Bowing with respect to the past

 

Do the past’s facts, assumptions, beliefs and theories are worthy of being put into the dustbin in the light of new emerging facts and theories? Normally we think so. But we shouldn’t forget that the past was once as relevant and useful as the present is now. The past is the building block of the present.

We lived in the caves once and hardly knew anything beyond the raw struggle for survival in the forest. We used that little platform comprising tiny bits of knowledge to construct a small stage. We didn’t even know the shape, size and basics about our planet. Were we wrong? No. That was simply our reality in the past. It was our truth at that time.

The Rig Vedic Indian sages had hardly any idea about what lay beyond the ocean. Did that stop them from evolving an elaborate system of human thought which still holds relevance for us in this modern age? Till a few centuries back we thought the sun was revolving around the earth. Did that stop us from using natural forces, resources, and contriving laws and regulations to shape fantastic civilizations? It didn’t.

There is just growth and evolution. From simpler to more sophisticated. Or maybe it isn’t even complexity. It just is—a transient stage in the stream of ever-unfolding dynamics. Truth is no static entity or something absolute. The only Truth that we may assume is a certain pattern in evolution and emergence of phenomena at any given point. Like a little plant grows in a forest. Its growth and survival are bound by the infinite possibilities of cause and effect. Cause and effect are a sequence in happening. But the trigger points for the cause-effect to take place can be infinite.