Acharya Prashant: Man is the only one who has a worrying ego. Man is the only one that has an ego that looks into the future. Other living beings on the earth have a very nominal and minimal ego. All that it wants is to be alright currently, so some food should be there, and that is alright—enough for the day, then maybe some sex. Beyond that, nothing is to be demanded. Give some food to any animal and see how it relaxes. It will never worry about what is going to happen next. And when you go to a form of 'I' that is even lesser than that found in animals, the numbers are even more colossal, and they are all doing well for themselves.
By our yardstick we may judge them and say, "Oh, they are just pathetic little beings," but for themselves, they are doing just perfectly fine. You would not meet anybody in the jungle who is cribbing about the situations; you know that. You would have probably never wondered about it, but there is never any Kalyug (the age of darkness) in the jungle. No sparrow would ever say, "Oh, it is Kalyug; things have gone so bad; the crow just took away a little bit of my food." Their things are just as they are. Nobody is complaining. Animals might get hunted, might get killed, but they are still alright; they carry on.
So, the rivers and the mountains and the galaxies are being taken care of, without any 'I'. The bacteria and the little things in the oceans are being taken care of, with hardly any 'I'. And the birds and animals are being taken care of, with very little 'I'. Even among human beings where there is a pronounced 'I', even the evil-doers who are 99.99% of the human population are being taken care of. First of all, 99.99% population of the earth is non-humans and they are being taken care of, and the great universe, which is all just material, is being taken care of. And among the 0.01% of humans, 99.99% are fools who are still being taken care of.
Does it happen that if you do not worship God, a great rock falls on your head? Does it happen? You're walking down the road, and you ignore the temple, does it happen that a celestial lion jumps upon you from the skies, and bites away your nose so that the entire world comes to know how big an infidel you are—no-nosed? Does it happen? So even the evil ones are being taken care of; the insentient ones are being taken care of; the hardly-sentient ones are being taken care of. And among the sentient ones, even the ill-doers are being taken care of. You might be somebody who spits in the face of truth, but still, you will get oxygen to breathe, or would you not? Does God punish you by withdrawing oxygen from your lungs? Does it happen? You may keep cursing God; you may totally not only deny the existence of God, but you may go and spit at temples and mosques. You say, "These are places where Satan lives. These are places of great darkness and illusion," still you would get sunlight in plenty; you'll get air; nothing would be denied to you. The 'one' you are trying to deny is still taking care of you, irrespective of your haughty attitude towards him. In fact, he is proving his presence by taking care of you, irrespective of your foolishness.
