Deciphering Life - I

Are we happy when the world around us changes to our liking, or does our world change because we changed the way we think about the world around us, bringing happiness?

I always was seeking happiness. There were reasons why I was seeking it. I wanted to be free, free from worries, from financial instability, from emotional instability… I wanted to be accepted by the world as a person who has achieved something, which others could not. When I look back, at the past few years, it was never the same. Three years ago, I was happy with what I did, never cared for what people thought of me, and did not care where life was taking me. But I was not happy then. My heart was in an emotional turmoil, and the constant longing which made my heart wrench in pain. I did not know why life was so unfair. Probably I was ignorant about the ways of life. Ignorance brings pain, and pain makes us seek for wisdom, and probably the mission of living through life is about gaining wisdom through experiences.

When I am alone and try to decipher this entire concept of life, it becomes very intriguing. With around 6 billion people spread across the planet, each one of them is striving to live and love. To survive and to be accepted. Probably these are the two simple things that everyone in their basic DNA would define as their definition to live. But as they are put in the complex world of societal hierarchy, things get complicated and the meaning of life changes for each one and the concept of life takes up myriad forms.

The soul is the essence of every human being. Body - the matter. Matter can change forms but the soul always remains the same. Thus in a weird way, the body becomes the medium that connects the world within, i.e. the soul, with the world outside. The body is the medium, which educates the soul, though the experiences of life. The body teaches the soul and makes it wise, first by being a son or daughter, then a husband or wife, later a father or mother.

With the realms of this concept, Life can be divided into three parts. Childhood, Youth and Parenthood. Youth probably is the link between childhood and parenthood. Childhood gives you an experience of parenthood, by being loved. It gives you certain definitive points that define your existence in this society. Youth brings in the brief transformation, which makes you experience everything about love before you enter into the next phase of life of parenthood where you give unconditional love. The cycle thus gets completed. What you receive, you have to give it back. The world is in balance. The inner world with the external world.

Concept of life becomes even more interesting when you look at how symbolism and metaphors in ancient literature bridges science with mythology. Shiv and Shakti are two manifestations of one being. One idea. Male and Female. The male defines the soul because it has the capability of giving life outside itself while the feminine defines the ‘matter’ because it has the ability to give life within itself. This concept can completely break the hierarchical society rules, which have been prophesizing superiority of the male over the female. In actuality, no one can be termed superior. For, the existence of one is needed to validate the other.

Life within these confines of simplicity looks so beautiful, but the moment it is thrown into the present, with a lot of prerequisite rules that define the society, life becomes complicated. No other living being other than humans think before they act. They act when they feel like. They hunt and kill when they are hungry. They sleep when they are sleepy, they make love when they feel the urge to, and die when it is time. They do not play with nature and modify things around them to delay death. They accept what life offers them. They live in the present. But we humans plan for the future and dwell in the past.

We do everything possible under the sun to live according to our convenience, force ourselves against nature, to fulfill our desires. The desire to live, to control, to manipulate. In our desire to modify what should have been to what should be.

Probably that is what the difference is between humans and other living beings – Desire.

Desire might be the reason for everything. And nothing.