Back with my second blog.I must admit its not as easy as i thought.One needs a lot of will power to get down to write.Anyway one fundamental question that we grapple with is what life is and what it means to us? What follows is two sides of a coin which might give a rough idea of what life might be.It is upto evry thinking individual to work out the answer for himself/herself.
While going through some material, i came across a phrase by Samuel Beckett,through which he defines life as a "flash between the womb and the tomb". Well you can agree or disagree with him.But this set my mind thinking on what life really is and how we should look at it.Those who agree with the statement which includes me,would look at the larger cosmic picture thereby comparing life on earth which can be measured in terms of a number with the universe at large which is infinite and cannot be measured against a number.Looking at it from this view, life obviously is nothing but a flash,its like a dot,a peck in the cosmos.This also entails within it the inconsequentiality of all human actions,thus making the opposition between good and evil,right and wrong,happy and sad,light and dark vanish on account of being irrelevant.This view necessarily provides peace and solace and helps one to come to terms with life in a more philosophical and hence fundamental way.The politics,the corruption,the poverty,the savagery and the rot that one finds in this world cease to matter since one knows that all this is fickle and transitory in nature.Also the preposterous,pretentious and egoistical means of behaviour found in a person become laughable traits since the believer of this view has the superior power of putting this in perspective knowing that human life is by definition transitoy in nature,as we take gradual steps towards death from the beginning of our birth.Shakespeare rightly called the world a stage and men and women merely players,who act their roles as they wait for the inevitable.If life is nothing but a flash does this make living/life futile?
Not necessarily,because a flash means that one has less time in his/her hands and therefore should live life fully-proactively,passionately and intensely.
This takes me to the other view which is that life is not just a flash.It is something more.While it is true that we continuously wait for the inevitable,it may be argued that it is in the very act of waiting that we find our existence(just like Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett's Waiting For Godot).It is the awareness that we are but mortals that gives meaning to our lives and makes it worth living passionately.The awareness that the dreary clock is ticking by, compels us to live life fully and in the best possible way.If we ignore the former viewpoint discussed in this blog,we would have infront of us the enormous task and responsibility of living sixty years (will vary from person to person but just for the sake of argument,i have taken the average lifespan of humans as 60years) on earth which is a considerable time.Life then would be measured in terms of definite numbers and will then go beyond than just being a "flash between the womb and the tomb."
While going through some material, i came across a phrase by Samuel Beckett,through which he defines life as a "flash between the womb and the tomb". Well you can agree or disagree with him.But this set my mind thinking on what life really is and how we should look at it.Those who agree with the statement which includes me,would look at the larger cosmic picture thereby comparing life on earth which can be measured in terms of a number with the universe at large which is infinite and cannot be measured against a number.Looking at it from this view, life obviously is nothing but a flash,its like a dot,a peck in the cosmos.This also entails within it the inconsequentiality of all human actions,thus making the opposition between good and evil,right and wrong,happy and sad,light and dark vanish on account of being irrelevant.This view necessarily provides peace and solace and helps one to come to terms with life in a more philosophical and hence fundamental way.The politics,the corruption,the poverty,the savagery and the rot that one finds in this world cease to matter since one knows that all this is fickle and transitory in nature.Also the preposterous,pretentious and egoistical means of behaviour found in a person become laughable traits since the believer of this view has the superior power of putting this in perspective knowing that human life is by definition transitoy in nature,as we take gradual steps towards death from the beginning of our birth.Shakespeare rightly called the world a stage and men and women merely players,who act their roles as they wait for the inevitable.If life is nothing but a flash does this make living/life futile?
Not necessarily,because a flash means that one has less time in his/her hands and therefore should live life fully-proactively,passionately and intensely.
This takes me to the other view which is that life is not just a flash.It is something more.While it is true that we continuously wait for the inevitable,it may be argued that it is in the very act of waiting that we find our existence(just like Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett's Waiting For Godot).It is the awareness that we are but mortals that gives meaning to our lives and makes it worth living passionately.The awareness that the dreary clock is ticking by, compels us to live life fully and in the best possible way.If we ignore the former viewpoint discussed in this blog,we would have infront of us the enormous task and responsibility of living sixty years (will vary from person to person but just for the sake of argument,i have taken the average lifespan of humans as 60years) on earth which is a considerable time.Life then would be measured in terms of definite numbers and will then go beyond than just being a "flash between the womb and the tomb."
At the end of it all is nothing but futility. You might just recall that theory taught by Dr. Ratnakar which which talks about thesis making it's way with anti-thesis to make way for SYNTHESIS. Life is all about that. Amounting to nothing and everything at the same time.
ReplyDeleteDear Kanika
ReplyDeleteWhile i do understand the above view, i would like you to elaborate on it for the benefit of all.
Thanks
Having a look at what you have said arun, That life is like a flash in your earlier part of the article. Then i would say why do we have to limit our views to the point of earth. Thinking many more such planets and life can be available elsewhere. Further it's not just the earth but together the sun and the earth. Though their is no life on the sun but it acts as a supporter of life. Similarly you say poverty or good or bad is transitory which means it can be eliminated. But this view is impractical in practical terms. What i want to say is that if a human being lives in a environment which is full of lechery and stuff he would continue to remain the same in those conditions. Other things have to change if life is not to remain transitory. Science has to either progress in creating a anti aging potion or something similar to that. Talking about necromancy and other life raising traditions one can't really reject those opinions as there are miracles sometimes and then the concept of supernatural force comes into effect. Anyways leave that coming back to your second view about life is not transitory. See though i might contradict myself here but i will just show you the color of this view as well. Life is not transitory right. The fact we are not aware of what will happen next and we would be alive or not the very next moment truly again represents the uncertainty of life. I am sure there would be something for you to say on this. Please do comment i will be happy to reply back.
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