Spending and Understanding Life
Hola guys !!! This is my first article on medium. So I am pretty excited to share my thoughts on understanding what life is and how we as human beings spend it. The experiences that I am going to share are purely based on my imagination, understanding and observances from my life and that of the people whom I have seen or contacted with or known. Since life is a huge chapter that is not governed by a set of specific rules so I would limit my observations to a few specific points which I find to be worth mentioning.
So let’s start…
First of all we must understand the fact that we all are alone in this whole world. Alone means alone, that’s it. But human beings are pretty interesting and hence complex. We hate loneliness and hence in order to make our life a bit interesting we get associated with other individuals around us. We should accept the fact that nothing in this world are permanently ours. We are this alone. We just associate ourselves with things made from nature (be it human beings (Human beings are also a part of nature…remember that) and other tangible things) from time to time on a temporary basis. The mistake which many of us makes is this — We think that these temporary things belong to us permanently. This is a very big attachement and when it breaks, it calls upon misery. But as said earlier — we are a bit complex and try to make our life interesting. In order to make our life a bit colorful and in order to add a meaning to our life we try to hold on to something temporary (profession, partners, house, cars etc.) without realizing the fact that these things are temporary and are all created by human beings. But what is the solution then ? Should we stop working, should we stop running after things, should we stop adding colors/meanings to our life, should we stop thinking and analyzing about the above mentioned things — The answer is obviously NO !!! The secret is this — Develop the art of attachment and detachment simultaneously. The mind should be trained in such a order that we follow this rule religiously, otherwise it can be very painful/harsh sometimes. I agree the fact that we all are human beings and we have a soft corner — it becomes very difficult to follow that secret and start life new afresh at times(when we lose the things we become very attached to or the things we long for )— but that is the secret for survival.
Secondly we come here empty handed and leave empty handed. We did not come to this universe out of our own wish. We are being made to come here — in this great stage of earth (Disclaimer: This is a claim. The day this claim will be proved, we will know the purpose of our existence and why human form of life is very important. We all will know about the secret behind existence of God !!!) But many of us try to be heroes (baaps or dadas or netas in Indian dialect) by accumulating as much as we can (power,property) in our entire lifespan without even giving a second thought that the things we wish to achieve are taken from nature ( who is much much powerful than human beings ) and to the above mentioned point. So it is advisable to stay down to earth, humble and accept the thing that we are a custodian of the tangible things in our life. Keeping in mind the first point our objective should be to utilize the resources in such a manner that it benefits us and the humanity as a whole.
Thirdly work forms a very important part of our life as it is the thing we will do for the most part of our life. Most of us work for achieving something— whether it is money or satisfaction. This is a very interesting area for discussion and analysis. Should we work solely for money,name,fame? Or should we work for the sake of doing work, because we like/love it? Well the choice is entirely yours. The decision entirely depends on the time,situation, the background from which you come from and what you really want from life. But you should remember that you have right only on the work not on the results. Work can’t be quantified/monetized. So there should be no discussion on how much should we work. In work the goal matters as much as the underlying process. Hence depending on the demand and time we should adjust ourselves to deliver our duties as and when required and that too without expectation of reward. The Gita mentions that work done without expectation of something is much superior to the work done for expectation of some reward (which is obviously difficult to follow in this era !!!).
Fourthly duality exists in our life. The finite and infinite exists together just as heads and tails exist in the same coin. Life cannot exist without duality. From the second point of empty-handedness and third point in doing work, we must accept one thing that in order to get something in life we should give something in return. Be it selfish or unselfish we have and have to give back something in return if we want to get back something. We might think that we are living for ourself, working for ourself in order to meet our own demands — but wait…aren’t you working for someone else? Whether it is working for a company or making a new invention or in any other profession…aren’t your services being used by someone else in the society? Aren’t anyone else in the society getting benefitted by your work? So I think the best way to think while doing work is this — We all work for serving the society. We work for the development of the society and advancment of our civilization. Whether you are selfish or unselfish, dude, nature will force you to work for the society. First you have to give back to the society and then only you can accept anything in return.
Edit : The students belonging to the mathematics discipline should realize the principle of duality from the concept of Cantor set from Real Analysis.
Fifthly this life is a great gymnasium where we come to prove ourselves. In order to prove ourselves we should train both our mind and body simultaneously first and then a particular skill and should be strong at it as much as possible with a never give up attitude. We should keep on learning till the last day of our life. It should be worth mentioning that our mind is our greatest friend and also the greatest enemy. We are a manifestation of our own thoughts. We become what we think of. It should be also noteworthy that all the powers of the universe are already within us.
We all know that there are plenty of things that can be done and learnt from life, but the only limitation which we have is time. So it is better to get hold of few principles and live life accordingly, without paying heed to what the society thinks about us. Also we should not be judgemental of other people in a profession which is entirely different from that of ours. Well these type of thoughts often come to our mind depending on the amount of money we recieve in a particular profession or the scope of research that is possible in that domain. We should accept that human talent is diverse and there are people in every profession. They are trying their best to do whatever they can through their work.
Sixthly Time , Nature and Experiences are great teachers of our life. Of these three no one has the power to dictate Time and Nature. Hence we should adjust ourself according to Time and situations whenever and wherever necessary.
Finally I would like to conclude this post by throwing a question to all of you. What is the ultimate goal of our life? What is the ultimate and permanent thing we would achieve in this human form of life by going through a series of temporary and difficult phases? Is it realization of God or self-actualization? Is it getting liberation from the cycle of life and death by practicing the law of nishkam-karma ( working without the expectation of results or attachment) ?
Do ponder about these questions in your free time !!!
