The common belief is that Spiritualism is a journey to be taken consciously, and the path is very different from the various paths we trace in our routine lives. As ordinary humans, we are less conscious of and more instinctual about most of the things that we do. Common human vices such as anger, violence, jealousy, competition, etc., are all deeply instinctual. I don’t remember anyone consciously choosing to be angry or jealous. As we commonly say, that is in his nature, purely referring to instincts. The question I ask is that, if we are all gifted with all such vices, deeply rooted in our instincts, then why doesn’t it work the other way. Why can’t we have some spiritual instincts rooted in us as well, so that we as ordinary humans don’t struggle with what the Buddha has gone through. Or are those instincts already there, and we haven’t realized them yet. Knowing nature’s miraculous ability to strike balance, the second possibility is more likely.
I am inspired by certain scientific facts to explore the possibility of such spiritual instincts. A certain species of the Cobra snake deep in the forests of South America is laying eggs in the middle of the tropical rain season. Over the next few days the rains are only going to increase and affect the equilibrium of the entire ecosystem. However, it is no coincidence that the breeding season of the Cobra overlaps the heavy rain months of the South Americas. The cobra carefully selects a bed of leaves with high buoyancy and an elevated platform to lay eggs in order to de-risk the dangers of flooding. The hatching period of the eggs can go up to 100 days, and that is enough time for water level to rise in the forests. Moving further the Cobra feeds itself properly, for it doesn’t know when the next meal is going to come. The Cobra literally hatches and/or guards those eggs for almost the entire duration of 90 days. Not even for a single moment does it go off the eggs for that would put its eggs under threat. The Cobra, like any other snake, can very much go hunting but it chooses not to do so as the security of its eggs are of prime importance. But the biggest of all threats to the eggs is the Cobra itself. Can we imagine a snake hungry for 90 days. Does it really matter whose eggs it is sitting upon.
Although snakes are also cannibalistic, I haven’t heard of any snake feeding on its own eggs. This Cobra being no different either goes hungry for almost 90 days. The eggs still need another 10 days to come to life. But mother Cobra really cannot overcome its most primitive instinct (hunger) any more. It realizes the fact that, there is no more a bigger threat to the eggs than her. All these days the killer instinct that she has been able to overcome, will now be directed towards the very eggs that she has been protecting. You might call it a spiritual coincidence or whatever, the Cobra does overcome its most primitive instinct, and abandons the very eggs it has been protecting for all these days. On the very 90th day the Cobra sets on a journey to never to come back again.
Not all of the Cobra eggs mature into full grown snakes. Natural selection precedes and only a few of the eggs do see the light of the day. The Cobra could have done well to feed on only one of the eggs to be able to take care of the others, but it chose otherwise. I have no option but to term this very instinct of the Cobra as spiritual. But for any spiritual instinct, it is unimaginable for a creature like snake to overcome its most primitive instinct of hunger. Darwin might approach this as the process of “natural selection”, wherein this species would have extinct had they not shown this particular behavior, I would argue that all species would have extinct had nature not packed us with similar spiritual instincts.
What amazes me is that, if a creature like snake with its mere cognitive capabilities is capable of demonstrating such spiritual highs, imagine the spiritual potential that higher order cognitive organisms are loaded with. Assuming that human being are the ones with the highest cognitive capabilities, the vastness of this spiritual potential is only for us to discover. There are three parallels that are obvious:
a. We are all programmed with numerous such spiritual instincts, irrespective of the fact that we are not conscious of most of them.
b. Spiritual instincts are capable of and meant to counter all negative instincts and maintain the equilibrium within us and thereby in our ecosystem.
c. If the Cobra can be conscious of such an instinct, then it is imperative and very much possible for us to do the same.
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