Moments of reflection

It would appear some of our fellow men are sensing certain developments from occurrences around us and in the world in general. Such sensing often leads to reflection. Both sensing and reflection can only make gratifying progress in the end. This is after we have come to the recognition that the pursuit of bread and butter, inevitable as it is, is only a means to an end. It is a tool but not the goal itself. I received two sobering posts during the week. The author of one says of it: “This is the story of life.” The caption itself reads: “An interesting story of life.” The second post manifesting a stirring within the soul of the author, says of his sensing: “It is darkening slowly.”

The first post takes us down memory lane, listing our leaders in Executive and Legislature as well as the class of Executives in the states. He starts by reminding us of those many call the “shakers and movers,” the prime movers of our society 43 years ago and he asks:

“In 1979, do you remember those who were in charge? They were those who ruled Nigeria and dominated the air waves like no other persons.”
“THE PRESIDENCY
“President: Alhaji Shehu Shagari (Dead). Vice-President: Dr. Alex Ekwueme (Dead)
“THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Senate President: Dr. Joseph Wayas (Dead)
Senate Leader: Olusola Saraki (Dead).
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE:
Edwin Ume-Ezeoke (Dead).
“THE 19 GOVERNORS
1.) Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, Kaduna (Dead);
2.) Abubakar Barde, Gongola (Dead);
3.) Abubakar Rimi, Kano (Dead);
4.) Abubakar Tatari Alli, Bauchi (Dead);
5.) Adamu Attah, Kwara (Dead);
6.) Ambrose Alli, Bendel (Dead);
7.) Aper Aku, Benue (Dead);
8.) Auwal Ibrahim, Niger State (Alive);
9.) Bola Ige, Oyo (Dead);
10.) Onabanjo (Dead);
11.) Clement Isong, C/River (Dead);
12.) Jim Nwobodo, Enugu (Alive);
13.) Lateef Jakande, Lagos (Dead);
14.) Melford Okilo, Rivers (Dead);
15.) Michael Ajasin, Ondo (Dead);
16.) Muhammadu Goni, Borno (Dead);
17.) Sam Mbakwe, Imo (Dead);
18.) Shehu Kangiwa, Sokoto (Dead);
19.) Solomon Lar, Plateau (Dead).”
Of this class, only two, Jim Nwobodo of Enugu State and Auwal Ibrahim of Niger State are alive. The author remarks: “It’s just 43 years ago and among those powerful men only two of them are alive, and they no longer make news.
“This is the story of life. You are here today, you are gone tomorrow. Do good eat and correct things always,” he says with the thoughtful admonition: “Only memories of you will remain either positive or negative. My house, my land, my car, my wife, my position; I am this, I am that!! Remember, it’s all temporary and sooner than later, you will depart and leave all those things behind. Where you will be buried, how and when you will never know. Think for a second. What is the essence of this life?”

This is undoubtedly food for thought. He has asked the right question in his admonition when he says, “Think for a second. What is the essence of this life?” The question being asked here is: what is the purpose of life on earth? Are we just to move from cradle to the grave? Man is born; at the appropriate time, he also brings forth a child. The child grows to become an adult and also raises a child. In the cycle of development he starts out as a person. He goes into union with a woman to be two. They begin to raise a family of say three, four, five, eight or nine. The house is full. One after the other, the children leave home to go their own way. They have become scattered seeds that are to bring forth their own fruits, and the cycle of development goes on. The parents are back as two. And most likely, each of them leaves at his or her appointed time, generally speaking for carelessness or negligence can make a person to leave before his allotted time. A child has four grandparents; a grandchild has eight grandparents, and a great grandchild can easily have 16 grandparents. And so on and so forth. And a community develops. When we think a little, we say this cannot be all why human beings are on earth. It cannot be just to populate space. This cannot be a product of perfection the Almighty Creator is. Purposelessness cannot spring from Perfection. In the enlightenment spreading on earth today, we learn that life on earth is a short time of schooling. I will come back to this presently.

The second post states that it is darkening slowly. It can thus be safely said that we human beings are in a closing cage. The evidence cannot be far to seek. The pieces of evidence are all around us. An online publication draws attention to unspeakable heatwave in Europe this summer which has not been calmed. Zeroing on Britain, the report says: “The UK saw its hottest ever day last month as temperatures reached over 40 degrees Celsius. Now, the Met Office has put in place heat warning from Thursday until Sunday. The record-breaking temperatures have brought with them a lack of rainfall, with some parts of the UK seeing their lowest amount of rain since records began in 1836.

Talking about the unusual regional rain pattern this year, the online report says England had just 36 per cent (23.1mm) of its average rainfall for July, 2022; Wales 53 per cent (52mm); Northern Ireland 51 per cent (45.8mm). Scotland alone had something considerable recording 81 per cent (83.6mm) of average rainfall for July. The question on most lips is: “When will it next rain?” It such scientists fear the likelihood of droughts is higher and it is being blamed on climate change driven by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and of course abuse of the environment and other human activities. The fears have triggered hosepipe bans by water authority across the country. South Eastern part of Britain moved fast to announce the ban following the Met described as the driest first half of the year since 1976 with days without rain adding up to 144. Thames Water which serves 15 million people and Thames Valley also reported to have signaled bringing hoseban to its customers.

China is experiencing a similar shortage of rain. Reuters news agency that the country’s longest river is shrinking and heatwaves are threatening crops. Their response is to employ science to force rain. The report says China has to “deploy pumps and cloud-seeding rockets as a long drought depletes water levels and threatens crops.” It is said River Yangtze’s middle and lower reaches have faced temperatures more than 40 degrees Celsius. Rainfall in the river’s drainage plains fell about 30 per cent in July and is 60 per cent lower than normal in August. The report says what is being experienced is the longest sustained period of extreme temperatures since records began in 1961. In central China, 50 per cent decline in rainfall in July. Another area, Chongging, is said to be facing its second hottest summer since records began in 1961. Outflows from three Gorges Reservoir to relieve the drought are half of the earlier year. Authorities have assembled 900 missiles to “try to seed clouds and induce rain!”

In Nigeria, the August break has produced unprecedented cold. And as we enter the second maximum rain period, which is in a few weeks, Nigerian Meteorological Agency NiMet has alerted Nigerians to expect heavy flooding in Borno, Kebbi, Sokoto, Balyesa and Delta states. Director General of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Matazu issued a statement on Tuesday in which he listed what he called medium risk flood areas as Central parts of Kebbi, Zamfara, Niger and Western parts of Plateau, Nasarawa states, southern Borno and Yobe states.

It is hard not to see that it is darkening slowly! What then is the purpose of life on earth? Who is man? That is where we have to start. Man is spirit. He descended from the Spiritual Realm as an unconscious sprit germ. There it was alive but incapable of development following the untrammeled luminousity occasioned by what may be described just for our grasp the vicinity of the Light, the Almighty, vicinity in real terms of vastness inconceivable and incomprehensible to man. The spirit bears inherent supplicatary longing for consciousness and development.

The prize at the end of the day is to return home in Paradise as a conscious and matured and noble human being, to be able to partake of life of splendour that is everlasting there. In the light of higher knowledge made available to mankind on earth today, the earth wanderers referred to as human beings are in truth not yet human beings. They are only striving to be so which is the purport of their sojourn in this vale of matter. Becoming human beings is the goal; it is the destination. If we do not know the goal, it follows that we cannot consciously strive to attain it. Since many a man cannot invite himself into a contemplation of the purpose of life and existence, he does not give a damn how he lives this life, what he does and what he leaves undone and the consequences of his activities on him, his environment and his neighbours.

Hardly can one find a person in this country today who does not complain about the state of affairs in the land. The issues on the front burner today are insecurity and the economy. He is also gravely apprehensive over politics or the social fibre that is disintegrating. And we have not asked ourselves if peace, love and harmony, joy and happiness are what characterise life elsewhere, why has it eluded us here on earth? We ought to ask how life is lived elsewhere, the place of our destination that they bask in the radiance of love, joy, and happiness, peace and harmony. Yet the plan of the Creator for us is that we should know joy and happiness. If we do not experience this state of being, it is no proof of defectiveness of the plan, but of our failure to chart the course meant for us. Just think of the plan, the manual that issues out of perfection.

It cannot but be perfect and for all times. Indeed, it is our charge to turn this world into a replica of Paradise. The spirit develops through experiences and through being fed with teachings of Nature, and later with splitting of Truth brought by Teachers of Mankind and the Prophets, then through revealed Truth brought directly from the All- Highest. Thus, if the spirit comes to a right and necessary recognition, and keeps to the Teachings, he develops from unconsciousness to self-consciousness, from spiritual seed to a fully developed human spirit—the true human being, now mature and clarified to return to the Spiritual Realm, Paradise, his origin and Home. The man as we know him follows a cycle of development from cradle to the grave, that is from when he appears as a baby, unconscious of its environment, unable to recognise anybody even though it is alive. It grows gradually until it begins to flower and it becomes conscious of itself. Sense of shame develops and he dreams dreams. He sees the world upside down, and an irrepressible longing to overcome it and right wrongs develops. As a youth, he wants to take the next available NASA flight to fetch the moon.

As a girl, she tells the mother, Mom it is not your time, but mine. Your time is past! The youth moves to the year of full estate when he develops a choleric temperament which urges him to action. His blood radiation changes. From there, after crossing some more intervening gradations, he reaches the age of reflection, a period he is old physically and his movement becomes slow; the fire and agility of the youth are gone. These are the observable traits in the development cycle of man brought about by radiation emanating from the blood which itself is formed from matter through the animation of the animistic and spirit in each of us. In other words, uniform laws form and govern the whole of Creation, and since man is a creature, he cannot escape being touched by these immutable principles for his development.

As we may have observed, all developmental processes are quickened these days. The acceleration is brought about by the increased pressure of the Light pressure whose Rays have now encompassed the whole earth, awakening all that slumbers in each of us to face judgment. Thus will it be fulfilled that in the Last Days, all that is dead will be awakened to judge itself. The judgment, as we are now permitted to know to now realise, has indeed begun, albeit in still the early stages. The generality of mankind will sense it unmistakably when it reaches the boiling point and it is palpable. Evil receives intensification in the judgment so it can exterminate itself. Those who are good are being strengthened, and separation is taking place. People of the same nature are being grouped with their own kind. All aspects of life are touched and affected by the New Times. Purification is raging in every land and there is nowhere to hide any longer.