I like the new IBM advertisement, which shows people of multiple nationalities singing a nice song and eventually asking the question - What makes you special? While I dont have any point of view on IBM or whether it really helps businesses innovate, I DO have a strong point of view on the tag line.
At last count, there were roughly six billion of us on Earth. A billon plus just in India. Mostly with very similar genetic, emotional, cultural make up. Very undifferentiated. Faceless, nameless, entityless.
Whenever I stop thinking about the mundane crises and tribulations of my own life, I often think - Can all of us just be living out routine, insignificant, humdrum lives? Is that why each individual is born - just to go through some motions? Is there a purpose every one is born to fulfill? Or is life all arbitrary - a blip on the unending canvas of the universe. A diversion for some higher being?
I strongly believe each one of us indeed has taken birth for a special purpose. If that were not so, there would be no point going through the sheer effort of life. However, each one of us must undergo some trials before we can find the purpose we seek. To draw a silly analogy, it is a bit like a treasure hunt - the reward comes at the end.
Therefore whenever I get bogged down in some trivial worry, I console myself by thinking that there is a reason why I am here. That energises me to hustle in different directions and seek the elusive purpose I was apparently born for. The world becomes an interesting place again. I find a purpose to live again.
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7 comments:
Thats exactly what keeps me going as well. Well written !
There is simply no point in going through life otherwise.
Me
Here's an argument for argument's sake
What if human life is a parasite on planet earth
We definitely have the charactristics
We suck a lot of the planet's resources.
In return we don't give anything back (so we don't have a symbiotic relationship)
We are growing indiscriminately...damaging the surface of the planet in the process.
Now in this context - what if we are all born (and reproduce) just to keep the parasite alive (like millions of locust born to constitute a swarm)
What if the talk about us being born-with-a-purpose and our life's-journey-in-search-of-the-purpose are creations of our fertile mind - to keep the mind in control and to console the heart. What if its a dissonance reduction excercise by the human mind.
'Life is a tale told by an idiot ,full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'-shakespeare.
I see life not as one span of n yrs but as a 24 hour period. our joys and rewards all are concentrated in that time , it is thus the day that is inmportant,rest everything is meaningless.so, one sometimes begins life (read -day) afresh or one carries forward something from the day before . each day one finds new things, new thoughts, new challenges, new solutions and one sings in joy that one is alive. the day there is nothing new, one's life is over.
the point is -it is here and now -rest everything is meaningless.
but the 'here and now' will last quite some time.so why not make the most of it:)
if at the end of the day u can say 'i have lived the day well' you are a happy man.if you can start each day with a song, you are a happy man.
v
nearing your midlife crisis so soon???? don't worry, i also get such thoughts.. and i think this is the beginning of our mid lives.. and the crises.. wonder if blogging will help avoid this crisis... hmmm
never mind.. just enjoy!!!
"Victory Is Mine"
Dude, please go watch Matrix again and you will know the purpose of life :)
Take it easy buddy. The purpose of life is not important. Actually living your life is.
It is not the purpose that finds us (and make our lives worth living) but we have to find purpose for which we really want to exist. So you cannot sit back and wait for it but strive to find a purpose to make each and every day worthwhile.
i have come to the conclusion that life has no purpose. have seen enough roaches for that.
i also do not understand the "living" left in all the comments.
living, in other animals, is the same as surviving. what am i doing besides that?
1. work - we work to survive or, if enough khaanaapoori, making a better society meaning better human (see 3) and natural coexistence (which again means survival)
2. social service - this amounts to facilitating others' living and, hence, is just a recursive loop
3. Ultimately, human's instincts can be distinguished from the sole instinct of survival with art and desire for good sex just for sex's sake
Hence, if living has to have a purpose, seek good sex and leave a work of art behind
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