What do we live for?

Probably, all of us strive to answer this question as we carry on with our lives. Do we live for food, clothing and shelter? These are basic necessities; one cannot live without them, but surely every living entity aspires for them. Then do we live for money? Money is an abstract concept. We will aspire for money only if we derive some meaning out of it. Then do we live for being respected, loved or feared? It comes a little closer; after all, that is what excess money is put use to. But what is the final goal?

The final goal can be only one thing – to connect ourselves with what truly belongs to us – our eternal and immutable self. But seldom do we realize that. Indeed, all of us are on that path, having traversed to some extent. Some are standing at the beginning, some midway, whereas some are near the end. No one has truly achieved the final goal in his or her lifetime.

Some aspire for physical prowess; some for beauty; some for knowledge; some for appreciation; some for companionship; and some seek answers to their unanswered questions. Everybody is on this path. No one can deny the fact that he aspires for something that he does not have. The mind is always flickering like a candle flame; it can never be completely satisfied, nor can it be completely immobilised.

All of us, indeed, must have thought over this question in their lifetimes. But seldom do we give any thought to it, because we do not have the time, and if we do, then we do not have the patience to attend to this query.

There is no fixed answer as to how we must go about answering this question. Indeed, the existence of so many religions and philosophies in this world testifies to the fact that the same destination can have different paths. The same Mankind which talks of life after death also talks of nullity and void. This is not a contradiction; they are only different ways to look at the entirety.

But what must we strive for during our lifetime? I have a few ideas. [They are by no means universal, but I believe in them.] Practice the golden rule. Always strive for knowledge and intellect. Stand up for your values. The path need not be the same. That way, we can resolve our conflicts and riddles.

To be or not to be, that is the question.

Is life a race?

This post may be considered to be a rejoinder to my earlier post "Is life governed by chance?" [I may even give a trilogy of posts - my first!]. I like the way good art rebuts the theory that life is a rat race. But is that the full truth?

Let's not fool ourselves into believing that things will happen at their own pace. We have to put in our effort [I've said about this in that post]. But it doesn't mean that we should be doing what everybody else is doing blindly [I've talked about this in an earlier post again]. All of us are manifest in different forms; there is no need for us to undo that diversity.

Let me share an interesting thing that happened to me this afternoon. I was returning to my hostel room. There is a gap in the surrounding fencing that provides a short-cut to the main gate. The ground around the fence is muddy; the footprints can be plainly seen. As I proceeded to enter via that gap, I saw that the 'path' that I was traversing was the only path marked with footprints, even though there were atleast 4 different ways to approach that gap. Another victim of herd mentality. And herd mentality is the starting line of the rat race.

Before we get to do things, we must critically examine as to why we are doing things, if at all those things should be done. Moreover, we must understand that things must be done at their own pace. This itself is such a vast topic; it will make a new blog site by itself.

Is life a race? Yes, but it is certainly not a sprint race where instant gratification is the keyword [the phrase is not being used negatively; I just want to mean that in sprints we must give our maximum in the first few seconds]. It is more like the long distance races where you need to give a sustained output for long periods of time; this output can be less. If you have ever seen long-distance races, the athletes who win are usually trailing way behind in the middle of the race.

So, life is indeed a race. But we have the choice of whether to run it or not. Those who are left behind can always catch up, because this race never ends. There are no losers in this race, nor are there any winners; and we gain the beautiful insight that there is more in the race of life than simply catching up with others.

Excellence and Perfection

"Strive for excellence, not for success" is a commonly heard catch-line. What does it mean?

Excellence is a drive from inside [One of my friends has already blogged about this]. The drive for excellence is motivated only for the purpose of self-satisfaction. People who try to strive for success alone often find themselves in trouble, as success is a relative term whose terms of reference keep changing with time.

It is observed that those who strive for success are often perfectionists, that is they seek to finish [and add finishing touches to] a job properly till the last count. I am not saying that being perfect is wrong. But it must not become an obsession, and hinder our self-improvement and the process of acquiring knowledge. Sometimes errors do occur. Sometimes they need to be corrected then and there. But at other times we need to 'let go'. Then only we learn the right way.

Excellence is something quite different. As Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan recently said, the people who really motivated him were not necessarily involved in publishing papers or doing world-class cutting-edge research, but were involved in the process of creating an understanding. It is a long-term process. Thus, the drive for excellence, unlike success, doesn't stop at a particular milestone. It goes on and on and on.

By being excellent, we are answerable only to ourselves. We don't have to satisfy whom I call 'others'. This attitude brings forth success in all our endeavours. For, such a person will also see a failure as a stepping stone to success. Freed of the fear of being shunned, such personalities soar high. They concentrate on the substance, not on the form.

Again, as I conclude, I echo the line, Excellence is a drive from the inside.

On New Year antics

On the midnight of December 31st and January 1st of every year we witness a new year as per the Gregorian calendar. For me, there is nothing much to relish on a New Year day that we cannot relish on any other day. I, however enjoy posting this article on a day everybody else considers to be a milestone. (Even my text editor seems to consider it important: It corrected the previous instance of “new year” as “New Year”!)

As part of the New Year “celebrations”, the “feel-good” people indulge in a lot of antics. They go to parties (as if they never go on any other day!), and burst fireworks (as if Diwali doesn’t ever happen!), at the end of a year that was marked by a drought in India. I am not against people going to parties and bursting fireworks, but I am certainly against making it out to be “The Event”.

One of the most famed rituals of the New Year is the “Resolution”. Despite clinching evidence that none of the resolutions taken the previous year were ever implemented beyond the first few weeks, we still insist on making some resolution. It’s all very well that we intend to do something good, but why start from the 1st of January of a year? Start from any day if you want to.

Another antic is the vast array of television programmes lined up for December 31 and January 1. For every other festival we have programmes for only one day, but for this ‘occasion’ we have for two days. There are movies, special programmes, festive music, movie reviews, interviews with celebrities, “Events of the past year”, and what not. At the stroke of midnight, every conceivable public figure appears on television to wish “A very Happy New Year” [which was probably recorded a couple of days ago].

The beginning of the year is always marked with pomp and gaiety, but it makes little difference to those who are on the margins and to those who have not. For them, neither it is “Happy” nor is it “New”.

One good thing about this occasion is that people connect with others that they have neglected to maintain contacts with for a long time.

But still, it irks me when I realise that some people consider this day to be important.