Anupam- The Dreamer

Creation, preservation and then destruction is the law of the nature. All living beings take birth (creation), they live their life (preservation) and then they die (destruction). Even this universe including the galaxies, stars, planets etc. was created in the big bang about 13.8 billions years ago (creation phase is still ongoing), then there is preservation of what has been created and there will be destruction eventually (even destruction is happening at the same time like death of stars). Infact, in some aspects of life, all these 3 phases of creation, preservation and destruction happen at the same time.

The important question that arises here is this- do we have a role to play in the 3 phases or is it just a deterministic fate of time? Some things determined by God and nature may not be in our control- like birth and death of stars etc., but in terms of things created, preserved and destroyed by humans, I would like to believe that these are firmly in our own hands. Take for example, a work of art. It may take days and months and years to create one painting or sculpture or architecture. Even before an artist begins to make it, it takes years of training and even centuries and millennia of history and culture to shape the understanding, knowledge and skills that eventually help to give it the final shape. Like for example, someone is making a painting from Mahabharata, so it took thousands of years for humanity to preserve that knowledge and understanding of the events that happened in that era, then huge efforts would have been taken to write and preserve the epic for centuries, millions of people would have transmitted the knowledge through language and traditions to their coming generations, and then only after that it has survived till today’s age. Then the artist would have to put in so much thoughts, imagination and efforts to create a scene from Mahabharata e.g. Gita Updesh. So, the process of creation of something takes a huge amount of time, much more than we can envisage.

Now, preserving that artwork or for that matter the story of Mahabharat also takes a lot of effort. It is like giving birth to a child is a very arduous task, at the same time nurturing the child also takes a lot of efforts on the part of the society which is a lifelong process. But how much time does it take to destroy the artwork or to destroy the story or to destroy a human being? Hardly a few seconds!!!! Destroying something is the easiest of all the 3 phases! Because you don’t have to apply your mind in destruction! It can be done by any person- skilled or unskilled, knowledgeable or stupid, young or old. But, it takes the work of a genius, humane and skilled person to create and preserve something.

When you look around, there are some people who achieve popularity and success by creating something new (startup companies also fall in this category). Then, there are those who like to preserve what has been created (like the employees of the company). Then, there are those who like to destroy everything beautiful out there in this world! The examples are galore around us! Anyone who is destroying beautiful human creations like art, culture, tangible and intangible human heritage, culture, infrastructure, is doing a great disservice to the whole of humanity. Destruction of such things will not make us more cultured, more humane and more advanced. The glory is in creation of yet newer things and preservation of what good things we have created together. Let nature take care of the destruction phase, why should we as humans have to do anything towards that end? And if at all we have to destroy something, then shouldn’t we destroy all the bad things that have been created by notorious and foolish people around us?

So, which side do you identify more with – creation, preservation or mere destruction?

Till next time….