Quantum of Energy

Two runners have died in marathon races in Alberta over last few days. One moment they were hurtling forwards as fast as they could manage, next moment they had collapsed and passed away. The medical examination revealed the malfunction of the organs in the bodies which resulted in unfortunate deaths. I suggest we need to look deeper to determine the true cause of the unfortunate incidents

According to ancient Hindu scriptures every living being has a soul which comes with a quota of energy to last his/her life time. The individual is, of course, at complete liberty to live in the way she/he fancies and to spend the quantum as he/she wishes. The size of quantum depends on the actions of the bodies in which that soul resided in the past lives; higher current station and bigger quantum are granted for good deeds in former lives, conversely selfish and cruel deeds beget lower form of life and small quantum. The soul becomes cooler as the quantum shrinks and freezes solid when the whole of it is spent and person’s living days in the current body are over. When the body is cremated the soul warms up and departs to its next abode where a new life begins with a fresh quantum, the size determined by gods based on their evaluation of the merits of the life lived. The scriptures do not say what happens to the soul if the body is buried. Presumably, the soul stays frozen till the day of Resurrection.

This idea has had a great impact on me personally. I am married to a much younger woman of a different faith. So much younger that her father accused me of cradle snatching when I asked for his approval of our marriage and we had to elope. I do not want to leave a young widow and two orphans behind and it is of utmost importance to conserve the quantum I still have. That is why I avoid physical work as much as possible, either in the office or at home. Pushing a pen and using the few brain cells do not consume much and my colleagues have the same attitude albeit for reasons of their own. It is at home where my ingenuity is tested. The family can’t be persuaded about the validity of Quantum theory of energy although they have no problem with much more complex theorems in quantum mechanics. The children want me to swim or play hockey with them, wife wants me to do chores which include hard physical work like loading the dishwasher, emptying the garbage bins, digging the flower beds and trimming the bushes. I do manage to get out of doing such exhausting activities once in a while by pretending tiredness but most of the time I have to do them to preserve peace in our humble abode. I carry the burden of anxiety about dwindling quantum on my own; no doubt a consequence of not leaving my meager possessions to a religious order in former life.

The impact of quantum idea on Hindu culture through the ages is immense. This is why Yoga is a low energy form of exercise and Indians do not train for physical fitness as hard as the men and women in other cultures do. Consequently, the Indian physique is generally small and Indians do not distinguish internationally in athletics or sports. That may be why the average life span in India is shorter than in the West: most of the Indians were not able to live a noble life due to prevailing poverty and the quantum of energy granted to them became progressively smaller with each successive generation. It may even explain the strange fact of Indian history: no foreign invader was ever defeated by the reigning Indian king of the day; his soldiers did not want to waste a part of their already small quantum in fighting. It is to be hoped that the economic growth of last few decades will enable many people to become philanthropic, return with bigger quantum in the next life and thus reverse the direction of the pendulum in a generation or two when the average quantum and the physique would grow to such an extent that the soldiers will be willing to spend a little of their precious energy to defend the country and athletes and sportspersons will not be sparing in training and win Olympic gold medals and World championships in sports. If in the process some of them exhaust their quantum prematurely and pass away, so be it.