I have always believed in an interconnectedness between all beings in the universe and that they are somehow working together unconsciously to contribute to the functioning of an universal source but I could never find a proper analogy nor did I have a complete understanding of it to explain it properly to any layman who did share the same belief. However I followed my instincts and I stumbled upon a musical composition by Clint Mansell called ‘Tree of Life’ a few days back. As I listened to its trembling crescendo while gazing at the starry sky last night, I suddenly found all the missing pieces needed to explain my belief and today, I am writing this post to share it with everyone.

#The Cycle of Life Every living being starts from a single cell whether its a human, animal or a microbe. From this single cell, some evolve into multi-celled organisms while others remain a single celled microbe. From a multi-celled organisms further evolution occurs and differences become more apparent, while some organisms start growing into big animals like elephants, other organisms remain small like mice or ants and human beings remain somewhere in between as average sized organisms. With further evolution, more differences arise as each organism gets divided into two sexes and even more evolutions occurs in case of humans, when each person starts to look unique and thus keep evolving in the universe. It is as if the more bifurcations an organism has, the more evolved it is. As each person continues their life, their differences become more vivid with varied personalities, varied philosophies in life and until death, each person has evolved to their maximum. As each organism die and they start degrading away, all these evolutions start falling back in the same order they had formed. In death, every person has the same personality in which they lie still and as their muscles corrode away and become skeletons, there are no differences in appearances between human beings. As the skeletons further degrade into the soil, there are no more differences between the dead human and any other dead animal. Finally, all living beings become the same dust with no difference at all.

Every single living being start from the same source and evolve to serve some purpose and then return to the same source they came from.

#The Tree of Life The best analogy to the cycle of life can be understood by observing the growth of a sapling to a tree, especially. As a sapling grows, tiny leaves are formed first near the root, which remain that way like single celled organisms, and then from the stem more bifurcations in the form of branches are formed and within each branch there are further branch and more leaves. Each leaf is similar to each organism and each branch is similar to the bifurcations in the cycle of life. Like each leaf provides for nutrition of the tree and help it grow, so each human contributes to the growth of the universe when they themselves grow. And as the universe grows, more evolutions arise like the several branches of the tree while a tree grows. Ultimately, the entire web of evolutions form a network like the canopy of different branches in a tree while being connected to a single root. In such a large tree, the location of each leaf is such that it can better face the sunlight and provide better growth for the tree. Similarly, our purpose in life is ultimately to provide the different ingredients needed for the growth of the universal spirit and our position, personality, unique look and every other variations are just modifications that will help us in this task. Whether we want it or not, this is our purpose in life and we serve it without our knowledge or control. Like an evergreen tree, this tree sheds its leaves all through the year and when each leaf falls, it strengthens the soil and return to the root of the tree where it came from.

The Tree of Life is an independent ecosystem within the web of life and adheres to the cycle of life like all other living things but since we can see its growth from birth to death, we can compare it to the interconnectedness of all living beings in this universe.

#The Vision of Life Let us imagine ourselves as a leaves in this tree of life. When the tree is young, our birth takes place somewhere near the root of this tree and we can see this root from where we are and realize the how interconnected all the leaves are. This was the time during the paleolithic age, where humans were not evolved enough to even gather food sufficiently but understood the connection between them and believed in the concept of one universal God, as depicted in different cave artifacts from that age. As this tree grows, our birth takes place at a position which is farther and farther away from the root of this tree. It is so far away that we can’t see the root of the tree anymore but we can only see the numerous leaves near us and surrounding us. The numerous leaves and branches hide the root and we do not understand how all of us are connected to a single root, so we believe ourselves to be independent entities in the web of life in control of our own destiny. In this current age, this is the vision which everyone sees and believes until one such leaf has undergone so many evolutions that it has grown in a branch which is far away from the rest of the leaves and this sole leaf hanging from an empty branch can see the entire tree of life for brief period of time and realize how such a complicated network is connected to a singular root and how each leaf has no other purpose but to provide for this network’s growth. And then finally, more leaves and evolve to give company to this lone leaf until it becomes so full of leaves that no one can see the root once again. In this way, the tree keeps on growing as more evolved leaves keep on forming.

Only the curious leaf which can leave behind everything to search for knowledge will find the truth about the interconnectedness of life and the existence of a singular source and realize that immaterial of whether someone believes or understands the tree of life, everyone is serving a purpose until they die and they have no control over it.

As you realize the meaning of life, close your eyes and feel how each person around you are connected to you and you along with everyone else are helping each other to grow and evolve like the different leaves on a tree. With this evolved understanding of your purpose, be happy that you were chosen and thank the universe.