The History of Us and How We Got to Here - A short story

Over the millennia we have evolved and developed technologies enabling us to explore aspects of our universe. Most remarkably as we work towards mapping our physical universe, we realise that we live on a small planet in a small obscure solar system which is part of a small obscure galaxy within a universe so vast that we really have no idea we are, and we certainly have no idea as to why we even exist or how we came to be.

So how did we come to be, and how did we come to be as we are today?

We have various ideas of the miracle of creation and whichever way you see it, life is indeed miraculous and our scientists are still struggling to come up with a definition what life is. Similarly we have with all the technology available today, to firmly establish our origins as a species or place in the universe.

The ancestors in the vicinity of today's India and the worlds oldest civilisation came up with the idea of evolution some millennia before Darwin, a theory widely accepted although it still has some unexplained aspects such as the leap from ape to human. We can look back through the fossil record and see there are many variants of what we can refer to as prototype humans such as the fabled Lucy once thought to have been the mother of all modern humans.

That theory has somewhat diminished given the recent find of an anatomically similar but unrelated skeleton showing the genus that Lucy belonged to was not the only one with the potential to become us. There are similar protohuman remains found across Eurasia with Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA highest in Melanesian populations, far from their home range while at Chauntra in Himachal Pradesh, two million years old hand tools up to have been recovered predating Homo erectus.

There is no evidence that any pre-modern human species actually evolved into modern humans, although it is probable, yet it also seems more probable that modern humans evolved independently in different parts of the world and that they, mixed and interbred giving us the diversity of physical features and skin colours we see today.

As the uncertainty as to our African origins grows because of lack of definitive proof and conflicting evidence, the 'out of Africa theory' regarding the spread of our species is similarly suspect and in many academic circles has been dismissed.

The exact details of this stage of our evolution may never exactly be known so if we step forward in time to about 750,000 BC. This is where the archaeological community begins talking about human cultures yet they are considered to still be protohuman, not the modern Homo Sapiens as we consider ourselves today.

So we are left with a lot of conjecture and theory with insufficient evidence to qualify as empirical proof. As we come closer to the modern period and the interesting ancestor we call Neanderthal man who is thought to have gone extinct around 30,000 in BC. A lot of effort has gone into studying their remains and we know that in some instances they buried their dead and covered the bodies with flowers before covering with soil and stones indicating a high degree of intelligence and socialisation.

The Neanderthals were also not exclusive, they co-existed with modern humans, they travelled and interbred leaving a trace of their DNA in today's population and we are left to suspect that it was some climatic event that caused their extinction. Apparently less is known about the other human species of the time, the Africans, the Dennisovian's, Peking man, Java man the Australians and indeed the Americans as controversial human remains have been found dating back to over 200,000 BC.

Until about ten thousand BC it is thought that all the human species were hunter gatherers relying on stone tools although fragments of pottery dating back to about 20,000 BC have been found in China and India indicating a degree of permanent or semi-permanent settlement because earthenware doesn't transport very well unless one travels by boat. Yet permanent settlements also indicate some control over the landscape and the possibility of agriculture.

Back then, the earth was doing its own thing and beginning to transition from ice age to present day global warming. In ancient times people could pack up and go somewhere else when the climate became unsuited but today there are so many of us and the land is so tightly controlled there is nowhere to go.

Through until about 20,000 BC we have groups of people living in various parts of the world yet we know there was a degree of mixing, a sharing of ideas and trade. The archaeologist David Adams speaks of the Wakaan Corridor on one of the silk Road routes being used for trade around 35,000 BC.

This is where looking back into history gets more interesting, we have what is undoubtedly a piece of artwork (characterised as religious art) of Indian origin found in Germany dating to 35,000 BC. This raises more questions than answers, because at that time and in fact through until about 6000 BC, the Europeans were still living in the Stone Age yet they shared ideas common to the peoples of the East and here we have another intriguing story.

Across the Siwalik region of the Indian subcontinent covering parts of today's Nepal, India and Pakistan there existed what's described as Soanian Culture (wiki). It dates from two million BC and it seems probable it was continuous into the modern period. Perhaps interbreeding with Homo eructus and Denisovians but we don't know for certain, it's a probability we must keep in mind.

When we get to about 74,000 BC and the Mount Toba volcanic eruption in Java, there is evidence across India of human occupation before and after this eruption proving conclusively that people lived there before and they after, meaning they survived the fallout (of large quantities of volcanic ash) to continue their existence.

Returning to the post ice age period, archaeologists ask how do people respond to their environment and what do people believe?

Perhaps we can surmise that our ancestral groups who were more successful or at least successful enough not to be eaten or get swept away in some climatic catastrophe gave thought to who they were, evolved language and passed on stories of what they'd learned.
It also seems probable that these ancestral communities were more reliant on gathering food as opposed to hunting which was aided by the development of the bow and arrow from the 20,000 BC period along with the spear thrower. These two advances gave hunter gatherers access to more meat which until then had been a luxury and that to began have a different effect on human evolution.

Some researchers consider that pockets of civilised culture with agriculture may have existed in various places within greater India from or perhaps even before this 20,000 BC period. While researchers are continually making new discoveries, across India the concepts of city states are being pushed back to nearer to 10,000 BC which is in prior to Gobekly Tepe being constructed and perhaps with trade and communication Gobekly Tepe was influenced by the peoples of India?

Not many people can read Sanskrit yet the old manuscripts committed to paper somewhat recently having been passed on through an oral tradition for many thousands of years are providing a great deal of new evidence. Modern archaeology tends to disregard parts of the human story it finds challenging but sometimes that's the most important.

Within the spiritual traditions alive within India, it's said there was a first yogi and it's thought he lived about 14,000 BC. He was a man who realised and understood the nature of existence in a way that modern science is coming to understand and he taught the means by which we can all understand, and today we call this yoga which is as relevant today for human well-being as it was then.

The existential truth of what he'd discovered included the possibility that life emerged from, the fact that the atom contains more empty space than substance and that as sensory creatures, the entirety of our experience takes place within our own consciousness and that (your) consciousness is part of the consciousness that creation emerged from.

As these ideas spread, perhaps some people began to have some Zen moments and appreciated these truths, yet people were also looking outwards into space, the solar system was mapped as were some of our nearer galaxies with distinction being made between planets, stars and galaxies, and even an awareness of a black hole in the centre of our own galaxy.

This knowledge was accumulated and passed on down through the generations. The people of the time knowing that planet Earth was home and there was no way of getting off in sufficient numbers to make any difference. They figured that since in contrast to a short human life the universe was eternal although they did calculate when it would come to an end. With no escape, they turned their attention to living well and ensuring the well-being of future generations.

This gave birth to what is referred to as Sanatana Dharma, a scientific way of living that addresses our physical needs or human creature comforts and it also caters to the welfare of the human mind which is best served by understanding the concepts of existential truth above which represents the essence of human spirituality. It implies that we must not be content believing as we please, we must base our reason and logic of the greatest comprehensible absolute reality though which we prove for ourselves that kindness and compassion are pre-eminent human qualities and live by them.

The world is very reluctant to admit that India had cities, agriculture, reticulated water, flushing toilets, other mod cons and were debating, adjusting their lives in accord with an eternal nature while Europeans were still hunter gathering. There was however a cataclysmic change around 6000 BC. As the lakes in the last of the ice age ice spilled into the oceans, they submerged not only the continental shelves of every country which is where the story of the historical great flood comes from. The English Channel was formed. The city of Dwarka in the Bay of Cambay was submerged and the Black Sea was filled creating a waterway through to the Caspian and Aral seas and on up the Oxus River enabling water traffic from Greece to North India (today's Afghanistan).

It seems probable that Jason and the Argonauts along with later Greek migrants took this route and even until this day gold bearing soils are washed over sheepskins where the gold is collected. It seems probable that this route was in use up until the time of Alexander of Macedon.

Yet from this 6000 BC period, language is improving, people are asking more questions and what we term as civilisation takes a great step forward's. In India we know from the Indus Valley that they were on the whole a fairly peaceful lot. They had a few protective walls around some of the towns to keep out the herds of wild elephants and there was a degree of inter-clan rivalry culminating in the Kurukshetra War.

Climate change was also affecting the region of North India, the Indus/Saraswati and to the North beyond ancient Bactria. Fired bricks used for building construction and irrigation schemes required cutting trees and this likely accelerated climate change as deforestation made way for agriculture and the forests were also used for pottery and metalwork. The Sahara and Middle East regions were also turning to desert concentrating people's into the river valleys at this time.

With the Indus/Saraswati region drying out and unable to support its population, waves of migrants went west although it's thought these migrations had been taking place from several thousand years previously so the original Jews and Hittites could well have been tribes of India and Pharaoh Ramses a prince from the tribe of Rama. Some researchers claim that Indian tribes followed the coast to settle various parts of Europe mixing with local people's and sharing their technology in agriculture, and creating more comfortable living conditions.

Now let's look at the idea of Sanatana Dharma in a little more detail. It is a scientific approach to viewing and participating in life with twofold goals. The first is to facilitate the realisation and integration of existential truth into one's personal life and the second is to live in such a way to ensure the continuity of the human species and indeed the evolutionary continuity of every species because life is sacrosanct. Hence those early Indian peoples evolved a very healthy and complex vegetarian diet.

To facilitate understanding existential truth and understanding that existence was an energetic frequency out of which everything is composed, these ancestors developed a system of consecrating spaces and in particular certain stones because of their crystalline structure were ideal places to store energy. Through the use of ritual/blessing and adding energy into the stones memory, the stone itself would begin over time to radiate the sweetness of that energy thereby blessing those who came into its presence.

One of the early tribes migrating west from India took with them such a stone and they made the mistake of asking the stone for favours, asking for good crops, healthy animals, healthy children and good health et cetera. These stones referred to as Linga or Lingam were never intended to be prayed to, only to be appreciated and enjoyed. In moving westwards and mixing with those less educated in regard to the nature of existence, the idea of Sanatana Dharma was diluted and became a belief system or religion.

That was perhaps aided and abetted by the emergence of patriarchal leadership. Most of the world until then was matriarchal, a flat society with an economy based on service to the community and generosity. Money at the time was in the form of seashells or clay tablets, more like an IOU or a trading record but with the emergence of patriarchal dominance the world began moving from a flat society designed to endure forever into a pyramidal structure aimed at satisfying the short-term desires of the men in charge.

I am of course speaking in general terms but our world today is governed by patriarchal capitalism and while it serves the wealthy elite, it dispossess the majority of people and is the driving force towards environmental catastrophe and total human extinction.

Now to continue our history lesson, remembering that across greater India and down through Southeast Asia, Sanatana Dharma flourished, the people were well fed, enjoyed good health and an equitable lifestyle. From that 6000 BC period and perhaps before, the Indian people knew the earth was round and that it revolved around the sun, they knew about the precession of the equinoxes and were the first to begin crafting steel, producing cotton, using calculus having came up with the idea of zero. In short Indian civilisation was the mother of all civilisations helping to shape Egypt, Persia, China, ES Asia, Greece and Rome.

Under Sanatana Dharma, a natural justice prevailed and life was more communal as people saw themselves as being part of life without religion, without needing to believe because they knew life and in today's terms judged as being pagan. To the west, the Europeans initially adopted some of these ideas and Ireland was perhaps a major seat of Indian wisdom until the Catholics arrived. However the West was quickly overwhelmed by patriarchal capitalism and under the Romans, paganism was forcibly extinguished to be replaced by a new invention called Christianity which required people to believe and do as they were told or else they would lose their heads.

By then, Buddhism had already emerged and spread into North Asia, as far west as Persia, and eastward across Southeast Asia and north into China, Korea and Japan replacing the concepts of Sanatana Dharma with Buddhist Dharma which was more amenable to patriarchal capitalism. Remember that Buddhism is one element or one approach to life taken directly from the wisdom of Sanatana Dharma.

The concept of Sanatana Dharma once spread across across greater Persia/Sumer had been reduced by the growth in patriarchal capitalism which gave rise to the city of Ur that historians still speak of as being the world's first city during a time when it's considered by many that India had cities with populations in the tens of thousands. No Western historian of any importance is prepared to agree with that yet there is growing evidence that cities like Harappa, Dolevra and Mohenjo Dharo conservatively dated at 2300 BC are much older and existed at the same time as Dwarka that was submerged around 6000 BC.

As we enter into the Christian period, India and China were the greatest trading partners and between them generated two thirds of the world's economic activity. They coexisted amicably and India's primary exports included the finest steel, science and technology along with Sanatana Dharma and Buddhism.

The Christian missionaries began to appear in India as Europe was being Christianised and knowledge began to flow more rapidly west out of India. India was still in the process of transition from oral recitation of its ancient texts to creating books which were then translated by the Arabs and the Arab books were then translated by the Europeans. The Arabs being very polite and appreciating their new-found status weren't very forthcoming in telling the Europeans that all this scientific, technical and spiritual knowledge originated in India. The deception sadly continues until this day and some school books teach Western children that the Arabs invented arithmetic, astronomy and other such untruths.

Under patriarchal capitalism, honesty and morality are very flexible as anyone today who pays attention to the economic and political world will know. The new Christian religion also became a tool for patriarchal capitalism through what we call colonisation. It provided the excuse to loot and plunder the pagan world but it needed something stronger in order to make everyone to believe in the book. So Islam was created and mostly on the promise of loot and women, hordes of men, some in standing armies and others little more than groups of brigands swept across Persia killing, looting and raping on the pretext of instituting Islamic law.

When the Muslims encountered the peaceful Buddhists who had a very structured society, they chopped off the heads of all the priests and monks continuing all the way across North India and down through Southeast Asia brutalising, raping and looting in the name of their God. Some estimate that over 1600 years, the Muslims killed more than 300 million as they sought pillage and pleasure justified in the name of their God.

Under patriarchal capitalism, such behaviour is normal and glorified. The soldiers of God were banishing/killing the nonbeliever's and making the world a happier place, that is until the resources dry up. However on the Indian subcontinent, the idea of Sanatana Dharma was more prepared with an inbuilt defence system. It had a standing army which hundreds of years earlier had turned back the tide of Alexander's forces.

As a flat civilisation without a dominating hierarchy or reliance on a formalised priesthood, if a priest happened to lose his head to an Islamic sword simply because he didn't know anything about that belief system, any member of the community could take his or her place.

As Europe was going through its so-called dark ages, there was a quiet revolution going on as Christianity got settled in for the long haul. They built churches often with brothels next door. The church decided that all the priests should be celibate but then Martin Luther got invited to Rome and his visit coincided with the Pope's birthday. The story goes that he was so offended by the rampant paedophilia and the predatory behaviour of priests towards young boys that he nailed his complaints to the door of the church when he returned to Germany which led to the fragmentation of the Roman church (creating Protestantism) which is still continuing.

The Muslims in India found the Indians to be well defended although a few times they almost succeeded in beating them only to be pushed back. Then the British East India Company barged in to begin stripping India of its wealth, destroying the education system and the countries industries. They built railways because there was so much loot to be taken away then they reproduced the Indian education system and technologies in the UK to make England the most technologically advanced and prosperous country in the world and ruler of the seas for a time.

Britain wasn't alone in this exploitation, all the European countries whose new Christian religion gave them rights to kill, plunder and exploit wherever they wanted. It took a while, but across Europe the fact that the church was teaching kindness, charity and even natural justice while promoting exploitation and genocide in many countries, the people thanks to the advent of the printing press in Europe were becoming more aware that the their leadership were engaged in bigotry and various forms of despotism in the highest order.

Due to public protest the British East India company was reined in by the Queen of England by which time its estimated they looted over thirty trillion dollars worth of goods in today's money and reduced the literacy rate of the country from 95% down to less than 20% and at the same time created the conditions for poverty that India still suffers to this day.

India is not the only country to suffer in this way, it's estimated that King Leopold of Belgium was largely responsible for killing off some ten million people in the Congo, the Spanish of course scored over a hundred million kills in the Americas while the invasion and formation of the USA and Canada probably killed as many while in places like Australia, some British expats took to shooting the local people as a sport.

As we came into the twentieth century, those crimes did not stop but radio was coming into the homes of the people or at least those more affluent thanks to the wealth looted from the so-called Third World, but even the ordinary wealthy citizens were finding the double standards and bigotry too much to live with. The tenants of democracy became a little more equitable although it was quickly hijacked by the new corporations so that behind every democracy, the mechanism of government functions with very little real change regardless of who's elected.
In India, the land privatisation act and the change in law regarding the dowry system destroyed the remaining elements of the matriarchy and ushered in the full power of patriarchal capitalism. Administered by the British up until nineteen forty-seven, the people of India were dying in their tens of millions in part due to British incompetence and the theft of their harvests to feed Britain's war effort (1945) and recovery afterwards.

If we recall that the spirituality embodied within Sanatana Dharma travelled west out of India to be convoluted into the belief systems of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that made spirituality a business. Religion became another commodity to profit a ruling elite supporting corporate economic terrorism and genocide, essentially following the same pattern as the British East India company once did when piracy was seen as a good and sociably acceptable business practice.

As we stepped forwards into the twenty first century, some of the wealth stolen by the Western capitalism began moving back east and Asia today is becoming more central to the global economy despite the best efforts of the USA which still follows the same philosophy and practices of the British East India company. It acts as if it alone knows what's best for the world and as with the support of some churches it institutes its foreign economic and social policies that somehow has the divine right to implement suffering on the populations, replace elected governments and strip countries of their assets.

While Christianity embodies some of the principles taken from Sanatana Dharma, there has since World War II been a rejection of the Christian values because they are so bigoted and unjust. The entire message of Christianity is undermined by the patriarchal capitalist hierarchy that dominates the whole institution and thanks to great men like Swami Vivekananda who travelled to Europe and the USA at the end of the 1800s, seeds of Sanatana Dharma were sown in the West and over the years people in every Western country have developed a first for Indian wisdom, for Indian knowledge and a uniquely Indian understanding of spirituality that describes how we exist within time and space.

Today Westerners in their millions are turning to yoga and the concept of Sanatana Dharma or Buddhism because both provide real and practical solutions to alleviate human suffering. But not only that, they pave the way to self-realisation and spiritual freedom which in turn opens the doors to a sense of happiness that comes from within and is not dependent on external or worldly phenomenon.

Sanatana Dharma is a tangible knowledge-based approach to knowing life and the nature of existence and living. But it should never be confused with religion as a religion is only a belief system based on someone else's ideas.

The process toward that realisation is referred to as yoga, it is a process of creating unity between all aspects of self and between self and community. It is a reminder that we live as a community on a finite planet. We can see in the ancient Indian literature that they had the knowledge of how to develop many of our modern technologies but they chose not to because they understood that doing so would upset the ecological balance and spiral us towards extinction, and that is where we are heading now.

In as much as rules and regulations offer a certain amount of guidance on how to live one's life, they do not absolve us from suffering. The very nature of our civilisation which is governed by patriarchal capitalism is the architect of our suffering and immanent extinction of our species because it equates to governance by greed and an insatiable quest for pleasure, in contrast the thrust of Indian civilisation has always been towards human happiness, well-being and the survival of our species into an unforeseeable which is what may refer to as faith. The formula has been proven because despite all the odds, India remains the world's longest enduring civilisation.

How are you going to live the rest of your life?

"Oppositional politics, patriarchal capitalism and the market economy are the cause of injustice, perpetual conflict and suffering. The only possibility of genuine peace under these current economic and political systems is a false peace by regulation and subjugation. A genuine human awakening and an appreciation of Dharma is the only solution to create peace and generate happiness. "

An expanded version of this narrative can be downloaded here.