Re: The Life and Creation Ecosystem - Question 2
Namaste ji,
The forum is quiet. As I find your question interesting, I venture to add a few of my thoughts.
Now I understand your question as to why i) there is an eternal cycle of manifestation and unmanifestation ii) the purpose behind various states of consciousness as in vegetation, animals, humans, etc.
If I am right, the Rig Veda defines that originally there was just a purusha who divided himself into prakriti and purusha and started creation, as otherwise it was too quiet and boring.
So that gives the understanding that companionship and enjoyment is atleast part of the reason behind creation.
Now the question of purpose behind different states of existence puzzles me too. Even a blade of grass has life and ends at some point which means there is some energy that is vested in to it, that a human cannot scientifically create, at least up until now.... it is purely a work of god why a blade of grass came into existence.
Therefore it means no life is trivial. If so, why a blade of grass is just that, just something stepped upon by others and tossed around so easily when not needed anymore? Where does 'that life' go to, when ended?
There is an interesting story narrated as part of Sri Ramanujacharya's life history that his 1st teacher who happened to be very jealous of his illustrious student Sri Ramanujacharya and tried to murder him out of jealousy, was formerly a chameleon in his past life. That out of eating the 'uchistha' or left-overs at Kanchi Varadaraja Temple in his past birth, attained human birth in this life.
In the story of Sri Kalahasthi, we see even a spider and an elephant attained mukthi, out of the grace of Lord Shiva.
In the tale of Gajendra Moksha, we see Gajendra was a elephant who was actually a gandharva, who came to be cursed into the life of an elephant. IN the tale of Krishna, we see Kubera's 2 sons being redeemed out of the state of being 2 trees by Lord Krishna. In Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's story, we see a crocodile that touched his holy feet, immediately was redeemed out of this crocodile birth and was transported to the heavens in a 4-armed heavenly form.
In another story more famously narrated to elucidate the supremacy of Bhagavath Sapthaha, we see that a cursed demon was redeemed by listening to the sapthaha of Bhagavatham. Similar tale on the Thirukurungudi Kaisika Ekadasi story, when Nambaaduvan redeemed a demon out of his state. In the tale of Jadabharatha, we see that even after becoming a sadhu, he could still get the birth of a deer.
From the above stories and many more, we see that the lower states of existence are also endowed with consciousness but are rather cursed states. They are probably paying for sins committed as humans in previous times or just are unevolved states who will be given a chance for human birth, after much more evolution. Right now, they are playing the role of givers of enjoyment and nourishment for other life forms. This is what we tend to think.
Hope this helps at least a little bit. Hopefully others will also add value to this conversation with their valuable insights.
Pranam.
jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar
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