Friday, June 23, 2006

My quest for life

Perhaps, this is a question whose answer i am seeking since a long time now.I think i have partly unraveled this great mystery for myself but i really dont know how far have i reached....Afterall, its a quest which may take years...

After our birth,we all lead the same life...We all have a family and an environment which helps us grow,then we make a career,marry,have children,see them grow up,we then grow old and finally we die........What is the purpose of all of this? What is the purpose of this life?

You cant possibly find the answer in one go and hence i call it a quest...a quest for life.And each of us lives with a different purpose and gets a different result from this quest. But, still the same, there are certain common reasons for why we all live.

Coming from a technical background, i see this world as a huge system of which we human beings are components(or rather subsystems). A human body may survive without a hand or a leg,but the presence of that limb makes the body more complete. Similarly, each one of us makes this world more complete which is very inherent from the fact that on our demise,we would leave a huge void in the hearts of our near and dear ones. So,perhaps the first purpose of our life is to make this world a more complete place.

But we also serve a much more important purpose tham this. As each subsystem performs a different function. so does each individual in this huge world. But something that unifies them is that all subsystems work together to achieve the goal of a system. But what can be the constant goal of this ever-changing dynamic world? The question itself gives the answer. CHANGE. A change for the better. A change which could make this world more meaningful,thus making your life more meaningful. That is the purpose we are here to serve. We are here to change the world into a better and a more beautiful place. It need not imply that we will change the entire world on our own,but we can put in our best effort to bring about small subtle changes in everyone's attitude and that can be achieved only with a concious change in our own attitudes.

But,the irony of life is that us,who should be thinking about how to change the world,fear change our ownselves. We are afraid of that which we have not seen and have a tendency to stick to our past,thus bringing about a resistance to the inevitable-the only constant in this world;CHANGE. But if the purpose of our life is to change the world,we ought to realize that it begins with a positive change in our own selves. And the best way to do it is to love change. Love changes and do not detest them. They may initially scare you but they will give meaning to your life.

And thus begins our quest for life by changing ourselves for the better.

2 comments:

Eclipz said...

Its nice to see that you are applying common sense to understand the "quest of life". Sometimes common sense is nonsense, the way found out the quest is you just wanted to see what has been constant in the whole world and assumed it to be the quest which truly happens to be change. But now just go ahead ask yourself these questions

1. If change is constant then everything else is not constant happiness staifaction everything.
2. If all these past centuries experience of humans has thought you that the world still needs to improve.
3. Has everyone lived in the past just lived a life to give the future genrations a perfect world.
4. What is the purpose of this change (even if it is towards good)
5. If change is the only constant can there ever be perfectness or solution or answer to any questions.

Ajay Gupta said...

A reply to eclipz:

1. Can't change cause happiness? If you change in order to be happy, then happiness is there to be had in change itself.

2. History teaches that it repeats itself and that it is inevitable. But, it also teaches us that from the ashes of every civilization rises something new that we can learn from. We can never be perfect because the concept of perfection is imperfect and if I may add, flawed.

3. Are we living our present in any manner that might improve our generations to come? Change, like charity, begins at home.

4. I believe answer #1 will answer this too.

5. Can a question ever be the same? What happens to an equation if the variables change? Can you apply the solutions of the past to problems of the present? Perfectness comes from the ability to adapt. The ability to adapt is to embrace the change. Since perfectness is the end, the 'Quest for Life' is the means. You interpret it your way but the meaning is the same.

Then again, sometimes doing something nonsensical makes more sense than going by what is commonly considered to be sense.