What is the worth of one human being?

By Surya Vishwa

What is the worth of one single human being? Can it be measured in gold or any other monetary assessment? In short, what is the price of life? We see around us how some people who spend their whole life being preoccupied by accumulating riches alone, at the cost of conscience, knowledge, love, freedom or happiness, spending it all in a day, especially at the mid or last stage of their life on a hospital bill; and that too one that would not change the health situation.

So, what is the price of one single human life? Answer could be that it is priceless. This answer is realised by most when it is too late.

A single human life, if appreciated, loved, respected and is in supreme bliss, can create the same situation and this feeling will be multiplied.

It is unfortunately not realised when all wrong policies are made and deathly results are realised, it is not realised when religion without its wisdom essence is pursued and the spirit (prana) within its core philosophy is not absorbed by the mind, it is not realised when information is mistaken for knowledge and it is not realised when one has lived an entire life merely implementing what others tells one to, whether it is appropriate to the self or not.

Each individual, like each country (a unique geographical location or earth with its own plant, animal and human species) and where this uniqueness created differently prioritised cities and knowledge structures. It is this difference that we have to thank for when we study how ancient Greek civilisation was different to ancient Egypt and how ancient Egypt was different to the Germanic or to the Indus people and the systems of knowledge they created.

One of the key drawbacks of modernity is that we have allowed globalisation to create a one-size-fits-all thinking that permeates all branches of life beginning with education. *Or else countries which never have apples growing in their soil, will not be teaching children that A is for apples!

The worth of one human life is linked to the worth of each and every resource which is in the land upon which that human life is birthed upon. When that land resource is not valued, or belittled or abandoned, the human life upon which it was birthed becomes equally abandoned. 

However, some geographical locations (countries) which have learnt (often the hard way and after many atrocious mistakes) the value of maximising each life potential, making each human being feel loved, respected, cared for and appreciated, may benefit greatly by creating an opportunity or an atmosphere for any life to reach its full potential in a host soil (a foreign country).

Sometimes with well-meaning intention, these others, as neighbours sometimes do, for many diverse reasons, prescribe to other neighbour’s formulas and methodologies on how to care for the lives that are lived in, in other lands. 

This is a most prevalent outcome of modern policy creation, where if a set of people disintegrate, feeling unhappy or sad about something in their own home or family where they feel their life potential is not maximised, they may ask the neighbours to tell their family members what they should do, or the neighbours will do in on their own, as they see fit. This may lead to new problems and most likely not be the solution.

A country is nothing but a large collective of individuals living in a setting of valuable resources and great potential.

We sometimes see a set of people pulling together to make countries which have very little naturally given resources, for example, like Singapore.

The value of one single human being cannot be priced because for better or worse, they can bring absolute prosperity or absolute disaster upon themselves or their surroundings. They do it by thinking uniquely, by thinking wisely and realising the importance of the mammoth and fragile task of preventing a feeling or hurt or resentment in a human being.

For example, one single human being such as Lee Kuan Yew, sat and thought deeply, and realised that whatever that is available (port resource) or the territory he and other people of that land lives, should be maximised and made successful enough to fill the gap of not having much other resources. 

He did not get depressed that Sri Lanka was far more richer in natural resources and infrastructure at that time that Singapore, but carefully and methodically analysed the shortfalls that may occur if even a single person was hurt when setting forth the rules upon which to live each life in the particular land (policies of a nation).

Hence, we can say that Lee Kuan Yew and his life cannot ever be measured in monetary value because then it would have to be priced far more than what the country he created is worth because he maximised the potential of his mind to create this country upon which people are happy, healthy, thinking for itself and working hard. Of course, sometimes some may grumble as there will be critics of anything, this being earth of humans and not heaven of angels.

Why is this above reflection important today for Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans?

It is important because we have to start asking ourselves whether we are thinking or whether we are ‘thought for’ by our neighbours, irrespective  of whether such a stance is taken in the best of intentions which is often the case. What good intentions is a family member who must put the house right. A solution given by an outsider often aggravates the situation.

Each individual will fail in the overall task of living a fulfilling life if they merely follow the framework a neighbour gives them. Likewise, a country will fail if they follow a framework that is merely given by others.

A country that is to maximise its potential is hinged on the thinking power of its people; beginning with each and every single human being. The power of one, is the power (or detriment) of all, as the lived in life of this world and its experiences show us.

We are now beginning to be caught in a storm brewing around the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution as introduced with Indian intervention in 1987.

Today there are different people holding different views on what a full implementation of such a policy would mean.

Leaving these debates aside, is it not useful to think anew at how all rural areas in all of the country could reach its fullest heights in wellbeing, education, creativity, innovation, invention, self-sufficiency, happiness and monetary as well as spiritual realisation and thus achieve true sustainable development as villages of this nation always had traditionally achieved?

Today all children learn about Colebrook and Cameron commissions which were initiatives of Colonial rule. The tradition of villages governing itself dates back to the earliest heritage accounts of Sri Lanka but today as with all knowledge of the policies of our ancient kings this knowledge is lost. We look to others before learning from our own monarchs. 

The wisdom of our monarchs, of our physicians and the incredulous feats they achieved for our nation remains in the tombs of our minds. The village administrative models around the concept of village councils are very old in this civilisation. From the time of Kuweni, it is known for those who relentlessly search for this knowledge, that villages in all of the island were administered as suited to its particular human and land resource.

The greatest model of pluralism of the Buddhist philosophy as preached by the Enlightened Human Being the Buddha, remains unexplored by our minds.

Great sages such as the Buddha, Jesus, Mahavira, Mohammed and multitude of other saints of a Hindu and Sufi and other traditions spent their entire lives improving the value of their heart and mind, the two conjoined machines that power each single human life, by creating the attitudes and actions. 

These were single human beings who thought for themselves and beyond the existing normality. They were social leaders while being spiritual masters. This country has much to learn from the individual actions of great Sinhala kings who created an incredulous hydraulic civilisation and stamped upon our consciousness the importance of sustainable policies.

Yet, today, unlike the gurukulam system of yesteryear, we are unaware of these great individuals. Likewise, the greater picture of why we are learning anything is lost upon us. In the same way, the fact that each of us can be a great vessel of unique productivity for our nation is not impressed upon us.  

Thus, most of us and our countries in this modern world, copy and become photocopy versions of others, whether these versions are suited to us or not. Our education system gives us information but very little space to think, reflect and be wise in order to create the best version for each of our lives so that we do not create unhappy, frustrated, unkind, unempathetic lives for either ourselves, others or the land upon which our sustenance depends.  Yet we are all books of knowledge. Each day of our lives such knowledge is written for us and this is called life experience. The challenges our country has faced is part of this experience we have lived through. As we see new challenges emerge, let us think for ourselves anew, how we can create solutions and those that last so that we are truly independent individuals and living is a country that creates its own solutions. Each thinking human being is a priceless treasure for this nation and as such able to move ahead of herd based thinking or emotion.

NOTE: This article is the first of a series of creating a possible platform to start a discourse on ancient village administrative systems of Sri Lanka, to glean what is useful for today’s context.