The Rhapsody called Life.
My knowledge of the present day world reaffirms faith in my in-born belief
that being born in the human form on this rarest of the rare planets is the
truest providence that can befall on any living thing. My belief encompasses
two basic postulates: First, my responsibility in life is only limited to me
and my progeny alone and not posterity. Second is more of a philosophical
conclusion that the Death is a part of life and not the end or antonym of life
as otherwise is inscribed everywhere. I feel not only blessed but privileged
as well thinking about it and conceiving the plans of the omnipresent, the
omniscient and the omnipotent Unseen. I am born to experience my time
on this planet vis-à-vis my physical, mental and emotional context. I would
strive to defy Abraham Maslow’s ‘Jonah Syndrome’ and live upto my
fullest potentials as have been bestowed upon me from the Universe. I
would yearn and earn the chronicled wisdom of the world-societal,
professional, intellectual, emotional and through them their virtues and
vices, the good and evil, the pros and cons and subsequently would unlearn
the ones which are undesirable and unacceptable to my mind. I would
choose my relations in the world and would work on my own life’s
happiness and contentment as religiously as Prof Morrie Schwartz must
have meant in saying “Invest in the human family. Invest in
people…Build a community of love” to his dear student Mitch Albom. I
am born to unravel the happiness for me in this life and to find my very
own definition of life based upon my experiences here. The very purpose of
life starts almost at the same time when the very life is born. The first
purpose is to know the meaning of life in the holy context of an individual’s
lifelong circumstances. Holy, because every human life is unique in terms of
experiences, situations, strengths, weaknesses, supports, deficiencies,
motivations and desperations and in way many more aspects. I would wish
to personalize all the experiences before ignorantly submitting to the said
and accepted for I need to be the sole judge of what I will be passing on to
my descendants. Dealing with dilemmas, surrendering to the human
frailties, conquering the handicaps, negotiating the hardships, weighing the
worthiness of values, testing of relations, masquerading of moralities,
judging right or wrong etcetera are all the human experiences which can
not and should not be taken on others’ opinion. We are bound by nature to
develop our own understanding of our life as it forms the foundation for
the larger of purpose which is to cradle the virtues like love, care,
compassion, empathy, generosity and spirituality which together build the
idea of Humanity. It is the same bedrock of humanity which gave power
to dreadfully dying Ivan Ilych on his deathbed to forgive all the
miserable pangs in his life when his hand was held by his teenaged
son and he fell through and he caught sight of the Light. He said sorry
to his son and his wife and asked for their forgiveness. His fear for
death vanished and he exclaimed ‘What joy?’ These essentially human
attributes are worth emulation and assimilation as they have unimaginable
powers of healing a dejected soul or a decaying body. Prof Morrie’s
stoicism too rested upon his treasured belief in love and compassion
and the behaviourally-induced empathy in Mitch turned instrumental
in the accomplishment of their final thesis on ‘The Meaning of Life’. A
Human life is a chance to better the human lives and this is my sole
objective as long as I am supposed to be here. Since human life is not
utterly quixotic and is marred with vulnerabilities, it becomes pertinent to
have an answer to situations. Not all the aforesaid human virtues can stand
the test of time, context and emotion. A perfect life should address them
well. My goal of attainment of happiness in this life can only be possible if I
reasonably can be resourceful or manipulative in dealing with life’s
circumstances. I have to understand human relations a little more as have
been studied till date. The range of human emotion is so vast and
unpredictable that any amount of time to decode it will be less. I have to
delve deep into the mysteries of the human mind. Why certain minds are
inherently creative and some are destructive? What fuels love if it is not the
physical and bodily charm? What is there so vile in having those wild
sexual urges towards people you meet in this short span of life that
Augustine had to conclude saying “its an ingredient in the misery of
the human condition that the sexual impulse is so frequently
disruptive to the human mind’s higher intentions and instructions”. I
have to question this side of the philosophical wisdom which naturally does
not coincide with my own set of beliefs and this scrutiny is the purpose of
life. I have to quench that insatiable thirst of reason because there have
been thinkers in the past who have worded in favour of sexual experiences
being the source of profound psychological liberation. My life ought to have
its own pristine version of the manifestations of my instincts and impulses.
I should prepare my own opinion about the worldly affairs which may
serve as an alternate kaleidoscope for the people to follow. The event of
Death has been talked about a lot since time immemorial but still it all falls
short before my ideation of it. Broadly being on the side of the Ernest
Becker’s “Healthy-Minded” argument which asserts that ‘ Fear of
death is not a natural thing for man, that we are not born with it.’
However it’s an ‘impact of culture’ in the words of Mitch Albom’s
Professor who aptly said “We really don’t experience the world fully,
because we are half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we
have to do.” I personally fail to see any difference between life and death
from the point of view of mind and thoughts as even reverberated in the
words of Emily Dickinson when she says “Dying is a wild night and a new
road.” The larger life keeps going on and on leaving behind smaller
memories of human experiences and relations with the immediate world.
To be loved in life is all about loving everyone in life as Mitch Albom
quoted Levine in saying “Love is the only rational act.” Love wins. Love
always wins. Every life lived ought to be judged only on the scale of
contentment it realized and the peace and happiness it disseminated before
moving on to the larger life. Tom Holland’s mention of Charlie Hebdo
and Harvey Weinsten in his classic work ‘Dominion’ is enough an
allusion to understand and reflect how it all can go haywire so swiftly.
The basic motive of human life is to lay the foundation for a better life ever
after they have lived by setting ideals and adages of universal wisdom. I
would wish to be thought of as someone who lived his life on his own terms
with his exclusive set of beliefs in people, relations, morality, happiness,
love, wisdom and afterlife. A man who pleasured it all and treasured only
the selective gains of the society and also contributed back to it with his
share of peace, love and happiness. On the other hand, I would expect my
people- family and society to think of the best in me if they can and not be
affected by my absence around them. They keep taking power out of my
existence and my eternal message to them would always be “Don’t let go
too soon, but don’t hang on too long”. Prof. Schwartz’s timeless words
are a magical dose for the perfect realization of life and the fullest
attainment of its worth. The human life is a bouquet of diverse offerings. It
has to be lived per unit of time without any tentativeness of action or
nervousness of thought. One can extract whatever one pleases to. It gives
you pleasure and pain, happiness and sickness, luck and curse depending
upon how you treat it. Every situation in life can be handled in more than
one way and your reaction to a particular situation defines who you are
and what you will be getting back. Let peace and reason and love and
happiness be all around and you keep on contributing to the larger good
without falling to the temptations of distractions. Stay focussed and in hot
pursuit of your larger goals in life. ‘The spiritual security’ as elucidated
in “Tuesdays with Morrie” is very important part in life for your not only
physical, mental and emotional well being but also the spiritual balance
that we all should aim to seek. The world will be a much better place than it
is today if the love, humility and compassion become the driving force of
the humanity and the very purpose of the mankind on earth is served right.