Human Life

How precious is human life? Can we quantify?


Every philosopher, accomplished individual and religion in this world unanimously agrees that human life is precious . It is a beautiful gift from GOD and we need to make the most of it. No other species in this world has the intelligence , luxury and ability that a human has. Human knows how to use every other species for his benefit and making his life better!

However why did GOD gave us this opportunity to be in the most elite species club in the world?
Do we get a chance to be the human every time if we believe in reincarnation?
Does all other species with life are same as us or are we different?
What is the ultimate goal of a human life?

Well! Depending on the nature of each person, geographic and religious belief certainly answers vary to a large extent to these questions. Definitely some may believe that we are humans to enjoy everyday of life , some may believe that we are born to achieve something great, some may believe only purpose of the life is to serve others and some may believe this is the best opportunity to get out of birth/death cycles and work towards realizing the ultimate truth to be part of it forever.


These questions came to my mind when I was listening to a Kannada( Indian) song written by Shri. Kanaka Dasa who lived during 15th century in southern India (  Reference https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Dasa  ) .

 He has written many devotional songs and this is one of the popular one.


Gist of first two lines shown above is " This body of human has lost many bodies while crossing 8.4 million species. This body is not you,  it doesn't own you , it wont come with you in the future … become his (GOD's) slave to become the most special ( reach him forever a.k.a Mukti)


Though the meaning is very straight forward I was astonished by the details mentioned in the song! Does it mean to answer my initial question : how precious is human life - is it 1 in 8.4 million ( or much greater) ?
 How did Dasa has  arrived to the number of 8.4 million species on this earth in the15th century?


Science daily says there are approximately 8.7 million species on this earth ( +- 1.3mn)
(Ref link : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823180459.htm)


How did Puranadara Dasa arrived to this number in 15th Century? What was his source of information (Vedas!)?

Now that based on this number  can we assume Human Life is as precious as 1 in 8.4 million?

Answer is a "NO"! "1 in 8.4 million" is based on species. However what is the number of species in this world vs 7.5 billion human population.

Another simple search from ScienceDaily quotes "Between 10,000 and 100,000 microorganisms live in a single grain of sand.
(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171213115853.htm)

  Earth has around 7.5 quintillion ( 7.5 x 1018).  It means for every 7.5 billion(7.5 * 109) human there is 7.5 quintillion beings only in the sand grains.  


It means human life is given to 1 in a billion (109)  species living in the sand grains. If we include all other beings from tigers to mosquito , this count may be further high.

 With this I believe we do have a reasonable quantitative number that GOD grants human life to 1 in a billion in the queue. We should make most of it to reach the GOD directly instead of revolving around these 8.4 million species and wait for another human life to reach him. Why GOD has selected us and what do we need to achieve in this life to embrace the opportunity is left to each of us. 

 Though I have got a reasonable answer to my question on how precious is being a human .. more unanswered questions are open that how 8.4 million species facts were established in 15th century and what do we need to learn more from out ancient scripts and Gurus?!.


These are my personal views and I have mentioned the links that I have referred to make these assumptions. 

 Signing off...
Pavan Joshi
02/10/2019




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