Claims of originality

Harbouring infinite ambitions and perennially weaving a thousand dreams during his sojourn on earth, man fails to understand that he is but a minuscule, ephemeral entity in the scheme of the cosmos. Repeated attempts to create something new can be frustrating because each time one discovers that the same stuff has already been covered elsewhere. 'Thought' has no copyright; one is free to mix, remix and improve. Mankind looks forward to a constructive fresh idea or interpretation, which is shaped by individual perceptions and expressed conscientiously. All concepts, theories and thoughts we claim and dub as original have their prototypes in space, says Napoleon Hill in 'The Law of Success'. It is as if it were a hard drive with inputs from legendary masters in diverse specialities of knowledge.

The good thing is that creative folks with vision and perseverance can draw from the repository. Kahlil Gibran's proclamation, '...thought is a bird of space that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly,' is in sync with the Indic belief that our true self is Atman, and not assemblage of flesh, blood and bone. Issues of thought and emotion lie beyond human jurisdiction. Many neuroscientists now acknowledge that thoughts of all descriptions already exist, though they remain clueless about the source of thoughts. Lack of evidence and a cavalier stance towards divine powers inhibit their understanding of the nature of thoughts.