How many earthquakes? What’s wrong with the Earth? Don’t surprise if scientists remain clueless as ever. They will keep looking at their machines to ascertain the reason of every earthquake after it tears through their empires. And before they agree to one reason, another earthquake will hit! Burma and Japan earthquake news are still fresh and another, this time a massive one, has hit Ecuador killing hundreds, injuring thousands and destroying properties worth billions. It is like after giving multiple warnings, the nature is now determined to take stricter action. Earthquakes, floods, droughts, epidemics, forest fires and increasing cold and heat by every year are just a few examples how we, as human being, have compelled the nature to chastise us for our reckless misdeeds.
How long will mother nature keep warning when foolish people are not willing to listen? These people are the leaders of the world who are misguided by another class of foolish people, namely modern scientists. The Earth has been tortured to the core. Environment has been messed around for decades. Agriculture is industrialized, rivers are blocked by monstrous dams, oceans are drilled for oil and minerals, rain clouds are throttled by pollution and poisonous gases, digging the Earth deeper for metal and coal resources has become a subject matter of auctions, forests are invaded by human population and wild animals are struggling to survive.
What more? Trees and domestic animals are slaughtered indiscriminately, women are both encouraged and forced to shed their cloths, modesty is rapidly vanishing, chastity is considered outdated, and gay marriages are becoming part of lifestyle. Human trafficking, selling of body parts, thriving medical industry at the cost of lives, and criminal negligence of the basic rights of innocent creatures like cows and bulls, birds and reptiles has gone rampant. The list of sins committed on the planet sees no end and we still want to think there is something wrong with the Earth!
Nothing is wrong with the Earth. All is wrong with us! Hmmm. Let us, for a moment, think rationally and not try to again prove ourselves right in an attempt to keep our self-esteem high. Such tendency will take us nowhere except more tragedies. Today it is India, Burma, Japan or Ecuador facing the hit, tomorrow it will be other continents. Let us take responsibility. It is not a time for experiments. It’s time for going back to basics, turn to time-tested wisdom. Let us not be fooled by the so-called science and shy away from what is mentioned in religious scriptures. As mentioned earlier, Earth is herself a living entity with a gigantic body. Just like a small bug can live on an elephant’s body and not realize it, we are living on Earth’s gigantic body and thinking it’s a free playground. Earthquakes are not accidents. They are a result of nature’s action. Obviously we feel sympathetic towards the affected ones but is that enough every time we see a devastating earthquake? We need to go beyond what is considered common sense today.
No, I am not getting distracted here. I am talking complete sense and complete science – the science which is unknown to our tiny-brained scientists today. I am not being cynical either. There is a limit to appeasement. What right do we have to keep praising today’s science, ignoring their never-ending blunders and ever-changing theories at the cost of huge losses on all fronts, and what rights do the modern scientists and researchers have to keep humiliating Vedic science as mythology just because it has got the ability to teach them what to do? Offering due respect is one thing, being politically correct at the cost of lives is entirely another. I, for one, don’t buy it.
The science described in the Vedas is far too superior to modern science. Ignorance is not an excuse. The root cause for natural calamities like earthquakes are well explained in there. Inability of modern science to detect the subtle reasons for various natural phenomena or even conceive the most complex laws of physics discussed in the Vedas does not render such knowledge irrelevant. What we are seeing today is a direct result of ignoring Vedic wisdom. Earthquakes have become part of regular headlines these days.
People need to realize that the longest period they can defy the supremacy of God is so far they are allowed to breathe. At the time of death all their so-called knowledge, strength, military power, or whatever they may be proud of is taken away by the agents of God. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita: mrtyuh sarva-haras caham, meaning He is all-devouring death. His inconceivably powerful energy, the material nature, manages all individual as well as universal affairs. Once a so-called non-believer dies, he has absolutely no control over what his next destination will be as he is helplessly captured by the agents of nature called devas, or demigods, who reside on higher planetary systems. It is sheer ignorance to believe that there is no next life. Again, ignorance is not an excuse.
In his book “A Second Chance” Srila Prabhupada says:
“This change is executed under the supervision of higher authorities (daiva-netrena). According to one’s religious and irreligious acts, one has to accept a particular type of body in a particular position and suffer. Our sufferings are classified as adhibhautika, adhyatmika, and adhidaivika. Adhyatmika miseries are those caused by our own bodies and minds, adhibhautika miseries are those inflicted by other living entities, and adhidaivika miseries are those which are inflicted by higher authorities (devas) and which are completely beyond our control—such as earthquake, drought, flood, and famine. We cannot adjust these situations. In the same way, after death superior authorities will offer us a certain type of body, and we cannot say, “Oh no, sir, I do not want this body.” We have to accept it.”
Teaching on the same subject matter, in a lecture at Mayapur on 30th September 1974 Srila Prabhupada said:
“So this material nature, Durga, is controlling the whole universe, ten directions. Sristi-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka [Brahma samhita. 5.44]. Eka. Chayeva. But how she is working? Not independently. Sristi -sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka chayeva. She is working just like shadow. The original body and the shadow body, they are two different. But the shadow body moves if the original moves. So therefore this word is used, chayeva. This vast power, material nature… It is a very powerful… Sristi-sthiti. It can create; it can destroy. At any moment, if there is some earthquake, the whole sea water may come and cover the land portion, and within the sea you can see one island has come out. Everyone has got this experience. So sristi-sthiti-pralaya. One side, pralaya; one side, creation. So this can be done by the material nature. But how she is working? She is working under the direction of somebody else. That is Govinda. And Govinda also says in the Bhagavad-gita, mayadhyaksena prakritih sruyate sa-caracaram: [Bg. 9.10] “She is working under My direction.” (SP Lecture SB 1.8.20 Mayapur)
Let it be clear that there is absolutely nothing automatic in the existence. Everything is operated by the intelligence of conscious beings. Accidents only take place when things are mismanaged but the universe, being controlled by God’s able assistants doesn’t have accidents. It is the demoniac desires and thoughtless actions of human beings that have created this environmental imbalance and so the consequence are inevitable. Just like a criminal who is condemned to death by court of law can only be pardoned by the President of the country, our sins can only be forgiven by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. There is no other way.
Not listening to warning given by mother nature will he inviting more calamities, and trying to find out reasons behind earthquakes without understanding the root causes, that is, unbearable sins committed on the planet, will be sheer foolishness. Less intelligent people may say that this is just a religious sentiment but assuming it is so, the question is, how much have we tried to understand natural calamities from religious point of view? If at the end of the day religious understanding can save the planet, why not accept it? Without doing enough in that regard none has to right to say that scriptural injunctions on how to live a safe and happy life on Earth don’t work. They have worked for millenniums and they do work even now.
The need of the day is to give up false pride and admit that we tiny human beings have no intelligence to understand God’s creation, maintenance and dissolution, not to speak of controlling it. We can only learn it by descending knowledge and accept it. Without this admission we are bound to see more and more news of earthquakes and other natural disasters.
‘Everything is Destroyed’: Powerful Earthquake Kills 246 in Ecuador – NBC New York
Rescuers pulled survivors from rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast. Officials said the death toll rose, with 246 people now confirmed dead. Vice … ‘Everything is Destroyed’: Powerful Earthquake Kills 246 in Ecuador – NBC New York
Ecuador earthquake: Death toll surpasses 400 as rescuers scramble to reach survivors – ABC Online
Gabriel Alcivar, the Mayor of Pedernales, estimated there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many buried under the rubble of collapsed hotels. “Pedernales is devastated. Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of … Ecuador earthquake: Death toll surpasses 400 as rescuers scramble to reach survivors – ABC Online
It’s time we take responsibility and stop blaming mother Earth or nature for earthquakes. As clearly pointed out here, although knowledge given in the Vedas can help modern science decode almost everything in the universe, the movements of planets, celestial events, civilizations on other planets, reasons for earthly mishaps and guidance on how to avoid it and so on, the very next step in the process takes the science toward religion, towards a higher intelligence, a creator, or God, and this is where they get stuck.
For those sincerely interested in understanding the material nature, how she functions and under whose direction she carries out the affairs of this world, we recommend reading Ma Durga – Going beyond myths. The article speaks of the personal features of mother nature, also known as Durga, why she is worshiped as mother, and how, under the direction of her master, she controls the world from time immemorial.
There are ways to avoid earthquakes. Science cannot stop it. We need to listen to those who trigger them. And the first thing they advise is, stop committing sins. The simplest definition of sin is, defy the authority of the Supreme Lord. This must stop. It needs to be clear that unless and until God’s supremacy is unconditionally accepted, there is no hope for the people of this world to see peace and prosperity that they are dreaming of. One cannot remain peaceful in a state while defying the authority of the state head. It is that simple.
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