On the day of Vijaya Dashami, which celebrates the victory of good over evil , Ravan’s story offers a powerful lesson about the paradox of knowledge. Though he had the mastery of Vedas, arts, and sciences, but his ego and excessive desires for power and fame led him to misuse his knowledge and resulted in his downfall. This example clearly demonstrates that knowledge alone cannot guarantee wisdom, until it is guided by ethics and self control. Similar challenges we face in today’s situation — when vast technological advancements and scientific knowledge are misused due to overpowered desires of greed, ambition and personal gain which cause destructive outcomes from environmental degradations to cybercrime over responsibility. Similar to the downfall of Ravan due to lack of wisdom, modern knowledge which is humongous can produce many benefits and catastrophic harm if exploited. Hence it is concluded that Ravana’s story supports the view that wisdom emerges not from the quantity of knowledge, but from the way it is guided by values, ethics, and self-awareness.
Recently I read a slogan written on one of the Goa beaches “ Take only memories, leave only footprints” which disturbed me. The reason for this uneasiness is not the quote but the scar we leave behind as footprints,sadly “OUR LITTER”. Litter scattered around the tourist place is more than an eyesore ; it reflects our fragile relationship with nature.
The vulnerability of the tourist place is evident from the data recorded by a nationwide survey and found that 70% of waste on Indian beaches is plastic waste.Elliot’s beach in Chennai reported more than 80% of plastic waste during the clean up drive. To a similar extent Mandvi beach in Gujarat showed an increase in plastic waste collection from 157 kg to 440 kg which is almost 180% in a year.
These figures are silent testimonies which depict the tragedy of commons in real time, where a traveller thinks their footprint is too small a matter, the shared space pays the price.
NATURE AS A TEACHER
When we plan a trip, we usually think of beauty- the snow capped mountains,peaceful rivers,grand forts,or sparkling beaches .A traveller,when traveling is not only a guest but also a student who learns patience from the mountains, flow from the rivers and endurance from the forts. However, the irony is what we return to our teachers – THE GARBAGE which is OUR LITTER ( our footprints) reflects the collective carelessness.Furthermore our simple behaviour of picking up a plastic bottle or just taking the trash back apparently shows the gesture of gratitude and wisdom.
AN ACT OF GRATITUDE
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
Litter is just not a garbage but the reflection of our mind which show case how selfish we are because so easily we grab individual benefits and leave the place for collective harm.Hence the tragedy here is what gives joy to all can be ruined by the neglect of many, we call it as “Tragedy of the commons”.The problem lies with an attitude that something which belongs to everyone, people often treat it as if it belongs to no one. Each person thinks, one plastic bottle won’t make a difference or one wrapper left behind is nothing, but when many people think in the same way, the commons – it creates OUR LITTER which destroys the shared spaces.
ACTIONS THAT MATTER
Be mindful of your actions and ask yourself “what can we do?”.With small acts which are multiplied across thousands visitors can definitely prevent tragedy and this will surely help us leaving behind footprints of respect , not destruction.
Carry your trash with you and encourage others to do the same.
Organize clean up drives or be a part of it.
Picking up what others have left behind this will cause a ripple effect.
Try to say no to plastics or at least reduce the usage.
See yourself as a part of the place ,not just the visitor.
Leave the legacy of gratitude not the garbage.
CONCLUSION : Reflect before you leave
Tourist places are a reflection of God’s gift and our care as the visitor. Make sure when you visit next time and see a nature’s beauty question yourself :
“What story am I leaving here ? A story of Respect or Our Litter.”
Because our real enjoyment is not in disturbing an ecosystem of the tourist place or simply capturing the beauty in your camera but to maintain the beauty for others to view.
“Patience is a godly attribute that can heal souls, unlock treasures of knowledge and understanding, and transform ordinary men and women into saints and angels.” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf
These days when we are one click away to buy our Fave and can easily retrieve information from our genie GOOGLE BABA or ALEXA, instant gratification has become our routine.Getting what we want right away ,is not a problem but the reality check shows, possibility is low and ends up in frustration.Hence when have to seek for long term rewards, a skill set of delayed gratification will be a faster approach.The key elements of delayed gratification are self control and self regulation which help us in overcoming the temptation and buy us a time to be strategically thoughtful. Let’s do a self check to employ delayed gratification in us based on the psychoanalysis conducted on kids long back with marshmallows.Task is to not use your mobile phone for an hour ,I will make it time specific so morning time after we get up is best to do this exercise, as many motivational speech and videos suggest not get trapped in your phone during early hours. If you succeed your reward is not one more marshmallow but a mental peace and calmness.Be honest and share your response!!
Once upon a time two curious minds met and befriend, they were Mr. Hunt and Mr. Humphrey They liked each other’s company and decided to work in collaboration. This motivated them to study about sea urchin eggs and research on mitosis. There journey full of excitement and enthusiasm started to know how cells divide.
But one day something strange happened, it was Hunt working alone in a laboratory and he was surprised to see that there was a substance which changed its concentration. He shouted in excitement EUREKA EUREKA. His team rushed to note this discovery and thanked Hunt for a random act of chance.
His curiosity led him to know more about the substance and with time and work he decided that this substance is protein, which shows the cyclical nature of its presence in the cell. He named it CYCLIN as Hunt’s love for cycling.
Adding to this majority of scientific discoveries are serendipitous. However, we cannot leave behind the hard work, critical thinking abounds in an inquisitive mind and of course the good timing are few attributes of a lucky scientist. Thus the moral of the story is that we all have an element of serendipity; chance did play a role which is a beautiful phenomenon of coming across a fortunate event. But these happy accidents do not happen on their own, it is we need to make them happen by upskilling ourselves and coming out of our comfort zones. Then we develop the skill to recognize the greatness of what we have witnessed. To strongly support my point, I would quote a saying of a great scientist Louis Pasteur “In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind”.
At the end of each day, most of us close our routines not with silence or reflection, but with an Instagram story or a late-night chat. Our gadgets, too, need to be “fed” regularly with 440 volts of electricity so that they can power through their next assignment. This rhythm seems to define the life of the modern human. We are called the most evolved species on earth—the so-called “modern man.” To call ourselves merely “superior animals” feels like an insult, for we no longer crawl on four limbs but stand upright with expanded cranial capacity, capable of extraordinary scientific and technological inventions.
Yet, my aim here is not to glorify human evolution, nor to deny it. My question is: has evolution become a toll? Are we truly conscious of the harm our evolutionary journey—biological and technological—has caused to the environment that sustains us?
I believe we are “great people with great minds.” This is no irony; the evidence lies in our relentless progress, our inventions, and the constant stream of innovations that testify to human intellect. But this very proximity to technology—our technocentric obsession—has distanced us from naturalistic consciousness.
Our story of evolution is grand. From Neanderthals to Homo sapiens, from foragers to food producers, from simple communication to complex languages, and now, from organic intelligence to artificial intelligence—human life has never stood still. Evolution has expanded our brain’s capacity, reshaped our social lives, and driven innovations. But with this paradigm shift came a troubling transition: from ecocentrism to technocentrism.
This raises the uncomfortable question: is evolution itself responsible for today’s environmental chaos? In one sense, yes. Both biological evolution and technological evolution follow Darwin’s logic of variation, adaptation, and retention. But there is a key difference. Biological evolution is spontaneous, driven by survival, while technological evolution is market-driven, propelled by profit. If the two are advancing side by side, why are we losing balance?
Perhaps the answer lies in our DNA. As our cranial capacity grew, something else diminished: our emotional grounding, our sense of belonging to the natural world. We risk becoming like machines—efficient, powerful, but resource-hungry, polluting, and emotionally hollow. Machines serve a purpose, but they also consume endlessly and leave behind toxic waste. In many ways, modern humans are replicating the same cycle: consuming recklessly and suffocating the planet with our excesses.
This is not true evolution. Evolution should mean growth, not degradation. If we truly are “modern man,” why have we stopped behaving responsibly as one?
We seem to have reached a state of saturation—an unstable equilibrium, a tipping point. At this point, survival cannot last long, for the load exceeds what life can carry. Unless we introduce a corrective cycle—a negative feedback loop that restores balance—we risk tipping into collapse.
Therefore, evolution is not just a biological journey or a technological triumph. It is now a moral responsibility. The future demands not machines disguised as humans, but humans who evolve consciously. We must change. Otherwise, what we proudly call “evolution” may reveal itself as nothing more than a toll—one too heavy for the earth, and for us, to bear.
“One who makes himself a worm cannot complain afterwards if people step on him.”
― Immanuel Kant
This quote does not drive me philosophically to the personality of a human in relation to his or her perfection in terms of body, mind or spirit. Moreover it relates me to a situation where we all are becoming worms and our next generations will be reproduced as worms due to unplanned urbanization, unsustainable consumption of resources, havoc of pollution sources, exponential growth in population, deforestation and many other environmental concerns.
Don’t limit worms to small segmented or unsegmented creatures with no limbs and less developed nervous system. Modern man or furthermore evolved ultramodern man behaving as limbless minion crawling with a large cranium box is a noxious worm for an environment and is under the power of its own formation. Fulfilling the second half of the quote…………….. ‘People will step on him’.
Our own achievements of commanding environment are profusely taking a charge in the form of urban island heat, flash floods, vulnerability of species extinction, climate change, soil degradation and innumerably more. Apparently these charges are like people stepping on worms and eventually these worms created are aggressively ruined by their own creation.
Now a question which attacks us is!! WHO IS RESPONSIBLE and WHOM TO COMPLAIN??
Onus goes to all and none to complain……Look at the irony we established for ourselves in becoming worms and being damaged as-
“Worms driven by fossil fuel combustion,
Worms dependent on mechanization,
Oh! Worms at loss.
Worms eating inorganic fertilizers,
Worms killing trees,
Oh! Worms at loss.
Worms causing ocean acidification,
Worms growing population,
Oh! Worms at loss.
Though limbless worms dig for aeration but we as worms are becoming dangerous;
There is a degree of uncertainty in the extent and effect of climate change. Some of us believe that knowledge of climate change is either provisional or incomplete.Likewise if we relate this same concept of uncertainty to some other beliefs which we carry with ourselves and follow them strongly.We have few or no evidences of many uncertain beliefs which are reflected as an inbuilt behavior and even no reason to question them because we are grown up with them.Are we not biased in our approach towards some beliefs which are based on incomplete knowledge or information and we still follow them ? Likewise if looking into a biggest concern of modern world “Climate Change”being with uncertainties we should change our perception and build more adequate precautionary measures to control its damage.So why not work with tried and tested belief that if human beings get accustomed to the change in lifestyle with little hard work sustenance is achievable .And make a right choice of our strength to calm down damage caused by climate change.
Firstly lets end with the fight of existence of climate change and then stop claiming climate change as ” Tragedy of Commons” and shifting our own responsibility on each other.We all should develop trust on climatologist, who keep proposing climate models with feedback mechanisms.Moreover these models are also based on beliefs which gives us two directions either believe in shifting to new equilibrium or returning back to original state.Freedom to opt any direction is an opportunity to have a flexi – belief ,but even believing one, needs change in our perception to withdraw its consequences.
We started our journey as hunters and gatherers and became agriculturalists which helped us with insufficient accumulation and assimilation of resources. With the utilization of resources, we enriched ourselves culturally, ethically, and morally and history reflects we being traders even. Eventually, we believed ourselves to be with an evolved cranial capacity, a brain box !!!
Why should we not ??? We are cosmopolitan artist who knows how to invade a region as humongous as the moon or as minute as a microbe, which is not even visible to us. As an artist, we know the art of playing with DNA technically and discovering science to work for us. Techno centrism is in our attitude or can say our social circle without which the present human race is incomplete. But to what extent we are in dextrorotation which should suit our sustenance. I was concerned by one Television Ad to think on sustainability where a boy shared his future business prospects of a cycle repair shop with his dad in a sarcastic manner as dad was at the signal with the fuel-burning car. One more incident which ignited me was while teaching my class about the ecological footprint, a 17-year-old boy shared his style of the shower which was a reflection of ….who cares?
This who care attitude or rather we do not want to take any environmental issue responsibility is a big concern for us and our next generations. Now technically and economically our spectrum has widened with smartphones and other electronic gadgets with progression. This surely taking a toll on our resources, so now is the time to that sinking feeling for sustainability.THINK and TAKE ACTION.
A common thought we all have for our life is that it should be carefree ,problem free ,challenge free ,stress free and of course many more free which actually never happens. All of us our trapped in the network of issues related to life in spite of the consideration whether i am a king or a beggar. Now a question which should actually erupt is how to break a trap cleverly.May be leaving a dense network of issues with high viscosity of a fluid or like an elasticity of a rubber band or may be the rigidity of a solid.What i believe if we say bye -bye to the issues like a flowing liquid will actually be a clever approach towards life.
In my school days we were suppose to write a quote before starting any written assignment, one of my most favourite quotation was ” Life is not a bed of Roses ” easy to remember and short in length to write .But now if sometimes this quote struck my mind it shakes me with its scary words . Yes, actually these words will change my life if they stay for a longer time in my brain cells because I believe if my cells are fed with a food which have a platter of NOT ,NO ,NEVER will eventually reflect the same.Yogic belief is that your personality is the reflection of your platter.
ritikalibra10 