15. A story on how humans arrived on Earth

Before start reading this article, keep in mind that the story which I am presenting here is not a proved scientific fact. I am just exploring some possibilities with you that would have happened long back in the history of our Earth.

Modern science doesn't know how exactly Homo sapiens came to earth. Here I am presenting a brief summary of the story how Homo sapiens have come to earth. This happened around 10 million years ago. Homo sapiens are evolved intelligent beings actually came from the ninth planet of our solar system. The ninth planet mentioned here is not Pluto. Scientists have recently proposed the existence of a planet named as "planet nine" due to variations in the orbital paths of smaller objects in Kuiper belt(URL reference of NASA given below). These beings were technically advanced and had involved in exploring other planets where there would be chances for the existence of different life forms. They had technology to extract energy from dark matter to propel their spaceship in space with a velocity near to half of light speed. Using their technologies, they came to understand that the life supporting conditions of their planet will cease to exist because of some catastrophic event which would be going to happen in their planet in the near future. So, they decided to send groups of people to Earth which had sufficient life supporting environments. They came to our planet in different groups in their spaceships. They also brought some creatures from their planet. Recently scientists have found that DNA of octopus is not of earth origin. This would have been the reason behind it. Since they were evolved in another planet, their life expectancy was not similar to that of earth. Probably their lifetime would have been more than modern humans. This would have been the reason early humans' lifetime mentioned in our bible would be 900-1000. Since they came from another planet, initially it was difficult for them to adapt with the new climatic conditions that had existed on earth. That would have been a difficult problem for them and many among them were died off. To keep their Genealogy, they interbreed with neanderthal mans and Denisovans who were evolved in our earth. This gave adaptability to the Homo sapiens to survive on earth. And because of this, their lifetime was reduced to 120 as mentioned in our bible.

A few arguments that support humans are not from earth are taken from the book available on Amazon from the below link.

https://www.amazon.com/Humans-are-not-Earth-scientific-ebook/dp/B00DKK9IX21.

1. Humans are particularly sensitive to sunlight — something that other species are immune to. Reptiles make use of sunlight to regulate their temperature, but humans need to avoid spending long periods exposed to sun as it can make dizzy and cause heatstroke. Most of the other animals and birds have nictitating membrane which prevents their eyes from excess sunlight. Even ancient Hominins had brow ridges to prevent their eyes from the same. This shows that humans are likely to have originated from somewhere where there was not as much sunlight. This also points out that our home planet might have existed at a larger distance from its star or it might have orbited very near to a different star like brown or red dwarf that emits softer light and less UV radiation.

2. Humans also suffer from a wider array of skin diseases and ailments than other animals, which points out to another reason to believe we are from a less sunny planet where there was not as much UV radiation.

3. Researches also point to the fact that humans regularly suffer from bad backs, which may be because we likely to have evolved on a planet with much lower gravity.

4. Humans were supposedly evolved in Africa. Even in Africa, during night, cold is very intense during night we need to wrap ourselves to prevent us from hypothermia and death. Thus Lack of body hair in humans when compared to other animals and birds may also point out to the fact that the humans are not well adapted to the earth's environment. This may point that humans might be evolved on some other planet where day and night, both would be comfortable warm with temperatures about the same.

5. Millions of us suffer from allergies such as hay fever. How can humans failed to adapt to pollen on Earth after millions of years of evolution if we are really evolved on this planet.

6. On Earth, many crops grow in seasons and food can be scarce at certain times of the year. It would make sense if our reproductive cycles fitted that pattern as other animals do. But we can reproduce all year round even in the middle of winter when hardly grows anything in temperate regions. This means our reproductive system is developed not with respect to the seasonal changes happening on earth. The fact that we have no mechanisms for coping with the seasons is bizarre if we are really evolved on this planet. Seasons exist on earth only because of the tilt in Earth's axis (23 deg). The inability of humans to cope with extreme seasonal changes may point out that our home planet may not be tilted on its axis or only to a slight degree. Also, its orbit must be nearly circular.

7. Humans need to wear clothes in order to protect our body from extreme temperatures of Earths environment. None of other living creatures on this planet require this. This can be also one of the strongest evidence that we may not have evolved on this planet.

8. Geneticists are reasonably certain that the reasonably certain that the genes for type 2 diabetes, long-term depression, lupus, Biliary cirrhosis of lever and Crohn's disease all came from Neanderthal DNA. But none of these diseases were affected in Neanderthal, since, these genes were dormant in them and passed to modern human and became dominant while they met. Some Neanderthal skeletons show signs of Arthritis, so  Arthritis may also have come from them. It is recently found out that Neanderthal man extincted due to a common ear infection which comes in their childhood.

9. Other living creatures on earth can drink water without boiling it and purify it. But we need to boil it or purify it. Otherwise, we will be affected with infectious diseases. This may indicate that our home planet has plenty of pure freshwater or we may resistant to only those organisms present in water available there. That resistant became useless on Earth.

10. Our body's natural rhythm doesn't match the Earth's 24 hr clock. Our body is more suitable with 25 hr clock. Many of us feel a massive resistance when it’s time to get up in the morning, even if we’ve had enough sleep, we’re fit and well, and we have something to look forward to during the coming day. Getting out of bed takes an enormous amount of willpower, and forcing ourselves to do it not only makes us feel miserable, but can lead to clinical depression. This may point out that we might have evolved on a planet where one day is 25 hr.

11. Many of Earth's creatures can sense natural disasters hours before or even days before they occur. If we descended from the ancestors of these creatures, and we are at the top of the evolutionary tree, we ought to be able to sense them too. But we can't sense such disasters before until they hit us. This may point out that our home planet doesn't have any natural disasters. If the crust is one single piece without any tectonic plates, there can't be any tsunamis or earth quakes. And if there are no seasons and the weather is permanently mild, there should be no hurricanes, cyclones, monsoons, floods or wildfires. So there was never any need for us to develop the mechanisms for detecting them.

12. Humans lack a sense of direction. Many native animals make use of Earths magnetic fields to find their way around. Migratory birds fly thousands of miles, yet return to the same nesting sites six months later. We’re so bad at it that we had to invent maps and GPS to help us find our way around. Fortunately, we can always stop and ask for directions. In fact, many anthropologists believe this is why human language evolved. Researchers have found a small group of cells in our brains that can detect magnetic fields. But unfortunately, these cells are somehow inactive. This may suggest that our home plane might have stronger magnetic field than our Earth. When humans came to earth, magnetic field detecting cells might have become inactive since Earth magnetic field is comparatively weaker.

13. If we really evolved in East Africa, the big cats that roam there would have been a huge problem for us. We aren’t the slightest bit equipped to deal with these beasts. Their teeth and claws are designed for attacking larger, faster, more agile animals than us, and ripping through their flesh and bone. We have nothing to fight back with except our superior brain power, clubs, and rocks. This is not an evolutionary thing. It’s far more likely that we originated on a planet where we didn’t have any predators. That would explain why we have no way of defending ourselves against them.

A personal view:
Nobody knows what really has happened. Let us keep a hope that our modern science will find the true answer on how humans appeared on Earth. Evolution must have happened. But still there are many missing links. So, let us keep our mind open to accept the truth still it is revealed. There are three possibilities.
 1. Humans might have evolved on Earth
 2. Humans might have evolved on another planet and came to Earth when the mother planet lost its habitability.
 3. We were created on another planet, and dropped off to Earth by some extraterrestrials.

We should also keep in mind that any of the above possibilities will not rule out the existence of God, since, He is present everywhere and since life is generated out of His intelligence.

 URL References:https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/hypothetical-planet-x/in-depth/

14. Do other world living creatures really exist?

          In this article we are not trying to find an explicit answer to this question. Instead we will go through some scientific facts and also we will explore some of the major existing religious beliefs about the existence of other world creatures. Beliefs of christians, hindu and muslims are explored here. Finally a personal view on the existense of other world creatures is also expressed.

Modern Scientific Explorations:

         Let us first explore modern Scientific studies on other world creatures:
In scientific community, the term "Alien" is used mainly for other world creatures. The term "alien" is derived from the latin word " alienus" meaning stranger, foreign, belonging to another. In English, it means a hypothetical or fictional being from another world.

          Let us see what is mentioned in NASA's website on other world creatures. (URL reference given at bottom of the page in point 2 ) " No life beyond Earth has ever been found; there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited our planet. This does not mean, however that the universe is lifeless. The rover curiosity has firmly determined that ancient Mars was significantly more wet and warm, and was an entirely habitable place for microbial life".

          For an exoplanet to support life, the following criteria is essentially required according to NASA.( Reference URL given at bottom of the page in point 3)

           The planet should be about the size of the earth that orbit at just the right distance from their star - in a region termed the habitable zone. Planets in the habitable region is known as Goldilocks planets after the fairy tale because they orbit where conditons are just right for life. The habitable zone is the belt around a star where temperatures are ideal for liquid water which is considered as an essential ingredient for life as we know it. It has to be noted that finding the habitable zone around a star is still a difficult thing among astronomers since it depends on so many factors. But usually it is find out mainly by detecting the amount of radiation emitted by the star, radiation absorbed by the planet, and radiation emitted back from the planet. In addition to the above,  various geophysical and geodynamical aspects of the planet is also involved. Let us discuss a very few interesting points among them.

a) Mass:
         Low mass planets are poor candidates for life because of two reasons. First, their lesser gravity makes it difficult to hold the atmosphere needed for supporting life. Secondly, smaller planets probably wil be geologically dead, and lacking volcanoes, earthquakes and techtonic activities which supply the surface with life sustaining material and atmosphere with temperature moderators like carbon. But exeptional cases are also there. For example, Jupiter's moon Io (which is smaller than any of the terrestrial planets) is volcanically dynamic because of the gravitational stresses induced by its orbit, and its neighbor Europa may have a liquid ocean or icy slush underneath a frozen shell also due to power generated from orbiting a gas giant (Jupiter).

        In other case, if the planet's mass is more, then also, it is less likely to support life. it is likely to have massive atmosphere and solid iron core. This makes the planet to have a higher escape velocity. A combination of higher escape velocity to retain lighter atoms, and extensive outgassing from enhanced plate tectonics may greatly increase the atmospheric pressure and temperature at the surface compared to Earth. The enhanced greenhouse effect of such a heavy atmosphere would tend to suggest that the probability of life would be less there. So in short, planets should not be neither oversized nor too small to support life. So scientists are mainly looking for earth sized planets for searching life.

b) Orbit and rotation:
        Orbital eccentricity is the difference between a planet's farthest and closest approach to its parent star divided by the sum of said distances. It is a ratio describing the shape of the elliptical orbit. The greater the eccentricity the greater the temperature fluctuation on a planet's surface. If the fluctuation is great, the probability of the existence of life will be less. The Earth's orbit is almost wholly circular, with an eccentricity of less than 0.02; 

          If there is little or no axial tilt (or obliquity) relative to the perpendicular of the ecliptic, seasons will not occur and a main stimulant to biospheric dynamism will disappear. On the other hand, if the planet is having a significant tilt, this will also cause planet's climate to become unfavorable for sustaining life.

c) Heavy Metalicity:
         A smaller amount of metal makes the formation of planets much less likely, under the solar nebula theory of planetary system formation. Any planets that did form around a metal-poor star would probably be low in mass, and thus will be unfavorable for life. 

d) Low stellar variation:
         Changes in luminosity are common to all stars. But severity of such fluctions may be dangerous. Most stars are relatively stable, but a significant minority of variable stars undergo sudden changes in luminosity and hence the fluctuations in radiation going towards the planet will be fluctuating heavily and this would be dangerous for the organisms.

        In the year 2013, NASA has estimated that there are 40 billion earth sized planets in the habitable zones of sun like stars and red dwarfs in our milkyway galaxy. Modern science has various techniques to find exoplanets which are similar to that of our earth. Some of the major techniques are described here.

1. Transit Method
         When a planet passes directly between its star and an observer, it dims the stars light by a measurable amount.
        
2. Radial Velocity Method
         Orbitting planets cause stars to wobble in space causing an observable shift in the color of thr stars light.
        
3. Micro Lensing Method
          Light from a distant star is bent and focused by gravity as a planet passes between the star and earth.
         
4. Imaging Method
          Astronomers can take pictures of exoplanets using techniques that remove overwhelming glare of the stars they orbit.

5. Spectroscopy
          When the light shot by a star reaches the atmosphere of a distant planet and when it gets reflected and reaches our telescope, we can analyse this reflected light. The effect  looks like a bar code. The slices missing from the light spectrum tells us that which constituents are present in the exoplanet atmosphere. One pattern of black gaps might indicate methane, another oxygen. Seeing those together could be a strong argument for the presence of life.

Religious views on existense of other world creatures:
         Now let us try to explore the other world living creatures mentioned in Bible, hindu mythology and in Muslim traditions.

In bible, 9 types of other world living creatures are mentioned. They are
1. Seraphim ( സ്രോപ്പെന്മാർ )
2. Cherubim ( ക്രൂബെൻമാർ )
3. Powers ( ഹൈലാവോസെൻമാർ  )
4. Dominions (മൊറാവോസെൻമാർ )
5. Thrones ( മൗത്‌ബെൻമാർ )
6. Authorities ( ശുൽത്തോനെന്മാർ )
7. Rulers ( ആർക്കാവോസെൻമാർ )
8. Arch Angels (റീശിനുവോസെന്മാർ )
9. Angels ( മാലാഖമാർ ) 

        In Christianity it is believed that all of the nine above mentioned creatures are inhabitants of heaven and created by God. It is also believed that the Arch angel Lucifer rebelled against God and as a consequence, he has fallen to our earth from heaven. Let us   have a look on the physical descriptions of these heavenly beings. In bible the physical descriptions of Seraphim and cherubim is only well described.

   
1. Seraphim ( സ്രോപ്പെന്മാർ )
       From Isaiah 6:2, we can understand that each seraphim have 6 wings. With two they cover their face, with two, they cover their feet. With two, they fly and praises "God is Holy"
      
2. Cherubim ( ക്രൂബെൻമാർ )
        In the book of Ezekiel 10, the cherub is depicted as having two pairs of wings and four faces. One that of a lion, one that of an ox, one that of a human and another one that of an eagle. Their whole body and even their conjoined wings are also covered with eyes.  Cherubim guard the way to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24)

3. Powers ( ഹൈലാവോസെൻമാർ )
         This angelic class have the primary duty to supervise movements of the heavenly bodies to ensure the order of the universe. The physical description of this angelic class is not available.
Reference:- 1 Peter 3:2, Ephesians 1:21 

4. Dominions (മൊറാവോസെൻമാർ )
          This angelic class is beleived to regulate the duties of lower angels. They are believed to look like divinely beautiful humans with a paired of feathered wings.
Reference:- Collosians 1:16, Ephesians 1:21

5. Thrones ( മൗത്‌ബെൻമാർ )
        This class of celestial beings are mentioned by Paul the Apostle in Collossians 1:16. They are living symbols of God's justice and authority. Physical description is not available in bible.
Reference:- Daniel7:9, Collosians 1:16, Revelation 4:2-6

6. Authorities ( ശുൽത്തോനെന്മാർ )
          These angels are believed to have the authority to do signs and miracles in the world
Reference:- Ephesians 1:21, 3:10, Collosians 1:16, 1 peter 3:2

7. Rulers ( ആർക്കാവോസെൻമാർ )
             This class of angelic beings are believed to guide and protect nations, or group of peoples and institutions such as church. Their physical description is not available
Reference:-Ephesians 1:21,3:10 Collosians 1:16

8. Arch Angels (റീശിനുവോസെന്മാർ )
           The word archangel comes from the greek word "archangelos" meaning chief angel. This is derived from the greekword " archein" and "angelos". "archein" means to be first in rank or power. Angelos means messenger. Michael is an archangel. Lucifer or Satan is also an arch angel who has rebelled with God.
Reference:- Daniel 10:13-21, 12:1, Luke 1:19, 26, 1 Thesselonians 4:16,  Jude 9

9. Angels ( മാലാഖമാർ )
          The word Angel is derived from the greek word " Angelos" meaning messenger. These angels are sent as messengers to humanity. Angel Gabreal belongs to this grouo who had visited Mary and  the priest Zecharia.                     
Reference:- Genesis: 18:2, Mathew 1:20, Acts12:15, Luke 1:1

         Now let us look some of the mythical creatures mentioned in hindu mythologies.

1. Airavat
        This legendary white elephant is served as Lord Indra's mount. It is believed that this elephant was born when Brahma sang seven hymns over the two halves of the egg shell from which Garuda hatched. He is also behind the myth that elephant can bring clouds.

2. Garuda
       Garuda is the most famous winged beast in indian mythology. Garuda and his mother were enslaved by snakes. Inorder to be free, Garuda was asked to steal elixir from heaven. As told by snakes, Garuda brought elixir for snakes and garuda and his mother were freed. As the snakes were ajbout to drink elixir, As told by Lord vishnu, Garuda told snakes to clean themselves first before having elixir. When the snakes were away for cleaning themselves, Indira attacked Garuda and was able to protect himself from Indiras thunder bolt but could not keep elixir with him. However during this battle, a few drops of elixir fell down and snakes tried to lick it. Elixir was so strong and it burned their tounges. Apparently this is the reason that snakes have forked tounges.

3. Navagunjara
       This particular creature is composed of nine different animals. It has the head of a rooster standing on three feet, each of which was an elephant, a tiger and the deer or a horse. The fourth limb was a raised human arm carrying a lotus. The creature had the neck of a peacock, the hump of a camel, the waist of a lion, and the tail was a serpent.

4. Ganesha's mouse
        There are many stories behind why Ganesha rides on a mouse. One story suggests that the mouse symbolizes Ganehsha's victory over the rodent, that is the enemy of the farmer, an obstacle to the prosperity which points out the victory of Ganesha over the obstacles which prevents one's own inner prosperity.

5. Sheshanaag
         Sheshanaag is a serpent with 1000 heads that keeps the universe stable. Sheshanag had 1000 brothers who always caused troubles to every one surrounding them. He was fed up with his brothers actions and left to Himalays in sake of spirituality.  After great efforts, Lord Brahma appeared. Sheshanaag just asked to become a servent of Lord. Brahma was pleased on him and  had given the power to coil the universe. It is said that when sheshanaag coils forward, creation happens and when it coils backwards, universe cease to exist.

          Now let us have a look at some of the mystical creature mentioned in the Islamic traditions.

1. Buraq
         The word meaning of " Buraq" is lighting. It is a mythical creature that was said to be a transport for certain prophets. While Phrophet Mohammed was resting at Kaaba in Mecca, Angel Gabriel appeared to him bringing the buraq. Along with Gabriel, buraq carried Mohammed to the temple mount at Jerusalem. From this location, he was alighted to the seven different segments of heaven where he met with various prophets and finally met with God. Within Islam, this event signifies both spiritual and physical journey.

2. Houris
      Houris are beings in islamic traditions as splendid companions of equal age who will accompany the faithful in muslim paradise.

A personal view:
           The author of this article do not have enough wisdom to clearly say whether the mystical creatures mentioned in this article are really existing or not. One way is, we can consider these creatures as just visions  received by various prophets during their spiritual journey. Else we can either blindly believe in  those creatures or we can blindly reject those beliefs. Let us look at some latest scientific facts.
            NASA estimated that our universe consists of 68% of dark energy, 27% dark matter and only 5% ordinary matter. All living organisms on earth is made up of ordinary matter. Researchers have no idea what is the constituent of dark matter and dark energy. Even though dark energy and dark matter are invisible to our eyes and senses, researchers can observe the effects of dark energy and dark matter upon the ordinary matter. There are many candidate theories for dark matter and dark energy. But this mysterious substance is not yet found out. Similarly modern science is not sure whether any unknown type of other exotic matter exist in our universe or not.
            We cannot completely rule out the possibility of the existence of living beings which are made up of dark matter and dark energy. If this becomes true, there might be creatures even around us since dark matter is present everywhere according to modern science. We dont have to look many light years away in search of other world creatures. They might be roaming within our world. This is just a possibility. Not a proved fact.
            It is estimated that there are 100 billion galxies in our observable universe.  It is also estimated that there are 100 thousand million stars in our milky way galaxy alone and thus we cannot completely rule out the possibility for the existence of other world creatures  somewhere in our universe.

References:
1. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/reference/glossary/

2. https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/

3. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler20130717.html

4.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_habitability

5.https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy

13. Thought Provoking Questions and its Answers

1. What does not bring sorrow to man even if it is lost?

2. What makes people rich when they lose it?

3. Who is scholar?

4. What does in the world has greater glory than religion?

5. Which creation in the universe is seen by all life on earth?

6. Which has more power than that obtained from fire?

7. What is heavier than the universe?

8. What is more subtle than water?

9. What is the first symptom of ignorance?

10. What is the purpose of life?

11. Does God exist? Who is He? Is God a man or women?

12. What are the important emotions which has to be kept under control by humans?

13. What is the difference between desire and love?

14. Can physical objects make you more and more happier?

Answers:
1. Anger

2. Greed

3. A person who understands the greatness of compassion and mercy even if he is scholar

4. Mercy

5. The moon during the night and the sun during the day

6. Anger

7.  Guilty Feeling

8. Generosity

9. The feeling of having wisdom

10. There is no purpose of life. This is the beauty of human creation. We can live according to our interests and wishes. But still living in harmony with our fellow creatures can be considered as the purpose of life. We can find some opinions on this topic from the late Paulose Mar Gregorious in the following link.
https://youtu.be/yf5dgM-Dj_Q

11. There cannot be a single thing in this universe without reason. For example, matter exist in the universe because of bigbang. Our house is located in a position just because we constructed it there. Similarly we can realize about the invisible God while we see this visible universe. You do exist. And so God is also existing. God is neither a woman nor man. The whole universe exists in God. That is, we are part of the Supreme Being and this whole creation exist in supreme being itself.

12. There are mainly 6 emotions for man that has to be kept under his control. They are
        1. Lust
        2. Anger
        3. Greed
        4. Selfish desires
        5. Pride
        6. Unwanted competitiveness
If we cannot keep these emotions under control, there will be problems in our family and society. Let us see some examples to understand this.

Lust and selfish desires:
Attraction between the opposite sex is a gift given by nature to living beings. This is a key point in maintaining their progeny. But as a human being, we need to control our lust within a limit. When David, the mere shepherd, became king of a great empire, he fell in love with Bethsheba and killed Uriah. Thus he failed in becoming a good model before the people of his empire.

Anger:
Jesus Christ vehemently opposed the views of the lawyers, Pharisees, and Sadducees. We can see that they have nurtured  their wrath to the crucify Jesus without recognizing their flaws. We also see that Cain killed Abel because of his rage. Therefore, it is essential to control anger.

Greed:
During the time of Jesus christ, the land of Judea was under the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers travelled around the land and exploited the common people and acquired much wealth. Jesus Christ came up with the Gospel at a time when there was heavy unrest in his place along with sickness, trouble and murders. It can be seen that greed for the wealth of the Roman Empire had put the whole society into darkness. Therefore, excessive greed is a danger. An in-depth look at the evils of the Roman Empire can be found in the link below.
https://johnkunnathu.blogspot.com/2019/06/jesus-good-news.html?m=1

https://youtu.be/wrQroxp5Q70

Pride:
Goliath was a very powerful giant. He was proud of his power. He thought that no one could overcome him. David, on the other hand, was a poor shepherd. His hallmark was humility and trust in God. We can see that David's humility and trust in God overpowered Goliath's pride. If we look at ourselves with respect to the building we sit,  we are very tiny. With respect to a big tree,  we are small. With respect to the entire cosmos,  we are nothing. Not at all having any significance. Then what is the significance of each one of us in front of our Almighty??.  Then pride will have no role within us.

Unwanted competitiveness :
Esau liked to work with his father outside his home. But Jacob preferred to work at home with his mother. Jacob was rebellious against his brother, because he suspected that Esau would love and bless Esau more. It is this unwanted competitiveness that has led Jacob to betray his brother. We can see that Jacob later regretted about it.

13. Love is derived from mercy. Desire is derived from pride. Love tells us that God offers all the comforts of the world. But selfish desires tells us that we will gain all the comforts of the world. Love frees you. But selfish desires gives bond. Love is Dharma. But selfish desire is lawlessness.

14. Physical objects can create only comforts and not happiness. You think that new smart phone makes you happy. You think that new dresses makes you happy. You think that new house makes you happy. Lets take an example, from your new smart phone you just received a message showing that your lover would like to brake up with you. So the same smart phone which brought happiness within you can create great distress with in you. So we need to understand that physical objects can create only comfort not happiness. Happiness is an emotion which is created within ourselves. So we need to train our mind to stay always in blissful state

12. What is the main difference between humans and other animals on this earth?

First let us try to look at the similarities between humans and animals. Animals sleep. We sleep. Animals reproduce. We reproduce. Animals eat food. We eat food. Animals try to survive. We try to survive. Animals become angry and ferocious. We also become angry for many reasons and sometimes for no reasons also. Animals die. We die. Animals suffer. We also suffer( probably more than that of animals).
           Now let us look at the differences between humans and animals. In the evolutionary order, we the human beings are the most evolved creature on this planet and hence we have the most advanced neurological and advanced cerebral capabilities. Is there any other key difference? To understand this, we need to first understand the different types of actions that are performed by human beings. They are
           1. Physical actions
           2. Mental actions
           3. Emotional actions
           4. Energy actions
To understand these four actions, I am giving a little explanations on these four actions.

Physical actions:
Consider a person sitting on a chair. While sitting on the chair, he can slowly move his hands, he can slowly move his toe finger. He can do many other physical activities. These are all physical actions.

Mental actions:
While sitting, he can think about many things. These are mental actions.

Emotional actions:
Emotional actions are also coming under mental actions but it is separated because emotional actions have longer effects on human body when compared to mental actions like thoughts. For example, when you get angry, the effects upon your body will be more when compared to your simple thought process.

Energy actions:
It is about the energy transactions between your body and surroundings.

For animals, these four actions are controlled by their chemical behaviour within their body. But for humans, even though these are triggered by chemical changes in our body, nature has provided us with the freedom to choose. That means we have given freedom to choose our actions. To choose our actions means to choose our actions consciously. That means what should happens within ourselves can be 100 percent determined by ourselves. So we need to now think that whether our four types of actions are controlled by ourselves or just triggered by chemical actions and external situations. 

          Let us look at some extreme situations how Jesus christ has handled these four types of actions. If we carefully study the life of Jesus christ, we can understand that he has mastered all these four types of actions.
         
Let us see a situation where Jesus christ has mastered his physical actions. Jesus is the son of God. He is the power who hold this entire universe. He has the ability to do miracles. But still when he was caught by the roman soldiers, he did not do any miracles to escape from them. Instead he was willingly given himself to death. Many people spit upon him. He neither spit back nor cursed them. Even at the time of his last breath, he was ready to forgive them. These responses clearly shows that Jesus christ has mastered his physical actions.

Now let us see a situation where Jesus christ had mastered his mental actions. After 40 days of fasting, Jesus christ was tempted by the evil force since he was very hungry and tired. But Jesus christ just witnessed this temptation and did not respond to this situation. This clearly shows that he has mastered mental as well as his physical actions.( Luke 4:1-14)

Now let us see a situation which shows Jesus has mastered his emotional actions. During the time when was carrying his cross towards golgotha, women were weeping for him. Jesus told them not to cry for him. This clearly shows that he was at a state of high emotional stability even at the time of his physical suffering.(Luke 23:27-29)

Now let us see a situation which shows Jesus christ has mastered his energy actions. Jesus is the son of God. He is the power who hold this entire universe. He did miracles only for the upliftment of the others. For doing miracles, essentially he might have somehow accessed the inner energy within himself or  some external outer energy from God. He did not do any miracles to save his life from crucifixion. This shows Jesus christ has well mastered his energy actions.

Now the question is whether we mastered our physical, mental, emotional and energy actions or not. Inorder to master all these, we  need to strive for mastering our mind and body which is the actual purpose of the entire spiritual development.

So the main difference between a human and an animal is that we have the ability to control our physical, mental, emotional and energy actions. Atleast we can strive for that.

          

11. What is the difference between mental alertness and consciousness?

      It is actually difficult to find the main difference between mental alertness and consciousness since they are very much overlapped. But still we will try to analyze the difference through some examples from our day to day life. When we sleep, we are not aware of things happening outside and within us. During this time, we have a very little mental awareness. When we are awake, we have comparitively good mental awareness so that we are aware of many things which is happening within us and outside. So mental awareness is mainly goal oriented or it is for survival process. But when we say about consciousness, it is present when we are awake or even during the time when we sleep . This means consciousness is referring to something which is present within us all the time. Let us look at one example to understand this. Consider we have made a wound in our hand. What happens to it after some days. Day by day it will gradually heal up. Why is it healing up gradually? This is because, there is some kind of intelligence that works within us which helps us in the better coordination and wellbeing of our body. Thus consciousness is actually referring to the source of intelligence within us which is the creator of this body. This consciousness is present in each and every cell of our body. Or in otherwords it is our self. This is separate from our body, thoughts, emotions, knowledge, ignorance, good qualities and and bad qualities that are present within us. Through meditation, the possibility of attaining this experience is more. You can get to know more about this from 1st and 2nd articles.
            

10. What is fear? How can we overcome it?

           We first need to understand what are the possibilities of fear in our mind. Let us look at some facts.  Human beings have five senses. Our eyes can see only light which ranges in between 380-740 nanometer in wavelength. Our ears can hear sounds only within the limit of 20-20KHz. Our nose cannot detect more than 1 trillion odors. Our skin cannot detect objects beyond 50mm without touching it. That means from this infinite universe, only a limited knowledge is entering our body through our senses. Hence from the above facts we can clearly say that a our ignorance is boundless when compared to our knowledge. Hence to become fearful is natural. But excessive fear is not at all good. Let us look at one example. Consider a student preparing for exams. If the student is a little feared of exams thinking that his parents will scold him on low marks, then there is a chance for him to study better. But if he study well with an intention of acquiring more knowledge, it is well and good. So in some situations, fear has positive effects upon us. But fearing more and more is not at all good.
         Now let us see what is fear. Fear is excessive imaginations. It is about something which may happen in future. Most of the time it will not happen. If we carefully look into it, we can understand that fear is about something which does not exist. We need to understand that it is worthless to fear about something which does not exist. The fact is that our mind is creating horror scenes. Nobody else is able to see. We should try preventing it from becoming the pattern of our mind since our mind has the property of repeating a pattern. Now let us try to see what we can do if we face excessive fear.

1. Surrender yourself. This means we need to think that God is our father. He is our creator. Creator means the source of intelligence that works within us which helps in the better coordination and wellbeing of our body. He has unconditional love towards us. He has super power. He is always ready to help us. He has absolute peace with him. He is ready to come even within us to save. Surrender to this great father. Tell him that you have failed. Then a great peace overflows your cells like an unstopable river.

2. Understand that your self is separate from your body, thoughts and emotions. Once there happens atleast a little seperation within you, fear will have no power on you. Please read 1st and 2nd articles for more understanding on this topic.

3. Consider a friend of yours who is facing a similar situation as that of you. What will you do to save him? Do the same to yourself.

4. Try to understand what triggers you fear in your mind and avoid those things till you reach a stable state.

5. Talk with God whatever you feel to say. You can spit at him. You can beat him. You can blame him. But still He will listen you. He will still unconditionally love you.

Let us see how jesus christ reacted in some extreme situations. When Jesus christ was travelling with his disciples on boat, due to bad weather, big waves and terrifying wind came up. Disciples became afraid of the situation and started screaming. But Jesus christ was able to keep his mind calm during this terrible situation. Even at the time of his cruxification also, we cannot find any fear on Jesus christ. He willingfully given himself for death.

Let us see some verses from Bible which says not to fear.

Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you woth my righteous right hand.

Psalm 56: 3
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Philippians 4: 6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

John 14:27
Peace is what I leave with you. it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Here are some food items which can be included in our diet to reduce our anxiety to a certain extend.
1. Brazil nuts
2. Eggs
3. Vitamin D rich foods
4. Fatty Fish
5. Pumpkin seeds
6. Dark chocolate
7. Turmeric
8. Green tea
9. Yogurt

I agree that there are certain factors which are not under our control. But still believe that there is super consciousness who is the witness of everything in this universe. He is ready to help us in any situations. Slowly we can grow to another level of awareness. May God bless us all.

9. What happens in life after death?

        To understand life after death, I have taken the beliefs of christians as well as the beliefs of hindus in this context.

Christian vision on life after death:
         To understand christian vision, three topics are considered here.
         a) 1 Peter 3: 19
"And in his spiritual existence, he went and preached to the imprisoned spirits. These were the spirits of those who had not obeyed God when he waited patiently during the days that Noah was building his boat"
         b) During the crucifixion of Jesus, he tells the thief on his right side that "From now on you will be with me in paradise".
         c) After the death of the rich man and Lazarus, we can see that the rich man in mourning and Lazarus in a state of happiness.
 From the above three examples, we can assume the following conclusions.
 1. The experience of spirits in Noah's days remind us that we can make spiritual progress even after death. Therefore it is proper to pray for the dead.
 2. The thief on the right side of Jesus recognized the unconditional love of God just before his death. So as Jesus told, we can assume that he might have reached the state of happiness after his death.
 3. The story of the rich man and Lazarus reminds us that based on our good and bad actions which were performed during the life on earth will lead us to a state of happiness or state of sorrow on life after death.

Hindu vision on life after death:
    Based on the good and bad actions we performed during the life on earth, state of happiness or state of sorrow will follow us after death. Also at the time of death, if we can completely surrender ourselves to God by abandoning all our selfish desires, then such people will be able to make union with God or in othercase, will reborn in another form.

        From the above mentioned christian and hindu beliefs, to say which one is correct, the author of this article has not acquired that much knowledge. But still we will try to find a conclusion for our question below. To find a conclusion for our question, we need to find answers for another two questions.
        1. Where is heaven located?
        2. Where is hell located?
                   Heaven is a place where we accept and apologize our own mistakes which has been done to our fellow creatures. To understand this, let us look at some examples. When the prophet Isaiah lived, King Uzziah was the most beloved among all the people. During that time, people thought that leprosy is a disease caused when God is angry. King Uzziah fell ill because of leprosy and died. All the people thought that God was unfair to the king and started blaming God. There is a possibility that prophet Isaiah might also have blamed God in his mind. Once while Isaiah was meditating in church, he saw a peculiar vision. In his vision, angels were prasing God by telling that He is Holy! By seeing this, Isaiah understood that God is alone holy and immediately he accepted his mistake. He also recognized that people are blaming God for no reason. At the moment he accepted his mistake, Isaiah was given permission to praise God with great joy.
                   Let us look at another example. In the garden of Eden, if Adam and Eve did accept their mistakes without blaming each other, God would have given permission to stay in heaven itself.
                   Let us look at one more example. In the story of prodigal son, when he came back to his father's unconditional love after accepting his mistakes, the house became more and more joyful like heaven.
                   Now let us see where is hell located. Where there is no mutual acceptance, where there is no forgiveness of one another, wherever blame one another, a hell is created.
                   If heaven and hell above mentioned are true, then how are they related to life after death?
                   The main summary of the above can be summarized as follows: Heaven and hell are created in our hearts. It is not required to consider heaven and hell as geographical places. That is why Jesus christ said in Luke 5:17 " The kingdom of heaven is within you". When the kingdom of heaven is established in our hearts, it is certain that bliss will follow us even after death. Therefore there is no need for such people to fear what will happen after death. If we are in union with God right now, we don't have to worry about what happens after death.
                   On the contrary, if hell is created in our hearts, life after death also will be terrible for us.

Suggested Related Links:
1. https://johnkunnathu.blogspot.com/2019/04/my-eureka-discovery-of-meaning-of.html?m=1

2. https://johnkunnathu.blogspot.com/2019/03/jesus-view-of-god.html?m=1

3. https://johnkunnathu.blogspot.com/?m=1