Perception of things varies depending on one's position and place. The most striking appearance that is so deceptive on a regular basis is how we see the Sun. What we call sunrise and sunset gives the impression that the glowing ball is a small object and moves from the east to the west. But nothing can be more of a travesty of truth than this. Our naked eyes betray us most in this case of perception.
Scientists help us make understand how mistaken we common people are. Actually, the Sun is 109 times the diameter of the planet we live on. If it does not quite give us the idea of sun's largeness, let's take into account yet another comparison. The Sun is so vast that it can accommodate as many as 1,300,000 Earths inside of it. No wonder, the Sun weighs 333,000 times heavier than our planet.
As we see the disk-like Sun on a slow journey every day, we think we are where we are. But it is our Earth that is on its continuous sojourn round the sun. Our perception is completely wrong. So the finite humans, as we are, cannot boast infallible perception. What we view may be relative to time and space. Galileo Galilei was the first man to draw the wrath of the Roman catholic church for his promotion of the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus. Heliocentrism is the astronomical model in which the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the universe. In the prosecution, Galileo was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.
What is particularly striking is that the overwhelming majority of people prefer to live in forgetfulness without wondering about their place on this only known planet. People simply fail to wonder. They are so engrossed with the small calculations of the mundane world that questioning their existence, its relations to the world they inhabit and the planet's extraordinary capacity to support lives here hardly occur to them. Consider the huge mass of the Earth and the far greater and heavier mass of the Sun. How do they float in the space and still maintain their special relations? It is not just the nearest star, the Sun that is, but its planets and satellites that orbit around it in the vastness of space have to maintain a precise relationship so that no one crosses another's path and crash into each other. They maintain a perfect equidistance not to head for a cosmic disaster.
Expansion of the idea only gives one the understanding that the whole universe with far bigger and unlimited stars, milky way galaxies has a definite order to regulate the movement of cosmic objects. How is that the evolution of life or for that matter of an intelligent species called human had to come into being here on this planet? If the average human beings simply allow themselves to be carried away by the flow of daily concerns or momentary thrills, the contemplative ones are charmed by the feasts of beautiful sights, sweet sounds and diversities of flora and fauna.
However at the end of the day some of these people sit face to face with their inner selves and ask what the purpose of such elaborate arrangements all around are. No one can stay here permanently, nor anyone knows when the end comes. That is disturbing. This is why people try their hands at creativity that is a permanent source of delight and mental satisfaction. As Keats sees, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever". Poetry, literature, art, music etc; do not have materialistic value but those are the treasures mankind is capable of building up. Because they strike the right chord and enlighten souls. Thus Rabindranath's mellifluous and searching song: "Asim kalosagore bhuban bhese chakeche/Amrito Bhaban kotha aache/ taha ke jane?" evokes a sense of wonder at man's place in relation to time and space. But then it brings us to the very heart wherefrom the wealth of love issues to embrace the world, or maybe, the universe.
Neither religion nor science can adequately offer a definitive rational explanation to this wonderful happening. Scientific quests are there and the super species has achieved mind-boggling feats in terms of ease of doing works to enhance material comforts of life. At the same time, it has gone berserk in acquiring unlimited destructive power too. Its latest achievement in algorithmic marvel has pushed it on the brink of creating its own prototype courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI).
Notwithstanding the marvel of science and technology, human limitations cannot be denied. An individual of this highest order of rational animal is but a vulnerable entity. No one can escape death and yet human beings try not to submit to it. Whatever may be the interpretation of an afterlife, the fact is that not many live it on this Earth honestly, meaningfully and with an elevating an enlightening purpose.