If you haven’t paused and wondered about the purpose of your existence, nor desired deeply enough to look around and within for your deeper essence, this brief piece will give you access to your deeper consciousness wherein endless awareness to your personal essence lies. Needless to say, the need to look deeper in these volatile and confusing times is practically mandatory for a smoother and far more self-gratifying passage than you ever imagined.

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Yes, even in these confounding times, that insight is readily accessible to you. And for those who have been there and would be glad for the re-affirmation of all that they have perceived for and of themselves, be it via interactions with others or through experiences in life that have moved and taught them enough to realize and quietly acknowledge that all things in life move imperceptibly - and at times most strangely towards a purpose - please do celebrate this work as a reiteration because it is going to resonate personally with you at a subtle level with all that you have felt, experienced and indeed reasoned with yourself about yourself. The ‘Why of I’ is likely the primary question our very first human ancestors asked of themselves. Imagine being alive at a time when there was no concept of society, country, religion, education, formal work, specialization, success or even failure. All that must have concerned them then would have been survival from the harsher facets of nature. The natural needs of nourishment, shelter, clothing and mating would have got them together to meet these needs and indeed facilitated their very survival at the onset of humanity. Huddled together in natural shelters and perhaps longing at all levels for nourishment, while always half-fearing that if they stepped out they would become a welcome meal to any of the powerful predators of their times, practically all of them would have wondered at the reason for existence – their own as well as that of the limited world that they saw around them. When the first humans shed their distrust and fear of each other enough to transform the huddles into tribes and later societies, it was then that the primal fear driven instinct for survival started to gradually include other, more all encompassing concerns in the foremost collective consciousness of humans as a race. As growing numbers of humans living, working and moving together led to more overall peace and progress, facilitating more security and safety from harm to early humans, it was natural also then that the primary motive of life started to shift to individual roles in society and as a result, being identified as leader or follower, as the case may have been for different people. The natural instinct for survival that had been the largest factor in protecting life, started to shift in the human consciousness and settled down way deeper, not so much as a shield against constantly anticipated danger, but as a naturally stacked defense mechanism that could spring up whenever the need arose. When the now gradually evolved, relieved and relatively secure human begot the wherewithal to look around with new found ease and leisure, it also brought up the other powerful and even more enduring emotion that after these millions of years still goes about without any one name that can be unanimously used by everyone. Now enlightened, enlivened and yet enslaved by this latter emotion that spread faster and more tenuously than any epidemic that all of existence has witnessed - this was the longing for self-worth and need for external approval and admiration. And the beginning of a fast-tracked progress that took us towards proper civilizations that flourished and languished, but not before leaving their imprints for future civilizations to follow. Here I must further elaborate on the above-mentioned longing for self-worth and need for admiration or approval. The most prevalently understood mechanism comprising of Id, ego and superego that entails survival, pleasure, self-worth and risk taking to further secure one’s safety, growth and projected persona in an ever evolving world led to massive discoveries, realizations, achievements and yes, very often destruction too. It is this mechanism that defines an individual and his relationship with the world outside. And this continues to drive and shape the destinies of individuals as well as societies to date. Now that would be all very well in an idyllic society where greed, envy and mass destructive instincts were absent. But we all know that is far from the reality of the world that we live in. So is there a cause for moving on from the mechanism of Id, ego and superego in the current times? Conventional wisdom would dictate, yes. But definitely not a complete departure, because that would defy the very essence of human evolution of six million years in the case of the earliest humans, or 2,00,000 years in the case of ‘modern’ humans that we would recognize as our early ancestors. So, no, negating this ancient primal human instinct is hardly the solution that will help humankind as a whole to evolve. But expanding the natural human instinct that organically, instinctively and collectively set up the Id, Ego and Superego mechanism that we are hardwired with would certainly seem to offer an optimally productive solution to reverse the growing human frustration at the way the world is going, or the ongoing downturn in the general human condition. This, in fact, is what I see as the major crossroad that present day humankind has arrived at.

So what can be added as an expansion to this collective age-old human mechanism that at the deepest and imperceptible levels, dictates the events of our world and of course, the destinies of the human race? The answer isn’t lost in the recesses of some long-gone cryptic vaults. If this mechanism of Id, Ego and Superego prevents us from having the vision to relate with the innate interconnection of all life on this planet, then obviously, it needs a tweak. And since this present mechanism has resulted in driving humans and human races apart and in fact, led them to inflicting war, pain and suffering on other humans the answer too has to be within that same mechanism. By now you would have rightly concluded where the solution lies. Yes, it is within tweaking the Id, Ego and Superego collective to include the wisdom to know that all things, matter and life are irrevocably interconnected. The events that happen to one section of humanity inevitably affect all of humanity. This simple addition to our psyche that has developed over eternity, will ease human suffering and make our planet a more bountiful, forgiving and sustainable one. To summarize, it is crucial at the present moment to reflect on the eternal Karmic laws that impact everyone and everything. That is a great starting point for our journey to let nature’s greatest truth of cause and affect filter into all levels of our consciousness and mechanism. That would seem to be the most satisfying and fruitful step that any human can take at this stage. Written by: Ajaybir Singh Garkal. The writer is an author. (Views are personal)

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