What should be one's ultimate dream? The ultimate goal?
I asked my dadi about it, without any hesitation, her reply was "Moksh, that should be your ultimate aim". What makes me discard her suggestion is the conversation which followed after that.
Me: Toh mujhe Moksh kaise mil sakta hai?
Dadi: Is bhuv(The part of time we are in, presently, according to jain mythology ) mein toh kisi ko bhi moksh nahi mil sakta, par agar ....
Me: (thinking): 'moksh and all, lite only'.
So, what if not moksh?
Mansion, Merc and Million dollars.
Tempting, but then, they come after working your ass off and thats obviously not where it stops, you still have to maintain it and so working your ass off continues just to take you to a stage where all you can see is people with a Villa, Veyron and 2 Million dollars. Its an infinite loop my friend.
As an example, consider the fact that millions dream of living your present lifestyle, but you are still aiming at something even higher. So depending on where you start on the ladder even if you work very hard, you will probably end your life at some place where many start their life.
Both , materialistic and spiritual ultimates are crossed out. Limited intelligence limits me to think over any intellectual ultimate. Out of reach, even if its good enough.
A quick introspection suggests that I am highly inclined towards the Mansion-Merc-Million bucks dream, but so is everyone else(which probably explains my inclination, a sheep behind 100 others)
But, at times, specially when I am stuck in some stupid math problem or back from an answer sheet distribution, I wonder, why am I doing all this? Why do I care if there are flagpole interactions in twist boat conformation(No , they are not) , why am I worried if av minus 10 is bad enough(completely depends on the IC, screw you laskar!). And there is no satisfactory answer.
What makes us conviniently forget the troubling fact that one day we have to die. Everything suddenly becomes so obsolete whenever you think of it . The whole idea of being born just to die one day is puzzling. If we are indeed given a grace period of a lifespan before we die, what is it for? It is certainly not for making mansions and million dollars. Or to win noble prizes. Or roam about jungles sporting uncut hair in an attempt to attain moksh.
What should be that Ultimate Goal?
I once asked a friend about it.
She draws a line and asks, "Where does this line end?"
I point it out to her.
next she draws a circle , "what about this, where does it end?"
"Huh? How am I supposed to answer this!?"
"You just answered a similar question, it shouldnt be difficult"
"But its a circle, the end just doesnt not exist!"
"The answer to your question.
You can not solve this puzzle of being born and dieing because there is no solution for it. Accept it as it is. Accept it the way you accept that there are no end points to a circle. Accept it as a property of life.
Cheers to life and to philosiphical friends.
I asked my dadi about it, without any hesitation, her reply was "Moksh, that should be your ultimate aim". What makes me discard her suggestion is the conversation which followed after that.
Me: Toh mujhe Moksh kaise mil sakta hai?
Dadi: Is bhuv(The part of time we are in, presently, according to jain mythology ) mein toh kisi ko bhi moksh nahi mil sakta, par agar ....
Me: (thinking): 'moksh and all, lite only'.
So, what if not moksh?
Mansion, Merc and Million dollars.
Tempting, but then, they come after working your ass off and thats obviously not where it stops, you still have to maintain it and so working your ass off continues just to take you to a stage where all you can see is people with a Villa, Veyron and 2 Million dollars. Its an infinite loop my friend.
As an example, consider the fact that millions dream of living your present lifestyle, but you are still aiming at something even higher. So depending on where you start on the ladder even if you work very hard, you will probably end your life at some place where many start their life.
Both , materialistic and spiritual ultimates are crossed out. Limited intelligence limits me to think over any intellectual ultimate. Out of reach, even if its good enough.
A quick introspection suggests that I am highly inclined towards the Mansion-Merc-Million bucks dream, but so is everyone else(which probably explains my inclination, a sheep behind 100 others)
But, at times, specially when I am stuck in some stupid math problem or back from an answer sheet distribution, I wonder, why am I doing all this? Why do I care if there are flagpole interactions in twist boat conformation(No , they are not) , why am I worried if av minus 10 is bad enough(completely depends on the IC, screw you laskar!). And there is no satisfactory answer.
What makes us conviniently forget the troubling fact that one day we have to die. Everything suddenly becomes so obsolete whenever you think of it . The whole idea of being born just to die one day is puzzling. If we are indeed given a grace period of a lifespan before we die, what is it for? It is certainly not for making mansions and million dollars. Or to win noble prizes. Or roam about jungles sporting uncut hair in an attempt to attain moksh.
What should be that Ultimate Goal?
I once asked a friend about it.
She draws a line and asks, "Where does this line end?"
I point it out to her.
next she draws a circle , "what about this, where does it end?"
"Huh? How am I supposed to answer this!?"
"You just answered a similar question, it shouldnt be difficult"
"But its a circle, the end just doesnt not exist!"
"The answer to your question.
You can not solve this puzzle of being born and dieing because there is no solution for it. Accept it as it is. Accept it the way you accept that there are no end points to a circle. Accept it as a property of life.
Cheers to life and to philosiphical friends.
You seem to have taken a remarkably short sample of philosophy before coming to this conclusion.
ReplyDelete"If we are indeed given a grace period of a lifespan before we die, what is it for?"
What does this mean? Grace period? Do we exist after dying?
You should read much more to realize the biases in your thinking. The very way you phrase your question, "ultimate goal of life" reflects the social surroundings you are in.
The example your friend gave you is a bad one because a circle which has no end points is a purely mathematical entity, an abstraction, and life is a physical entity, it is "observable" (in a more general sense of the word observe).
Probably any 'purpose' of life, when so defined will tend not to be a refutable concept. However, it is still worth exploring the assumptions and biases in our knowledge and perhaps phrase a more meaningful question before trying to answer it.
When I was writing this I knew more or less how you will comment on it. Somewhere in the middle of the post I thought of chucking it alltogether.
ReplyDeleteI am happy I didnt do that, I wanted to know where am I missing and you come to rescue.
What do you want me to read?
Well, I don't know, I haven't read enough myself to be able to offer you an advice on what to read. And I have certainly (and unfortunately) read very few non-western views on the subject. It is important, however, to keep your mind open and to understand the point I was making about the biases which surround our thinking. You could read Wittgenstein for that. A book I liked was Russel's 'An outline of philosophy', mainly because Russell's writing style is far superior to most other western philosophers (who get caught up in their jargon and spend pages and pages making an extremely trivial point). Works in linguistics are equally interesting. Though really you have to read from a lot of places (keeping the class biases of the people who write in mind), from different disciplines and try to integrate that knowledge.
ReplyDeleteAt the other end is biology and physics. A lot of physicists have had interesting views on life. Bohm is one. Then of course, evolutionary biologists, economists, people doing complex systems and game theory are interesting to read. There is a lot to explore!