in the extraordinary power of the “Cosmic Creation that is controlling this entire Universe.” Apparently, this kind of thinking is due to our failure to visualize and precisely understand the reasons behind each of our actions, on a moment to moment basis, which perhaps could be one of the many reasons for our inability to acknowledge and appreciate the intervention of the unseen cosmic forces.

Many of us recognize the existence of God or what we call the “Supreme being,” and occasionally we also try to seek the blessings of the Almighty. But deep inside our heart, we do not sincerely appreciate the divine interventions or some of the specific events that take place without our knowledge and also at times even without our efforts!

In our normal awakened state, we always tend to think that we are always the ‘doer,’ and so the persistent ‘ego state’ is always dwelling within us to make us think we achieve everything because of our capabilities. For us humans, the lack of wholehearted acceptance of the power beyond us might be because of our conviction that the achievements are all of our own. Therefore we are always proud, and think that we have the right to enjoy all the fruits we could grab, which this world offers us. This feeling of pride is entirely true for almost all of us, although we get perplexed at times when we see different creations in this Universe and in our world, which is full of mysteries but there are a few who daringly venture the less traveled path to enquire the unknown mysteries.

There are several instances where people have traveled dangerous roads like mountain peaks and across the width and depth of the vast oceans because of their curiosity to investigate the unknown. Luckily, such people are fearless and cannot be shackled from not going into a path which is extremely dangerous. In spite of the life-threatening events, some courageous ones with their infinite imaginative skills have ventured even beyond the boundaries of Earth.

We believe humans have already landed on the moon, and engineers and scientists called ‘astronauts’ make frequent trips to the space station that is orbiting Earth. Moreover, unmanned spacecraft have already traveled billions of kilometers to different distant planets, and we have been receiving more and more interesting information about our galaxy that is spread across a vast distance which we call our Universe. But the full understanding of “Brahmand” (Sanskrit term for Universe) is way beyond the finite intelligence of human-beings compared to the infinite knowledge of the unknown power.

Among all the mysteries that surround humankind, the most curious and highly debated but yet to be resolved is the proof of ‘God.’ If anyone is asked the question “do you believe in God’s existence,” there are obviously going to be many answers because it will entirely depend on the belief system of each. From early childhood, as we grow up we not only visualize some form of God but also hear about various types of God from our society, consisting of our parents, siblings, teachers, friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers.

Information gets continuously registered inside our brain in the form of memories and as we grow old, we develop perceptions of our own based on past thoughts and feelings. Most of our memories are connected to several old as well as new events that take place in our life during different times and at different places.

Many people do accept God to be the most powerful being. But in this twenty-first century, if anyone claims to have seen or talked to God, he or she will be either considered insane or an outright liar.

Does this mean God was created by the imagination of humankind, or is the definition of God perhaps not well understood?

In today’s world, we seldom trust people for even the simple things in life and therefore, to trust or believe in something that is not seen is unlikely to be accepted. As a result, it becomes questionable and always raises doubt in one’s mind when someone talks about mystic encounters or some supernatural experiences which are considered abnormal. With so much information and sophisticated instruments that are available to humankind today, nothing stops a person to think that he or she is intelligent enough to visualize and understand using their brain power what is correct and what is false.

Does this mean people who lived on Earth 2,000 or 5,000 years ago, having seen or heard about Prophet Mohammad, Buddha or Jesus Christ or Krishna were less intelligent?

Would it be correct to conclude that people who lived a few thousand years ago were so naive that they were emotionally overwhelmed to accept those great personalities mentioned above as Gods? Is it possible that humans who lived during the past or ancient times were tired of the ‘barbaric tribes’ and their atrocities, and so the public, in general, were aspiring for peace and harmony and those are the reasons for the above-mentioned great souls to be considered equivalent to God or messengers of God?

“Yes, all of us have several questions about the difference between a mortal human being and the so-called Supreme-being.”

In this twenty-first century, humankind always thinks they are much more intelligent than their ancestors because he or she has access to more information with more ideas as well as better tools to play around. But is it proper to consider quantum of information gathered as the sole yardstick for the measure of intelligence?

It is true that for several centuries, millions of people have been worshipping the above named as Gods, but there exists a large section of the human population who believe that Buddha or Jesus or Krishna were mere human beings, like any one of us and cannot be considered as God because in the end they also suffered pain and died like ordinary mortals.

But it is also true that we use our five senses namely, smell, taste, feel, hear and sight, to understand everything around us. As per science, it is the “neuron cells in the brain,” which registers all the information and give the ability for all species to perceive or understand everything.

Today’s science describes that it is the frontal lobe of the human brain that evolved over millions of years and consequently the human brain has the extraordinary ability to perform vital functions like planning, keeping long-term goals in mind, and also issue the motor command for movements of the body, giving us the power to do graceful physical movements.

So, it is a fact that we humans are not only entirely dependent on personal memories and experiences that are preserved inside the brain’s neuron cells but also are highly conditioned by the ‘mind’ and our ability to retrieve and analyze the stored information as and when we come across different situations.

We also know at times our emotions do trigger certain memory functions towards irrationality and such memory functions make our brain work on an “auto-pilot” without getting into further details for deeper analysis. This pushes humans to arrive at conclusions immediately in fast forward mode or rather hastily rushing to act on the spur of the moment.

Therefore, for us humans, it has typically become habitual to believe fully based on what our senses have experienced, and in something proved beyond doubt, it is true because the brain thinks that way. Otherwise, there will always remain an element of doubt which could become further falsified if too many people are not within our particular belief system.

On the other hand, the same person usually gets trapped into a ‘belief system,’ if many people come forward to strengthen something which could get accepted as truth even though one might not have seen it personally! As we all know this herd mentality is one of the greatest, or rather, weakest points of humans in the process of their natural evolution.

Science could make us believe that this Universe and our galaxy were formed several billion years ago and this creation took place because of the Big Bang, and astrophysicists claim they have observed massive sized stars, 10 or 100 times bigger than the Sun, and they explain that when one of these massive stars died it caused huge explosion called ‘Supernova,’ which birthed galaxies, stars, and planets from the debris of the dying star.

As per scientific theory all heavy elements like Gold, Silver, Platinum, and Uranium, besides Iron, Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen, etc., have also come out of the debris of a massive star that died several billions of years before.

Although none of us have seen it, this has become an accepted fact for almost all of us that our Sun, Earth and the other planets were born from the debris of a massive star that exploded a few billion years ago. Now scientists have begun to call humans ‘star child’ because we are all made from the atomic elements that were provided to this world by one of the several such massive exploding stars.

Therefore, science helps us to understand the material aspect of creation because humans are able to measure, quantify and know the physical and chemical characteristics of each element.

When we observe nature, it is reality, but at the same time, so many things appear unusual to even the highly experienced scientists. Looking or hearing of many things about life, we feel overwhelmed, but the truth remains what it is, and we are unable to raise questions, and we seldom try to seek answers, because it is quite impossible for any individual to decode all these great wonders of this amazing creation. But, hats off to our human race that is toiling hard for centuries to get this far and having understood what our Universe consists of, by using mathematics, science and technology, and by their imaginations and theories postulated by the great thinkers and philosophers of all eras.

In the west, there has always been a clash between science and theology because the latter is based on religion and even today the same acrimony persists with an ongoing battle between creationists and the scientific community. The former is interpreting the Bible trying to insist on the authenticity of its teachings, which consider the age of human existence as no more than ten thousand years. But scientists, based on geological and fossil evidence say that Earth is around 3.5 to 4.0 billion years old and that apes are our ancestors, and human existence could be around 100,000 or perhaps 1000,0000 years old.

However, one has to give some credence to what the Bible says. Scientifically, it is theorized that the ice age ended around ten thousand years ago, and the new age, that humankind knows of, perhaps in the west, marked its beginning. Therefore, there is only around ten thousand years of human existence we all know of because the rest of all the history is buried either underwater or deep beneath Earth’s soil!

However, in the east, especially in India, evolution is no big deal because as per Indian Vedic scripts the creation and destruction of the world is a cyclical process like every aspect of existence and we are all well aware of that. Therefore, in India, no one appears to be too much bothered about all such speculations about the age of humankind because it is considered that it is just part and parcel of universal creation and it is as simple as that!

Therefore, this ‘book’ is about our Universe and its evolution, the planets in our solar system and the different characteristics and constituent of some strange living species that we find on Earth but major emphasis has been given to ‘human species’ and the creative ability of this species that make them extraordinary, as well something special amongst all living creatures on Earth.

A significant portion of this book is devoted to human behavior because the inner spark (soul) perhaps is similar to a very tiny particle of gold which gets revealed only after a very lengthy and arduous purification or refining process of several quintals of ore that is dug from the Earth.

It is quite likely that every ‘human being’ goes through a very similar process of the never-ending purification process. Maybe it takes several life cycles for the real understanding and self-realization of the inside being what is commonly referred as the living spirit or the ‘soul’ that is trapped inside this material body which is considered as a part and parcel of this powerful cosmic world or the superior cosmic intelligence.

Things that are materially and scientifically proven have been explained in this book, but at the same time, the author has put forward efforts to delve in to areas which remain a mystery and are quite difficult to comprehend. With a view to fill in the gaps, the author is compelled to come out with his theories, and it is entirely up to the belief system of the reader to appreciate the content which could throw some light on such mysterious questions that so far have remained unanswered.

As theories are always subject to debate, the author hopes that this book will bring forth further enlightenment to our humankind and for the betterment of this so-called ‘conscious and knowledge thirsty species called the hu(mourous)man, the only one of such kind seen in this entire Universe so far.

Chapter One

The Journey

It was past midnight and Jonathan could see the countless bright stars dotting the skyline when he looked over his head into the distance. The darkness seemed to blend the sea and the coast line, except for the tiny dots of the distant city lights; there, stood the magnificent moon shining in one corner of the deep, dark, Universe.

Jonathan was on a journey from Chennai to Visakhapatnam (also known as Vizag), on board a passenger ship, and this was a great experience for him as it was his first long-distance trip by the sea, which takes about 18 hours. He had never been on such a long-distance journey before. Travelling along with him was his wife Ana, they were both on vacation to Vizag. It was Ana’s maiden trip on a passenger liner, and she was filled with excitement at the prospect of having a first time experience of a new city. But the choppy sea was turbulent, making Ana dizzy, and had caused her to throw up a couple of times, the previous evening. The ship rocked, with a gentle rhythm, but, it was enough to unsettle a person who was not used to turbulent seas. She was sleeping inside the cabin, whereas Jonathan was roaming on the deck of the ship, unable to get back to sleep after he woke in the middle of the night.

He married, in his third-third year, and had just turned fifty-eight. He decided to quit his well-paid job because he felt he had toiled enough over the thirty-six years. Jonathan had been offered an extension in his services by his employers, but he wanted more from life, so he politely declined, even though many other lucrative offers came his way.

When Jonathan quit his job, Ana, a housewife, was rather happy and it was encouraging for her as it meant more family time, vacations and all those small things women crave. She felt that both could spend time together, going for outings which had been rare for the family due to the frequency of travel schedules Jonathan had in his workplace, which made squeezing in vacation trips quite difficult, especially when he was going to visit suppliers in other cities and countries. As their daughter was already married and staying abroad, the old couple was free to plan their trips; Jonathan was getting adequate superannuation benefits from his employer allowing them to survive comfortably for another 15–20 years.

Despite the good outward feelings of being as free as a bird now, without official commitments, there was something buried deep inside him craving fulfillment. Jonathan was from a family of Orthodox Syrian Christians, but was born and raised in Calcutta. He did his schooling and college education in different states in India and finally gained employment with the Atomic Research Centre, situated outside Chennai city. Jonathan traveled almost every fortnight to various cities to inspect machines and instruments supplied by several manufacturers which the Atomic Research Centre ordered. He was the coordinator for other Energy Research Centers as well, situated in different parts of India. As he had to inspect the equipment ordered by various departments his job involved frequent travel to the suppliers’ site to evaluate the progress of the items ordered by the research center.

His job had allowed him to mingle with people of different cultures and various religious backgrounds, and that was the most rewarding part of his profession, aside from the financial perks and intellectual challenges. During his younger days, he did his education in various cities like Calcutta, Madras and finally got his engineering degree from The Thrissur Government College in Kerala which gave him the advantage of knowing the local languages. Jonathan’s forefathers belonged to Kerala, and despite coming from an Orthodox Christian background, he had no religious hang-ups and was an absolute agnostic, enabling him to easily mix with people young and old, of both genders from all walks of life.

Jonathan showed a lot of interest in science and technology and his passion kept himself very busy throughout his career. He was highly committed towards his work, and being a workaholic he never could sit down and relax. As a young boy, he always expressed interest in new areas and accepted challenges without hesitation. He was always in thinking mode, and had a habit of becoming glued to various technical books. He could never overcome his urge to learn, and this curiosity kept him mentally occupied.

So now, at the dawn of a new phase in his life, far removed from the strict regimen of his professional career where he had spent close to four decades, Jonathan was clueless as to what he was going to do with all this free time. The main reason for him retiring was because he had grown tired of travelling, and all the different foods he ate when travelling were giving him digestive problems. He was worried the stress might trigger an ulcer, causing him to lose sleep and develop insomnia.

Suddenly, he realized that the skyline had completely changed. The bright stars started to fade away from his vision. He could see the darkness vanish, as the sun began to illuminate the sky with strange colors; like some modern painting on a canvas.

The rising sun, partially embedded beneath the horizon, was watched by Jonathan, and he was amazed to see the sky painted with a variety of colors, like golden yellow, orange, indigo, and grey. Tiny little clouds hung in the sky and he was spellbound by the beauty. With no one to disturb him, he enjoyed this great splendor. The sun rose above the horizon on the eastern side and gradually the golden orange color was getting transformed to blue all over the grey sky. The beautiful transformation that Jonathan was witnessing made him feel like he was having an out of world experience.

As he and Ana had boarded the ship at sunset the previous evening, he could see for the first time the majestic Bay of Bengal, encompassed between Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh on the east and the long southern coast line of India on the west. It is a huge sheet of sea water, but technically it is called a bay, as the body of water is situated between the landline on the three sides and on the fourth side it meets the Indian Ocean.

Jonathan was in a trance like state, and for the first time in his life, he realized and thought about the magnificent creation and wonders of nature. He recalled the image of those millions of stars in the deep Universe that had mesmerized him for those few moments, a couple of hours ago in the night sky; and all that he is seeing now during the sunrise. It was mind-boggling for him to think about the various heavenly bodies, like the stars, comets, asteroids, and for that matter our planet; all of which are floating in the vast space, as well as the beautiful creations he witnesses on the face of the Earth.

It was unimaginable for Jonathan to think that he was standing, and the sea, the ship, the surrounding small islands and small bushy mountains are all resting on a huge ball, which is moving at such phenomenal speed in the dark Universe! His wild thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he saw Ana standing close to him and in a soft voice she wished him ‘good morning.’

Jonathan and Ana stood on the deck of the ship and enjoyed the scenic beauty of Bay of Bengal, and spent some time together before they went back to their cabin. The ship reached Vizag port around 11.30 a.m. The couple spent their short vacation there for three days and then returned to Chennai by train. On their return, Ana couldn’t help but ask her husband if he enjoyed the trip, because she noticed that he was preoccupied at times. She felt that Jonathan who had already visited Vizag several times for work, had experienced nothing special, except maybe the ship ride, but she was curious to know what it is that he was thinking about. May be she was right, but at the same time, Jonathan knew that there was something which was bothering him, but he was still not able to figure out what it was?

After the Vizag trip time was moving fast, especially for Ana. She was now ready for the next trip, and she thought Jonathan had nothing else to do so why not get started on another journey! Jonathan, however, was not inclined to travel, having frequently traveled most of his life, in fact he was feeling allergic to going at such short intervals. But for Ana, it was a different thing. Her only daughter was grown up and all her responsibilities were over, and there was little to do at home except cooking simple dishes. Life was boring her. Her social life was limited, because she had few friends, fewer acquaintances and she was never inclined to go to parties. She visited the church regularly and her few friends belonged to that group only.

With Jonathan sitting at home reading, or doing something on the computer all the time, tension started brewing between the couple. They were used to each other’s absence rather than the company. It was the usual problem of two individuals having different interests because every person is different and their needs are also different.

The main issue with Jonathan was that he was glued to his thoughts and was unable to interact with Ana, though not intentionally, unless he was asked something. He would hardly acknowledge her, or get into any verbal tussle unless it is necessary, and so Ana was becoming very irritated with her husband’s attitude.