The Evolutionary Crisis

Is our evolution over? Is the creative impulsion in Nature exhausted with the appearance of man? Logically this sounds unlikely. Even now species go on finding ways and means to adapt to new challenges. Over a period of time this adaptation leads to the emergence of a new species or sub-species. So to believe that evolution is over and now we are here only to pack our bags and go home, – either spiritual home to else find ways and means to land in some new planet, near or far away, or else simply end up destroying ourselves and the planet defies logic and common-sense.

It is certainly not the logical extension of what has been happening so far. Despite the countless challenges including the wiping out of dominant species by giant asteroids life and evolution tends to bounce back. Not only does it bounce back, it returns with a new force and vigour, diversifying and multiplying itself in ways that were unknown before the catastrophe. The catastrophe itself seemed like a blessing in retrospect since it triggered a chain of inner and outer events that awakened and quickened the nascent evolutionary impulse in creation. We can almost say that each destruction at the end serves only as a feeder to life. It opens the doors to a new creation. Each disorder and dismantling of our fixed positions and comfort zones of life becomes a means for evolving a new order. The flower that withers away and the plant that dies often serve enriching the soil for future plants to emerge. Such seems to be the general law of life here. We can extend this to say that the greater the destruction, the greater the possibility of a new creation. Perhaps this is what we seem to be witnessing today.

Faced with the challenge posed by life we can choose either to revert back to the previous status quo or else take the bold leap towards the future. This leap is akin to a caterpillar leaving its safe cocoon and transmuting into a butterfly. On a less drastic scale it means that the little bird safely resting in the nest  takes the challenge of life and spreads its wings and flies into the danger and  the delight of the skies. This needs courage and trust, the willingness to face the danger and the challenge that life brings. Courage comes when it knows that better to try the new and the unknown even if it end up in a failure and fall than to rest in the old.  After all failure is never a final point. It serves as a starting point for a new attempt. Fall is never the permanent resting ground but a temporary moment to recuperate for the next level of effort. It is only through such successive efforts and attempts that eventual success comes. The first flight, whether of a bird or an aeroplane is limited in its scope and distance. But it is these small efforts that eventually create the possibility of a giant leap.