Lt Gen Narendra Kotwal (R ), Dr Sumedha Kotwal
narendrakotwal@gmail.com
Look closely at any living cell, human, bird, tree, insect, fish, fungus and you will find a humbling secret: life is not built from private materials. It is built from a common, public gift. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur along with sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, iron, zinc, iodine, selenium, copper, manganese and other trace elements assemble into proteins, DNA, membranes, hormones, and electrical impulses. These atoms do not belong to any nation, religion, caste, or ideology. They are older than every empire, older than every boundary, older than every argument. They are the original commonwealth of Nature. The more science advances, the clearer it becomes: the body is not a possession; it is a temporary arrangement of universal elements, borrowed from Earth and returned to Earth.
From a biological standpoint, carbon provides the backbone for the molecules of life; its ability to form stable chains and rings allows complexity to emerge. Nitrogen becomes the alphabet of proteins and nucleic acids, without nitrogen there is no enzyme, no neurotransmitter balance, no thought as we experience it. Phosphate is not just a mineral; it is the scaffold of DNA and RNA and the spark of ATP, the energy currency that powers every heartbeat, every breath, every blink. Oxygen and hydrogen, through water, become the solvent of life and the stage on which chemistry performs. Sodium and potassium create the electrical gradients that allow nerves to fire and muscles to contract; every emotion, every reaction, every moment of anger or compassion rides on these ions. Calcium is the universal signal inside cells—controlling contraction, secretion, and communication, while magnesium quietly supports hundreds of enzymes and stabilizes ATP so that energy can actually be used. Iron carries oxygen in blood; zinc shapes immunity and gene regulation; iodine enables thyroid hormones that set the tempo of metabolism. In the end, what we call “life” is a symphony conducted through elements that are shared by all.
If this is true and it is, then a profound philosophical conclusion follows: we are not separate at the level of substance. We are different expressions of the same Earth-cosmos chemistry, temporarily individualised into bodies, names, and stories. Today you call it “my body,” but that is a practical convenience, not an ultimate truth. Your atoms have circulated through rivers, soil, plants, animals, and generations. The calcium in your bones may once have been in a mountain rock; the iron in your blood may have travelled through ancient oceans; the carbon in your cells was once drifting as carbon dioxide in the air. The body is a beautiful loan. It is Nature’s trust placed in your care.
Vedic wisdom has said this in a different language for millennia. The body is formed from the pañca-mahābhūta—earth, water, fire, air, and space, while the deeper Self is the sākṣī, the Witness that observes these changing layers. The Bhagavad Gita points to the wisdom of sama-darśana, seeing the same essence in all beings. When one recognises the shared source, compassion is no longer a moral burden; it becomes the natural fragrance of understanding. Even if one does not use the word “Ātman,” the lived insight remains:beneath outer diversity lies inner unity, and beyond identity lies a field of belonging.
Theological traditions across the world echo a similar theme, each in its own idiom, creation is one fabric, life is a trust, and the world is not an enemy but a sacred order. Whether someone calls the higher sustaining principle God, Dharma, Tao, Waheguru, Param-Brahman, or simply the laws of Nature, the central intuition converges: something greater than individual desire sustains this astonishing continuity of life. If that is so, humility becomes rational. Gratitude becomes intelligent. Reverence becomes practical. Yet the paradox of our times is that the very species capable of understanding unity often chooses division. We know we share the same air, yet we poison it. We know we share the same water cycle, yet we pollute it. We know our physiology is similar across humanity, yet we invent hierarchies and hatred.
Why does this happen? Science offers an honest answer: the brain carries ancient survival circuits. Fear can shrink awareness into tribalism. Scarcity can harden into greed. Threat can convert into anger and violence. Status anxiety can inflate ego. These instincts once helped small groups survive in hostile environments; in a modern interconnected civilisation, the same instincts can become self-destruction. Hatred is not a sign of strength; it is often a symptom of an untrained mind reacting from old circuitry. Violence is not power; it is the collapse of inner regulation. Greed is not success; it is the forgetting of sufficiency. When the inner instrument is not refined, even noble ideas become weapons of identity.
Here is an out-of-the-box yet scientifically grounded perspective: imagine a “Periodic Table Brotherhood.” In a laboratory, if one analysed the atoms in the blood of a person from any religion and compared them with another person from another religion, there would be no difference that could justify contempt. Atoms carry no dogma. The periodic table has no passport. The hydrogen in one child’s tear is the same hydrogen in another child’s tear. The oxygen that gives life to your brain also gives life to your neighbour’s brain. The same sodium-potassium pump that powers your nerve impulse powers the nerve impulse of someone you call “other.” When hatred arises, it is like the left hand hating the right hand—both are organs of the same body. The tragedy is that humanity has not yet matured to see itself as one organism living on one planet.
If we accept that our elements are shared and transferable, a new ethical logic emerges, one beyond religion, beyond borders, beyond slogans. The foundation becomes elemental humility: “I am made of what I did not create; I am sustained by what I do not control; therefore I must live with responsibility and compassion.” From elemental humility rises planetary compassion of recognition that Nature is not outside us; Nature is our extended body. Forests are not scenery; they are oxygen factories and climate stabilisers. Rivers are not background; they are blood vessels of civilization. Soil is not dirt; it is the living matrix that feeds every cell. To damage Nature is not merely an environmental issue, but self-harm delayed in time.
A practical civilization-level transformation does not begin with grand speeches; it begins with small daily disciplines that rewire the brain from reaction to response. If you want a universally acceptable “religion” without religion, consider this: gratitude, restraint, compassion, truth, and service are cross-cultural and biologically beneficial. Gratitude softens greed. Restraint reduces harm. Compassion dissolves hatred. Truth removes manipulation. Service builds trust. These are not sectarian commandments; they are technologies of inner peace.
So let us propose a simple, followable human vow anchored in the shared chemistry of life: “Because my body is made of Earth’s elements, I will treat every human as kin, every creature as companion, and Nature as sacred trust. I will pause before I react. I will speak truth without cruelty. I will take only what I need and share what I can. I will protect air, water, soil, and biodiversity as if my own organs depend on them—because they do. I will cultivate inner silence to reduce outer violence. I will honour differences of culture while refusing the illusion of superiority. I will choose peace not as weakness but as wisdom.” When such a vow becomes common culture, boundaries do not need to disappear politically to soften psychologically. You can still love your language, your tradition, your nation without turning them into weapons. The future does not require uniformity; it requires maturity. It requires the ability to hold identity lightly and humanity deeply.
In the end, the most powerful unifier is not a philosophy alone; it is a lived emotion: gratitude. Gratitude to oxygen makes you humble. Gratitude to water makes you careful. Gratitude to food makes you mindful. Gratitude to the shared elements makes you compassionate. When gratitude becomes the centre, peace becomes natural, camaraderie becomes possible, and nature-respect becomes instinctive. We are not separate beings competing for meaning; we are the same elements learning love through different forms. To harm another is to injure the common source. To heal another is to honour the higher order—by whatever name—that sustains us all.
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