The Way I look At ‘Life’

It will be hard to say that what I am going to write here, is completely out of my own imagination. But who does anyway? I strongly don't believe in it, and I certainly don't advocate you to do so. These have been my thoughts on some of my extremely lazy days when I don’t have anything else to do, other than to think about life.

I believe one person lives in two different worlds. One is the real world, where we daily struggle. And the other is, well, the surreal world. A place where our alter ego dwells. Everyone on this earth has aspirations, desires and goals. We have a vision of what we would really want to be and how we would like the world around us to be. We have a have a need for wanting to be the perfect being in the perfect world. The sense of perfection is subjective here. Like I have an image of the perfect ‘Prashant’ in his perfect world, which might be completely different from yours. My goals and my desires mould this perfect Prashant and his world. In my real world I constantly try to emulate him. He lives in a world where he is able to accomplish everything that I dream of, in this existential world. He has the perfect day, the perfect job, and of course the perfect relationship. He is what I will love to be in this world. Yes definitely, the image of perfection keeps changing with time, depending on one’s interactions in the real world and one's changing aspirations. But we constantly, at least idealistically, try to make both worlds meet.

Our happiness is dependant upon the overlap of these two worlds. The similarity between the real and your imaginary self decides it (like the overlapping area between two circles in a Venn diagram). The bigger the difference between us and our alternate personae, the more we strive to achieve in this materialistic but real world. Quite a few times the frustration leads us down. Sometimes our hyperactive imagination leads us to imagine ourselves as other characters with different powers and goals (our alter ego), sometimes vanishing into a fantasy to escape a difficult situation; an act of craziness. I can extend this comparison to the case of suicide when one finds a huge gap between the two worlds. The remorstration of not being able to be what he really wants to be, drives him fanatical and eventually forces him to take such an extreme step.

We can say the wood from which the chair is crafted, has a purpose on this earth. Similar for the wood that made the table I am working on. It works the same way for humans and animals. Everyone has a unique role to play on this earth. Our inability to realize the ultimate truth drives us away to individualistic reality; away from the abstract essence of our life. The problem is that we can’t see it on a holistic scale. It’s our inability, which makes us see discreet reality. And not grasp the abstract knowledge. The human mind isn’t matured enough to visualize The Truth, of why he has come to this earth.

I believe everything is pre-decided in this universe. Everything happens the way it is supposed to happen. There is a ‘law’ that governs our existence in this world. Like physics law for materials; every time you drop a ball it falls to earth because of gravitation; every opposite charge attract, and likewise for innumerable things that seem so obvious to our immature eyes.
The dissatisfaction and unhappiness, which has crippled the present day world, will be eradicated if one looks into his life like this. Just for one day, think that you did what you were supposed to do and the mistakes were bound to happen in spite of whatever you tried, u won’t be dissatisfied and unhappy about your past and choices that you have made. Believe me. It does not mean that one can be complacent and lose the urge to do better. I am not saying that we need to lead a life of a vegetable and lose all interest in life. The beauty lies in striking the right balance; doing work and not being too attached to it. Because things will happen the way it is supposed to happen.

Does it not look more than a mere coincidence that this earth is governed by a set of some beautiful physics law that we have learned in our science classes? There must be something that instills such a stunning relationship in this universe that strikes such a perfect balance. I am not spiritual, in the sense that I don’t believe in going to the temple and praying to God. But I believe that there is something that controls this universe. That maintains this balance and uniformity. Otherwise it’s utterly impossible to have such a beautiful relationship; like an electron always tries to be in the lowest energy state in the orbit, like planets always revolve around the sun. Similarly we have a set of tasks to carry out on this earth. We have to see that in a holistic view. Discreetly, everything looks haphazard but there is a beautiful relation that defines our purpose on this earth, that we are yet to discover.

Prashant--

There is a definite force that governs us all. Call it what you must... physics, law, etc. But that force is God.

The Truth is much simpler than what we perceive it as. And like you said, the human inability to see this in a holistic view has rendered us handicapped. But the simpler fact is that, The Truth was not and is not meant to be revealed. We are but humble slaves. Once we have accepted this simple fact by stop looking for life's answers and simply letting life go by, will we find happiness and be content; utter bliss. No extreme measures needed. We do what we can to get by, we do what we can to survive.

We simply surrender to a force bigger than you and I.

It is only human to want perfection. Which leads to the creation of the perfect but surreal world, complete with an alternate persona. Perfect but surreal; our escape from this harsh but real world. And the sad fact is, the perfect world is, well, surreal. But if you must, I do agree that striking a balance is key.

Life is that. Simple. Meant to be digested just as it is. Not filtered or diagnosed. Having said that and written this, makes me a hypocrite.

--Hezne