Spock’s Vulcan World would remain Primitive, backward!

Spock’s Vulcan World would remain Primitive, backward! Never progressing beyond the Cave man stage!

Billions around the world have watched the Star Trek TV show set in our future, with the Spaceship Enterprise, captained by James Kirk, traversing about the Galaxy, curiosity is the driver of their mission, as the captain says, “Boldly go where no man has gone before!”

And his second in Command was the Vulcan Spock famous for his unflinching demeanor, endlessly & often maddeningly logical, analytical, intellect-driven approach to life. Emotions are strictly controlled or discarded as much as possible, seen as evil.

Why? Because having emotions will lead to pain & suffering, attachments, that will lead to us making wrong decisions, whereas the cool, analytical person will make the right decisions every time. A cool, logical person is superior to an emotion-driven person. We see that in life, correct? People giving in to rage, anger making horrible decisions that end up not only harming others but themselves as well.

But Here is the problem with a cool, logical, emotion-less mentality, there will be no desires, no aspirations either, because these fall under the category of emotions. And it is these desires, aspirations that have driven humanity forward! A Child looking up at the Milky way and shouting her desire to go there!

In the popular TV show, the Big Bang Theory, the central character, Sheldon Cooper aspires to be like Spock, analytical, emotion-less, like a robot! But robots do not dream, they do not aspire for anything! A world ruled by robots would be a dead world!

As kids we dream, we aspire – one kid wants to be doctor, another an Astronaut. Parents are Proud! No kid has ever said, “I just want to sit idle doing nothing, be [emphasized]KEPT in comfort! Heaven!”. No Father would be Proud to hear his kid say that.

Einstein dreamt of solving the mysteries of the Universe! Many of us look to a futuristic world of flying cars, robots serving us, no more poverty, hate, or disease!

Look at these two kids – Kid A gets a C+ & he is happy, the other Kid B, gets an A- and is unhappy, sad! Quick question – whom would you rather want your kid to be like? Surprise! It would be Kid B! The sad one! We know that the kid who is happy with getting C’s will always get a C, but the kid who has higher aspirations will continue to work hard & get that A+ next time. These are not empty scores, they are a reflection of their hard work, their intelligence, their aspirations!

But why? Should we not want our kid to be more like A? Be happy? After all, is that not the goal – Heaven? That everyone aspires to go to after this life? Heaven offers pure joy & happiness, no more pain nor suffering, no more pressure! But it would be a dead world!

Remember – Pressure makes Diamonds! Works with human beings too!

How about this one, A daughter crying, sitting by her father who does not remember her anymore! Alzheimer’s disease has robbed many of their lives, while still alive! The once, loving doting father does not remember his princess anymore!

Again, let the viewer choose – whom would you rather be? The Father, who is blissfully unaware of the world around him, he is in no pain, he is not suffering – Heaven – or the daughter crying over the loving father that no longer remembers her!

Here is the difference between Heaven and Real Life! And guess what? I bet most of you chose to be suffering Daughter and not the Father!

That is the point that the Buddha missed – Hindus tried to teach him that his quest was futile. A world without pain & suffering would be a dead world, a happy one like Heaven, but still a dead world going nowhere! Nothing ever changes – it would be like being Trees we see in forests – a million years from now there will still be the same trees, the ants would still scurry around looking for food!

For the lower life forms, life revolves around the 4 S’s – Safety, Sleep, Sustenance & Sex! Their “lives” revolve around these four and nothing beyond! Heaven! Eternal “life”!

But in the higher intelligence realms, as in the human world, we want more & we get both sides, like a coin – Joy & Happiness on one side, Pain & suffering on the other. One team wins – they shout and jump in glee, but on the other side are tears, pain & suffering. Night follows day! Good times do not last forever, but neither do the tough times.

A factory worker named Norma Jean becomes the Superstar called Marilyn Monroe, adored by billions of her fans. A frustrated wanna-be actor who almost ended up as an extra, becomes a Superstar named Amitabh Bachann. But then there is the other side -the failures who tried and tried but never made it. So many young men and women go to LA or Mumbai with big dreams of becoming a star and so many end up with crushed dreams!

John Stuart Mill put it best – He seemed to have best understood Hinduism – “Better a Socrates dissatisfied than be a Pig satisfied.” So many look at the pain & suffering life offers and say, “I don’t want that” and drool over cheap religious promises of a pain-free life, a life without desires, aspirations – in other words, the life of a Pig!

What pain & suffering does a rock endure? A tree? An ant? A Pig? All it does is eat, poop and sleep! It is KEPT in comfort by its owner – just as so many dream of how God, reduced to a Sugar Daddy, will keep them in comfort in Heaven! Sadly, they fail to realize their Heaven is here on earth, resurrected as lower life forms, like Dogs KEPT in comfort by their owners, they get their Heaven!

At best Spock’s cool, endlessly logical, emotionless world would attain the progress of our medieval world, as they would see no reason to keep moving forward. It is not logical to have desires, aspirations as they would cause heightened emotions, emotions out of control which must not be allowed!

This is why Hinduism preaches Reincarnation – do not run away from Pain & suffering, embrace it, welcome it! If your goal is a bright future, live in a futuristic world, embrace those dreams, reach for the Hand of God! Those with high hopes, dreams, and aspirations, for such people, pain & suffering will be the constant ever-present companion!

And this was the 2^nd Enlightenment of the Buddha – He finally understood what Hindus were trying to teach him, what the likes of John Stuart Mill and Nietzsche understood – a life without desires, aspirations and the accompanying pain & suffering would be a dead world! And so, the Buddha taught Rebirth, Bodhisattva – eschew Heaven and come back to this world full of pain & suffering!