This article was written by one of our batchmates H.Raajesh-a freakin' genius & one of the most carefree guy I ve ever see in my life.It was supposed to be personal but I somehow got my hands on it from his computer & instead of his insistence that I delete it,I somehow duped him & it's been with me for the last 3 years.I have found it to be one of the best pieces I have ever read .It's a topic which, at least,I am constantly thinking about.Maybe the band Kansas had an answer to this topic in their immensely beautiful,philosophical & heart-breaking song "Dust in the wind"-All we do just crumbles to the ground but we refuse to see.For all we are all dust in the wind.Anyway,here goes the article in it's original form.
LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
What is life? The ability to breathe, grow, reproduce, etc. which people, animals and plants have before they die, the state of being alive as a human, an individual person’s existence.
This is what the dictionary has to say about the funy word ‘life’, which probably is the most mysterious of the millions of words available in the dictionary. We all live or I should say dwell in this planet we gave the name earth. Well we all believe that living is not just being alive, but it has some greater meaning. But I am not quite sure how many in this, let me say 6 billion strong and growing human race, actually mean to live beyond dwelling.
With all our scientific accomplishments or whatever they call it, it is generally accepted fact that life has been there on this planet for millions of years. The human beings are the most recent addition to the huge list of living things on this planet. Many species have come and vanished. Given such a broad perspective of what has happened in the past, now I put up the question. Do we understand life and our existence?
We are the rulers of this planet! Or that is generally what we claim. Are we the real rulers, is a question that we have to ask ourselves. As an individual existing in this planet or forced to exist let me say, what is our goal? Why do we try so hard to accomplish the millions of things that we do? Is what we do relevant? Are our ideologies correct? Are we truly mature enough to understand this world? Is doing something revolutionary to get a place in the history text books is all that our life is all about? Do we really care to know about all that exists in this universe? Is complicating our lives the only thing we can do in the name of progress? Is having sex and growing kids, who in the future will be thinking the very same questions our life? Are we no different than animals? .........if these questions have never occurred to you before, it is time to think on these questions, because life is damn short.
A day might seem to extend beyond infinity and while in your death bed life seems as short as a blink of an eye. Life seems meaningless, u meet a girl and it gets back all its color only to loose it all again in some other point of life. It is quite surprising how the human brain functions. Confidence, love, emotion are a few of its mysteries. How different life would be without our brains. Well this little piece of mass on the top of our head seems to be the one thing we have miserably failed to understand. Is this feeling reserved for humans? Are animals more gifted? It is a question that we might never be able to answer. I am not sure if we are mature enough.
Well in spite of all these questions on my head I am breathing in my room typing this piece, elsewhere kids are being born as I type, elsewhere people are dying, loving, having fun, making out, getting laid, eating, sleeping, playing, gambling and so on. But I am probably the only one doing such an act at his instant. Should I be happy to be doing so, being different? Am I really different? Are these not the mysteries that our ancestors have tried to answer and failed. Will my efforts to answer them be in vain too? Or are the answers too complicated for others to understand? Does everyone really need to understand these complicated stuffs? Does living truly involve understanding such complicated things or is it too simple that I fail to notice it? Or I may be mad…a nice possibility! So we are back to the basic question… what exactly is life?
I guess it up to an individual to answer the question since it might actually have billions of possible answers according to the individual’s positioning in this world. So I guess I just have to find my own answer to life that pleases me. Does that make me rational? Am I right? Are there other people who think like me? Or am I just wasting my time? Or is life a waste of time? Is existence meaningless? Or am I like an ant in the ant hill, worrying about this world that can be disturbingly unpredictable and is probably an insignificant piece of junk in a world that is so beyond my scope of understanding or anyone’s scope of understanding I might say.
No matter what I think, I have been gifted with my mind and its ability to think. So if I am to assume that existence is meaningful, then my flow of thoughts must be so too. If existence is meaningless then meaning will loose its meaning and significance. Am I waiting to wake up from some sort of coma to live in an altogether different reality? Hmmm or am I just confusing myself by asking silly and meaningless questions?
Well the human mind is certainly some piece of art. Man can find meaning in meaningless things. Probably the purpose of complicating out life to such an extent, marriage, religion and family is to protect fragile minds like mine from such thoughts. No wonder people say ignorance is bliss. Should we protect our future generations from such confusion by not having them or should we have them and let them experience the same things that we have. Are we truly helping them? After all, my son will be a part of me. So do I want a part of myself stay back in this temporal world, experience pain and happiness and all the other emotions and undergo this confusion? May be I am questioning the very definition of life and the driving force for existence. May be now, I am jealous of people who do not have to think of all this stuff.
So now … have I understood what life is? Have you? Or is it necessary to really understand life? After all we do a lot of stuff without our consciousness actually working on them. And notably we do things right I should say than when we do things consciously. So is consciousness a gift or a curse? Am I actually converging to an answer? Or later on in my life am I going to be laughing, reading my own piece of writing?
Should I or will I or do I understand life? I don’t really know, do I!!!!!!!
H.RAAJESH
Student, NIT jamshedpur
05/11/2006
LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
What is life? The ability to breathe, grow, reproduce, etc. which people, animals and plants have before they die, the state of being alive as a human, an individual person’s existence.
This is what the dictionary has to say about the funy word ‘life’, which probably is the most mysterious of the millions of words available in the dictionary. We all live or I should say dwell in this planet we gave the name earth. Well we all believe that living is not just being alive, but it has some greater meaning. But I am not quite sure how many in this, let me say 6 billion strong and growing human race, actually mean to live beyond dwelling.
With all our scientific accomplishments or whatever they call it, it is generally accepted fact that life has been there on this planet for millions of years. The human beings are the most recent addition to the huge list of living things on this planet. Many species have come and vanished. Given such a broad perspective of what has happened in the past, now I put up the question. Do we understand life and our existence?
We are the rulers of this planet! Or that is generally what we claim. Are we the real rulers, is a question that we have to ask ourselves. As an individual existing in this planet or forced to exist let me say, what is our goal? Why do we try so hard to accomplish the millions of things that we do? Is what we do relevant? Are our ideologies correct? Are we truly mature enough to understand this world? Is doing something revolutionary to get a place in the history text books is all that our life is all about? Do we really care to know about all that exists in this universe? Is complicating our lives the only thing we can do in the name of progress? Is having sex and growing kids, who in the future will be thinking the very same questions our life? Are we no different than animals? .........if these questions have never occurred to you before, it is time to think on these questions, because life is damn short.
A day might seem to extend beyond infinity and while in your death bed life seems as short as a blink of an eye. Life seems meaningless, u meet a girl and it gets back all its color only to loose it all again in some other point of life. It is quite surprising how the human brain functions. Confidence, love, emotion are a few of its mysteries. How different life would be without our brains. Well this little piece of mass on the top of our head seems to be the one thing we have miserably failed to understand. Is this feeling reserved for humans? Are animals more gifted? It is a question that we might never be able to answer. I am not sure if we are mature enough.
Well in spite of all these questions on my head I am breathing in my room typing this piece, elsewhere kids are being born as I type, elsewhere people are dying, loving, having fun, making out, getting laid, eating, sleeping, playing, gambling and so on. But I am probably the only one doing such an act at his instant. Should I be happy to be doing so, being different? Am I really different? Are these not the mysteries that our ancestors have tried to answer and failed. Will my efforts to answer them be in vain too? Or are the answers too complicated for others to understand? Does everyone really need to understand these complicated stuffs? Does living truly involve understanding such complicated things or is it too simple that I fail to notice it? Or I may be mad…a nice possibility! So we are back to the basic question… what exactly is life?
I guess it up to an individual to answer the question since it might actually have billions of possible answers according to the individual’s positioning in this world. So I guess I just have to find my own answer to life that pleases me. Does that make me rational? Am I right? Are there other people who think like me? Or am I just wasting my time? Or is life a waste of time? Is existence meaningless? Or am I like an ant in the ant hill, worrying about this world that can be disturbingly unpredictable and is probably an insignificant piece of junk in a world that is so beyond my scope of understanding or anyone’s scope of understanding I might say.
No matter what I think, I have been gifted with my mind and its ability to think. So if I am to assume that existence is meaningful, then my flow of thoughts must be so too. If existence is meaningless then meaning will loose its meaning and significance. Am I waiting to wake up from some sort of coma to live in an altogether different reality? Hmmm or am I just confusing myself by asking silly and meaningless questions?
Well the human mind is certainly some piece of art. Man can find meaning in meaningless things. Probably the purpose of complicating out life to such an extent, marriage, religion and family is to protect fragile minds like mine from such thoughts. No wonder people say ignorance is bliss. Should we protect our future generations from such confusion by not having them or should we have them and let them experience the same things that we have. Are we truly helping them? After all, my son will be a part of me. So do I want a part of myself stay back in this temporal world, experience pain and happiness and all the other emotions and undergo this confusion? May be I am questioning the very definition of life and the driving force for existence. May be now, I am jealous of people who do not have to think of all this stuff.
So now … have I understood what life is? Have you? Or is it necessary to really understand life? After all we do a lot of stuff without our consciousness actually working on them. And notably we do things right I should say than when we do things consciously. So is consciousness a gift or a curse? Am I actually converging to an answer? Or later on in my life am I going to be laughing, reading my own piece of writing?
Should I or will I or do I understand life? I don’t really know, do I!!!!!!!
H.RAAJESH
Student, NIT jamshedpur
05/11/2006
Comments
Our emotions... the way we feel and what all goes into our minds...
Scientifically, there is an answer to this... It is called 'Grandmother's effect' (there is a whole post on this that I wrote on Yahoo 360, I will post that.)
otherwise- I always feel, that no one can know, come what may what the other being is feeling or thinking... had that been so easy... complexities wouldn't have been a part of our existance...