What is the purpose of life? A question which comes around often amongst us when we are in a philosophical mood. And no matter how much we think about it, we are never sure that we know the answer. Or may be we know the answer but we don't understand the answer.
I had once conjectured, the purpose of life is to sustain life. This essentially comes from the field of genetics. All around one sees organisms living and dying and procreating to keep the life going on. For most of the living creatures hence, the purpose of life is pretty much about sustaining itself only. The selfish gene theory says that, the fundamental role of a gene is to spread itself all around as much as possible. They are programmed to behave like that. Why they are programmed like that? The answer is simple. Moleculer structures which are programmed to spread will take over any other kind of moleculer structure in the long run. And the history of earth itself is 5 billion years. So naturally what survive over time are genes which are fundamentally selfish in nature.
But as human beings we have got a special faculty, the ability to think and reason about the world around us. To ask such questions like why we are here, where have we come from, what are we supposed to do, and where will we go. And the fact is the more we think about such things, the more it kills us. Seems like that metaphysical questions are designed behave like a self-destructive circuits in our metal makeup.
All the gurus say that as human beings, the purpose of life is to serve others. And they say, that whenever you serve somebody else, your own happiness is guaranteed. I am not good enough to put their concepts into my own words, but I must say that they appear completely logical and sensible when I read them or listen to them.
But when it comes to translate those ideas into action, procrastination sets in. I have thounsands of doubts as to whether I am doing the right things and, doing them right. The fact is that the world will keep on going even if I don't do anything. And it will come back to the same state, even if I do something. The circle of life is always there which takes you back to the place where from you started. So why really do anything at all?
1 comment:
My key learnings are this:
1. Stop thinking too much. Start living a bit more.
2. Indriyon ko jyaadaa wash mein karne ki koshish karne ka koi sense naheen hai. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with giving your senses a bit of a free reign.
3. Be good to people. Do not hold grudges. (It is sometimes tougher than what it might appear to be. The toughest task. I think the happiest people are those who have absolutely no grudges about anything in life.)
4. In general, loosen up.
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