Of Haunting Hunger
Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one way or the other; it’s a cog in the wheel of life
By Mukesh Sharma
No living creature can beat it. None can conquer it. It is invincible. It is master of all the forms of life. All are its slave. Each and every living being knows it and experiences it. Be it king or commoner, all serve it alike without question. Yet it is unquenchable. It is undisputed and unchallenged ruler of the living world. From tiny protozoan to huge mammals, all work for it. Like God, it is omnipresent and all pervasive. It is basis of life on the earth. Even mother Nature nourishes the world through it. Of course, its name is Hunger – the haunting Hunger.
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| The Haunting Hunger |
All through millions of years, it is the hunger that has developed a simple monkey into a present day complicated man. It is the hunger that has taken a savage man from cramped cave to commodious castle, from ordinary house to spacious bungalow, from bullock-cart to space satellite, and surprisingly enough, from Adam and Eve to nearly 7 billion populace on the earth.
Hunger has amazing dualistic character. Hunger is life as well as death – a crying baby is born with hunger and a decrepit man dies with hunger for ‘heaven’ on death-bed. Hunger is love as well as hate – hunger for more and more ‘my’ – my kids, my house, my money, etc. is ‘love’ and hunger for dislike is hate. Hunger is progress as well as regress – hunger for betterment results in progress and hunger for other’s possessions leads to regress. Hunger is knowledge as well as ignorance – hunger to know the secrets of nature is knowledge and hunger for ego-serving is ignorance. Hunger is devotion as well as distraction – hunger for goal is devotion and hunger for the gratification of senses is distraction. Hunger is a man as well as woman – hunger of a man for a woman-body is man, hunger of a woman for a complete man is woman. Hunger is God as well as human – hunger beyond self is God and hunger for self is human. Like the imagination of a mind, hunger can be expanded to infinity and can be shrunk to a size of an atom. Hunger is both constructive and destructive.
Through human perspective, hunger can be divided into four categories:
1. Physical hunger
2. Psychological hunger
3. Intellectual hunger
4. Spiritual hunger
Physical hunger can be described as a natural or biological hunger – hunger for food and hunger for sex. It is common to all animals including man. Food is first priority and sex is next. Food is must to live and sex for the furtherance of progeny – both essential for the perpetuation of life on the earth.
Psychological hunger is a distorted hunger emanating from unbridled desires. A man turns epicurean or hedonistic seeking sensuous satisfaction – wine, woman and wealth – an insatiable lust. Fire can’t be extinguished with fire. The uncontrolled ‘hunger’ for wine, woman and wealth has been the cause of the downfall and doom of wealthiest emperor/knight/regimes.
Intellectual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of the secrets of nature; it leads to discoveries and inventions. Credit for all kinds of advancement in human society so far goes to intellectual hunger only. It is this hunger that has produced great many philosophers, writers, poets and scientists - Aristotle, Shakespeare, Kalidaas, Albert Einstein, Stephn Hawkings – the list is very long.
Spiritual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of unseen and unknown super natural power so named God. What is God? Where does God live? How to meet the God? All these intriguing questions have been nagging man since the advent of man on the earth. However, this spiritual hunger has blessed the world with Lord Rama - God incarnate, Lord Krishna - God incarnate, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and Guru Nanak; it has bestowed on timeless scriptures like The Upanishad, The Gita, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, The Bible, The Holy Quran, The Guru Granth Sahib.
Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one or the other. Hunger is the cog in the wheel of life.
