LIFE - A STATE OF QUANDARY

There have been many trials, many researches, many many studies on what the purpose of our life is, what is the basis of our existence, if there is really a God, why man is mortal, etc. But none has claimed to have cracked these questions. While life is a mystery to many, a joyful ride to some, and a sorrowful journey to others, the very word "life" has not found its real meaning. I get a question in mind at this point of time. Why are we in a constant hunt for the answer to these questions?

Consider an ant. How do you describe its life? Many a times, a painful one, right? We have all heard the story about these toiling creatures. That is, whenever they climb a wall holding an 'atom' of sugar, whatever be the number of times they keep falling, they get back all their energy again and get on with their quest of carrying on the job of climbing. Are they worried about what is the purpose of their life? Some may question that they do not have as much reasoning power as compared to humans. Then how do they carry on with their regular jobs so properly? Don't we have anything to learn from them? Can't we carry on with our works without thinking about those questions for which we may not be able to find answers anytime?

But then what exactly is our job? Is it to study hard during our childhood and then be in the hunt for the best job in waiting in our adulthood? Or is it just keeping competing with our peers right from the days of school till we reach old age or to become a philanthropist and be in the service of others? How do we know which path to choose from among the myriad of directions?

Right from the Stone Age, we have been trying to exploit everything to make the best available to us. If this should be our goal, are the rich and the affluent happy? Even though we do not see the rich happy and satisfied, we still tend to opt for the same path. This has become so natural that no one questions its validity. In the limited years of our life, more so in today's volatile atmosphere, why are we wasting our time guessing why are we on earth?

Let us digress a bit. US has been the most powerful country and unfortunately still is, even though the focus has been tilting from the West to the East. China and India are the emerging players in the world. From a past few decades, we have seen America pressurizing some nations with their coercive methods. They have changed the social scene in many countries with Iraq and Afghanistan bearing the brunt. Pakistan is the next in its hit list. Why is it that no organization can question its legal validity? Do they have the veto to change the course of any nation in the world undermining the sovereignty of those countries? With the ongoing credit crisis in America, the repercussions of which are seen in most other parts of the world, the popular epithet "If US sneezes, the whole world catches cold" lives up to its name. So, it is not worthy enough if every nation is bound by its and only its policies and are impacted only by their procedures? What business has this 'powerful' nation got to destroy and impact other nations? What is legal if it bombs the whole of Iraq and Afghanistan and continues with more such actions in other parts of the world, in the pretext of fighting the "war on terror"?

Continuing with the same idea, many critics have rebuked the phrase "war on terror". They say, we can only wage a war if the enemy is known. If we do not know who the enemy is, and "terror" being a very generic and not a physical word, what do the phrase "war on terror" mean? Most of the West has somehow influenced other nations and convinced that the war on terror is actually the war on Islamist forces. Anytime a terror attack happens in any part of the world, an imaginary bearded figure, looking like a Muslim, comes to everybody's mind. Even when a man with the slightest connection to Islam is in contention for the president post of America, he is confronted again and again for his religious background. But the presidential nominee Barack Obama, with his skill and dexterity, has convincingly overcome all such attacks. With a person like him contending for the most popular political post, there is some hope for "CHANGE", as he openly proclaims. The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton also overtly supports Obama to see a difference in the way America functions and to get rid of the tarnished image US got with its coercive policies in the world. Hopefully, if Barack Obama manages to win the elections, the change in White House will begin changes in the entire world too.

Now, why did we deviate from our discussion of life and its purpose, to America and its policies? This is because, the world has changed dramatically in the last century, more so because of America. Starting from the world wars, to freedom of many nations, to great depression, to worldwide terrorism. In this fast-changing volatile world, when we do not know when and how we are going to die, why think about the intent of our existence? Still there are many people who take some extreme steps thinking that if they have lost something, that is the end of their lives and there is no moral purpose left for them to exist. When a student competes to get his/her coveted seat, about which they have always dreamt of, they constantly question if there is life beyond this dream. If this goal is not achieved, if what is left is only the shame of not achieving the goal. How do they then get the proper counseling that dreams are meant to be achieved and that dream is not just one, more and more dreams can be built even if not all are achieved.

According to Hindu Mythology, there are three important stages in the life of a person. They are birth, marriage, and death. While birth still holds the same or more significance in a person's life as it has been in earlier times, marriage holds a divided opinion among many, and death has become graver. The normal life of a person includes education in his early stages of life till adulthood, followed by marriage and employment, and death. If a person leaves no legacy, then the purpose of the life of the person becomes an enigma. Why does God create man or for that matter, any other creature? By a small reasoning, we tend to think that there should not be a purpose of life. Among the many creatures that God has created, a minute percentage are remembered even when their lives are lost. But does that mean everybody should be doing something that will be remembered forever. In that sense, why are we looking at making our lives more comfortable through technological development? These are only making our lives more sedentary, which in turn are harming us in the form of diseases and are killing us. If development is not the function of life, then what is? We are constantly toiling to do things only to come back at the same point where we started. So, where do we exactly direct our energies?

What utmost we can do is to make the JOURNEY OF LIFE a pleasurable one. Be happy and let others live happily. Let us stop any more advancement and instead bring everyone on the same level by wiping out the rich-poor divide. Let us not ameliorate at the cost of the environment and the earth. Even if we do not know why are we born, we can at least try and be satisfied with what we have done for us and for others during our final stages of life. Instead of investing millions of trillions of money into technical and military upgradation, let's channel them towards human well-being. If on one hand the World Trade Center was built, transportation through air was also possible. And the simplest strategy to hurt America massively would only be by destroying its wealth generator. Little did they know that such a move will create much more stronger attacks by America, making the world a deadly place. It will be impossible to perceive that the whole world takes a resolve that there should be no more attacks, no more deaths from lack of food, no more floods and hurricanes, so on and so forth. Not to forget the poor creatures which are dying due to anthropogenic methods. But this is the only thing we should be expected to do. Otherwise it is not far off when the purpose of birth would only be to die.