We cannot catch a rainbow, reach the horizons, touch the sky or bring down the moon and stars. Dreams fade away when we wake up; in a vast desert, a mirage looks like a pond of water to a traveler; children run in vain to catch shadows. All these and many other similar things are not easily understood. It is difficult to find answers to such mysteries in our life.
We generally perceive things through the senses of touch, sight, hearing and smell. Some things exist even when we don’t sense them, though our intuition does make such things known to us. It is the voice of our inner soul or conscience which whispers and guides us divinely in such matters.
Sometimes our sixth sense and a third eye shows us unseen objects. So, it is not correct to say that things which we don’t see, hear or touch don’t exist.
In scientific terms, many examples can be cited. Like in case of X-rays, light waves, temperature, gases, immunity, strength, etc, we cannot touch or see them, though their effect is felt. Similar is the case with our thoughts, memory, sadness, joy, imagination, emotion. We never deny or challenge such things and believe in them despite not touching or seeing them. However, something that is doubted, called to question, and put to many “ifs” and “buts”, is the existence of the Unseen God and His many attributes. This should have not been so.
Though science and logic defies the existence of ghosts, yet many isolated places and abandoned houses are thought to be haunted by them and many believe that the souls of the dead often visit such places. Plots of many a horror films are based on ghosts, magic, aliens, UFOs, etc, and such films are seen the world over.
Prophesies about future events are made very often. Spiritual journeys, the spiritual transformation, omens, mysticism, faith healing, occult and other meta-physical phenomena have dominated the human mind from ancient times. Extra-terrestrial intelligence and things related to it like zodiac signs and the movement of stars affecting life on earth is another subject perturbing us often.
Similar is the case with oceans, seas and other water bodies to which many interesting tales are told which are not fully verified. Tales of the existence of mermaids, merman and other supernatural beings are often told. All this indicates that the human mind has accepted and believed in many unseen, unverified things and is rather entrapped in a cobweb like situation, unable to free itself from it despite much talked about scientific temper.
The firm belief in the existence of Unseen God is the only wy out of such vicious cycle of beliefs. Let us ponder on some scenarios. Every year migratory birds land at the same spot and in the same season as they visited earlier, flying thousands and thousands of miles in the sky and crossing rivers, high seas and mountains, in droves, and remain there for a certain period of time and then fly back to their places of origin. They fly in the air in an amazing pattern and under a strict command and control system. Similar is the case with a host of other animals like dogs, horses, cattle, sheep and insects which return to their habitats, remembering well the routes and responding to external stimuli in a much efficient manner than humans can do. Who makes them do such amazing things? It is divine, indeed.
When a hen senses that an eagle is flying high in the sky preying on her chickens, she takes them under her feathers and saves them from the approaching danger. How can such alertness and timely action of the hen be explained without the power of divine?
The architectural precision with which the dwellings of insects, animals, birds, etc, are made by them is also beyond any human perception. We don’t know how they perform this superb engineering feat.
There exists, therefore, something supernatural and which is beyond our perception, indeed.
“The country of blind” is a famous short story written by H.G. Wells. The story narrates that when a mountaineer fell down a snow slope on a mountain, he reached a valley deep down which was cut off from rest of the world from all sides due to an earthquake, centuries ago. The people of the valley were then rendered blind due to affliction. With the passage of time they became oblivious to the existence of light, the sense of sight, and the things related to it.
The mountaineer thought himself to be their king and teacher, being the only person having eye sight, but instead of being so, he was presumed to be himself diseased and alien, subjected to all sorts of humiliation and torture by the villagers. They had no concept of sight and hence they could not understand his attempts to explain them the sense of light, as it was beyond their comprehension. This deadly combination of stubbornness and blindness on their part which they showed towards their emancipator was much perilous for them as it is for everyone else and strengthens our belief in the unseen as propounded in the scriptures.
The late APJ Abul Kalam, our ex- president, besides being a great scientist, was a man of letters also. He has mentioned a thought provoking anecdote in one of his books. One of the twins tells the other one, when both were still in the womb of their mother, that soon they will be out in the world with earth, the sun, the moon, light, water and all other worldly things. The other one did not believe him and told him that it was never possible as he did not believe in the unseen. Eventually the latter one was proved wrong when they were borne. Hence belief in the unseen is paramount.
Albert Einstein once said, “Reality is far beyond human perception and intuition. What humans perceive with their senses is not always true.”
The sooner we realise this, the better it is for all humanity.

The writer is a retired telecom engineer and author of the book, ‘Footprints in the Sand’. [email protected]

Peerzada Abdul Rashid