Yesterday, I watched the following video of Richard Feynman on fire:
https://youtu.be/vdop32yJqWg?si=ne_1GX9r5TjR6GtT
Mr Feynman has explained it beautifully that burning is nothing but the coming together of the atoms of carbon and oxygen and the release of energy in the process. The reverse process takes place when plants make food by releasing the atoms of oxygen into the atmosphere and absorbing the energy from sunlight. Basically what we call fire is just the release of energy that was absorbed by the plants from the Sun. When we burn some fossil fuel, it's like experiencing the energy of the sunlight that was stored by the plants millions of years ago. Every time we light a lamp in the morning, we create a mini Sun in our home. Isn't it so profound?
The universe is expanding at its own speed. The Sun is giving light to us constantly. Billions of plants and infinite cells within the leaves are constantly working to make food and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Human beings consume the food produced by the plants. Human beings are the ultimate consumers in the process of both food and oxygen. However, when we die, our bodies are disintegrated to become part of the soil and atmosphere. Thus, human beings, post-disintegration of their bodies, become food for the plants. We eat the plants, and plants eat us.
Where is "I" in this entire process? When we sit with close friends and family members and enquire about the lives of each other, we get to know about so many problems. Somebody has a crisis at a job, somebody in a relationship, and somebody with finances. All of us have numerous desires, too. To be successful, wealthy, powerful, and get whatever we want. Do we ever examine why we want all these things? We may enquire about any desire, and at the end of the day, the answer would be the same. We want to be happy, and we have this firm belief that getting what we desire will make us happy. Somebody who does not have money feels that getting money will make him happy. Somebody does not have powers and feels that getting a particular position will make him happy. Somebody does not have a girlfriend and feels that getting a girlfriend will make him happy. Somebody does not have a child and feels that getting a child will make him happy.
Our mind tags happiness with something, and then we start running after that desire. Meanwhile, the Sun keeps supplying the energy constantly. We eat the food produced by the plants, and the fire keeps burning inside our bodies in the form of cellular metabolism, and we keep getting the energy produced by the plants to run our bodies. We remain completely oblivious to the fact, and all these processes keep happening unconsciously. What if the food does not reach a part of the body? What if a part of the body is unable to convert the food into energy? We never think of all these things. We are busy pursuing the target that we like and developing all types of stress in the process.
We feel stressed when we become obsessed with a desire to have something or with what we already have, and we perceive a threat to it. In those moments, we forget the infinite blessings we have. We often forget how smoothly the entire body functions. How the sunlight stored by the plants is making our bodies run, and how the entire ecosystem is functioning in such an integrated manner. If we remember these blessings, we will realise the bliss we already have. We will realise that happiness is not something that we can aim for. We are already blessed to have a full, functional body. We just have to make the best use of the body and mind to explore this wonderful world. There is nothing to gain. There is everything to explore. The life of Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli is not meaningful with the trophies they have collected, or the lifestyle they enjoy; it is meaningful because they made the best use of their abilities, recognised their passion and played passionately. A meaningful life is all about living with passion and using the body and the mind to the best of their capacity in whatever field we want to explore.
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