The miserable life of the old and aged people
- Part 1 -

Waikhom Damodar Singh *

During the discourse of counselling Arjuna by Lord Krishna, He said as in the Bhagavad Gita, verse 13 of the 2nd Sangkhya Yoga chapter-"Dehino -hasmin jatha dehe, kaumarang jaubanang jara, tatha dehantra prapti dhirastraya na muharjyati"-Hey Arjun : the living beings once born poass through three phaes of life-childhood, youth and olad age. After that death inevitably takes place slowly." Yes, the changing of the material bodies into three stages inevitably takes place after their birth as a very unavoidable natural phenomenon-"change is the law of nature."

In the case of the animals the change, the growth takes place from their very tiny embryonic cells, the Zygotes, formed by the union of two still tinier cells, the sperms of the males and the ovum of the females, the chemical metabolic process being known as "fertilisation" and in the case of the plants it is known as "pollination."

The growing of the material bodies is quite similar to that of the formation or growth of our mysterious universe taken place from a very tiny matter and expanding into a gigantic dimension in a very fast speed-in the case of the former it is in the "microscomic form."

According the learned scientists, the Universe had been created as a result of a "cataclysmic explosion of a very minute primordial Hydrogen gas cell" taken place som 13/14 billions of years ago-one billion equals 1000 millions, the great and most unique event being known as "Big Bang" and its process of growing into a gigantically ever expanding dimension is continuinng at a very fast rate of speed and expansion so mysteriously taking place will come to an end is still a question which has remained unanswered.

The Law of the Nature is-once a beginning has taken place the end is bound to come and therefore the expansion of the Universe should come to a stop, though when it will be remains still unknown. The scientists have found out "how and when" the Universe came into existence but they are still silent as to "why" it, with all the living being and non-living things, had been created and that too for what real purpose ?

According to the Vedic version or Vedantic philosophy the Universe was created by a Creator called God. He created som 84 lakhs of living beings in addition to the enormous numbers of non-living things created. Out of the 84 lakhs of the living beings 4 lakhs were fishes and other sea creatures, plants and animals from which evolved the human beings, as the top of the creation, endowed especially with the factor "knowledge" i.e the power of knowing things that had been created and existing in the cosmic world. Possessing of "thinking power" has been endowed only with the human beings and not with the animals, though they also have the factors-eating, sleeping, moving and mating (reproduction) as similar as the human beings do.

The purpose of the life of human beings, as the great saints say-is to know fully the existence of a Creator of this Cosmic world who is all powerful and called God and seek his blessing for attaining 'salvation', the holy union with Him so as to be free from the sorrwoful phenomenon of personal cycle of "birth and death"-the Vedic version os "Poonarpi janaanm, poonarapi maranang"-once birth has taken place, death is bound to follow and vice versa. Life of the living beings is defined as the "activities" created by an energy developed or generated from the metabolic chemical reaction taking place in their bodies right from the time of their "inception" in their mothers' wombs till their death-ceasing of the metabolic process.

As a fall out phenomenon of the Big Bang explosion, the countless constellations and the galaxies of stars and planets existing in the cosmic world had been created in tremendously heated state and they have been remaining ever since in rotating and revolving motions gradually cooling down with the passage of time effected under the universal process of thermo dynamical law of dissipation (loss) of heat in the empty space. Out of the countless galaxies of stars and planets, our Sun and the planets are a group or family of them among which our Earth is the only planet on which living beings appeared after it had cooled down to a moderate temperature and became a place habitable for the existence of lives of the living beings.

According to the findings of Science, it says, for millions and millions of years the Earth along with other planets had been remaining in their revolving and rotating anti-clock wise motions round the parent Sun, whjich attracted them towards it by its much stronger gravitational pull as per the Universal Law of Gravitation discovered by Isaac Newton some 400 years ago and in due course of time, in terms of millions and millions of years, the surface of the Earth which had been in semi-liquid state from the beginning solidified with formation of high mountains, hills, deeply lowered portions and plains.

The mysteriously vapours containing of Hydrogen and Oxygen gases have been formed around the atmosphere of the Earth. From the combination of the two gases in the ratio of two is to one respectively clouds have been formed which on attaining its optimum temperature fell as rain and its enormous bulk in the form of water fallen filled up the lower portions of the Earth's surface as oceans, seas and rivers and it continued to remain in that state for another millions and millions of years after which suddenly appeared life in the forms of very minute "bio-cells" in the highly saline sea water and from these "micro-organisms", so mysteriously appeared, evolved all the sea creatures, fishes and plants (both land and ambiphious) as found by French Biologist, Charles Darwin, according to whose finding, put as evolutionary theory, evolution of the so called human beings began from the stages of lizards and finally from the stages of Hominidae Apes, the Homo Sapiens (thinking man), who multiplied their numbers in millions and developed as the most sensitive and civilised beings and lived as the overlords of the Earth.

Out of the three stages of life of the living beings, particularly of the human beings, mentioned at the outset, Childhood, Youth and Old Age, the most enjoyable period is Childhood period, with nothing to worry of the miseries and burdens of the world having only playingh, eating and sleeping habitss without fear of anybody and anything living under the comfortable care and protection of the parents, mother in particular, followed by the youthful period being the prime time (most enjoyable, activie and fearless) period of life with full of vigour as a result of fully developed and energetic stage of the organs of their bodies.

Such a peak stage of very enjoyable life is followed by the Old Age period (Jara)-the beginning of the sorrowful "ageing and reversing" period of life, which starts taking place after attaining 50 years of age in the prescribed longevity span of average 100 years for the lives of the human beings, though Lord Krishan and /other GOdly beings lived 120 years-Pakhangba, the deitic King of Manipur lived a life of 147 years (from 7 AD to 153 AD) as recorded very authentically in the history of Manipur.

During the periods of childhood and youth a person is very active in his body movements, has very good appetite with quick digestion of what he eats, sleeps well. But when he attains the old age he becomes weak in his body movements with development of pains in his legs, waist etc, not asble to walk lightly and fastly, difficult in sitting down and getting up easily. With development of all sorts of ailments that he inherits from his ancestors through the process of "gene-flow" (Adi-Veidic effect) his miserable life period of oldness begins with his teeth becoming decayed and start falling one after the other, making him unable to chew food he eats properly and enjoy the good taste of it, particularly the hard ones.

To be continued...