Life is a long journey between human being and being humane

Since the first step the evolved human walked on this earth, the purpose of life has always
been improvement. Anthropology tells us that Homosapiens were the first humans, but were
they humane? Or did they become humane millions of years later? Or are they yet far from
being humane?

Humanity is the quality of having the values of empathy, kindness, compassion and
benevolence. To be humane is to have love and concern for all the living and the non-living.
It can be summarised as the life’s motive in the Sanskrit couplet as, “ sarve bhavantu
sukhina, sarve santu niramaya”. Becoming humane is the ultimate aim of humans but it
takes time because any positive and lasting change has to be gradual.

Life,be it physical in the bodily form; mental, in the experiential form and intellect or spiritual,
in the conscious and the unconscious form, is a long journey of change. The traveller of this
journey may be a creature, a network, a system, an institution or a political entity. Everything
that forms, changes gradually and eventually transforms during this journey into something
that it wasn’t.This transformation of the traveller is inevitable.

Any journey evolves the traveller. It gives experiences to live, memories to cherish, lessons
to learn, things to enjoy and people to love. The traveller is destined to grow at the end of
every journey. And the ultimate destination of the journey of life is to rise and become better,
more humane. From human biology to economy and from politics to ethics, every aspect is a
long journey between human being and being humane.

The economy of the primitive man was solely focused on survival. Food, shelter and sleep of
the individual and the immediate community was the only need. Once business enterprise
grew, the concept of charity started. Donations and public works started to be taken-up by
merchants and producers. Today this is seen in the form of social accounting and corporate
social responsibility. Many Corporates today are more than ever trying to become an agent
of positive change and not just profit makers to benefit the society and the environment.

In politics and administration, the embryonic tribal state which was formed to protect the clan
and wage wars later transformed into an organised one with an elaborate taxation system to
collect revenue to finance law and order.
This achieved security which helped growth of private property, commerce and in turn led to
the growth of a state. Today the very state has transformed into a welfare, humane state and
is aiming to explore new horizons of humanity.

The Indian state since its inception has been constantly evolving. The Indian constitution
has been called a living constitution. The birth of a just, liberal, tolerant and democratic state
in spirit is today seeing a mature state which is acting upon its vows. For instance, the
fundamental right to life and personal liberty has been expanded by the court to imply human
rights such as the right to clean environment, right to food, right to privacy and the right to
develop oneself. In fact, developing oneself is the ultimate goal.

At an individual level, a child is born like a blank palimpsest and develops layers of thought
and reverie to finally develop a moral character. Such a child learns from his/her parents,
teachers and society various values and traditions which generally cherish and celebrate the
most ideal people and principles, that have ever lived or have been imagined. e.g stories
and moral teachings of lord Buddha, Lord Rama, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad and
Guru Nanak.

Similarly, since their conception, not just religious texts, mythology, sciences and humanities
have been aiming to grow and expand the mind, the abilities and the spirit of humans to
make them a resource- someone who can take responsibility for others' well-being.

Greek philosopher Socrates believed in questioning oneself and others and getting to the
roots of one’s beliefs and redefining them to become a virtuous person. He said,

“ An unexamined life is not worth living.”

His student Plato developed the idea that every person should develop the four cardinal
virtues of justice, temperance, prudence and fortitude and being virtuous is the ultimate goal.
Similarly, one of the core ideas of Renaissance was built around the potential of humans to
improve infinitely.

Other Greek philosophers believed that man is inherently good- summum bonum. This was
agreed to by later enlightenment thinkers such as the French philosopher Rousseau who
said that every person is born good, it’s the society which makes him bad.

While this pre-19th century thought maintained that human virtues precede the existence of
humans or “essence precedes existence”, the later, existential philosophers such as Jean
Paul Sartre said that the actual essence of life is existence. It is this very existence that gives
an opportunity to become anything we want. And it is only rational to become something
better than what we already are.

In Modern India, Gandhi ji believed that life has to be lived constantly as an experiment
where one keeps testing one’s morals to become better and keep trying to find the God
within oneself. This will ultimately bring Swarajya or Ramrajya for the self internally and the
the society externally. He called this method “Satyagrah” which was not just a political tool
but also an ethical philosophy. In fact his famous talisman is based upon resolving every
dilemma on the basis of the effect of our choices on the poorest and the most humble-
Antyodaya.

Not every species has the power to experience, think, understand, feel, command and
change the world around him. It’s just humans who can. The purpose of humans is to invoke
humanity within themselves in order to change the world into a happier and a prosperous
one.

“ I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”

- Rabindranath Tagore