Have you ever wondered that what we are doing every day, in each and every moment, is actually not accountable to us? Have you ever thought that the whole concept of life, success, happiness and love is very temporary? Well, what we live and for what we exist, is nothing but an illusion, which is very hard to grasp and understand; but yet we never fail to enjoy each scruple of second in that illusive sphere, because what happens beyond, is not going to be embedded in our memory. Life is nothing but a part of a very giant circle, in whose circumference we are all trapped. This very concept gives rise to the understanding, that we are just void and all the allied aspects of life; the State, the economy, society, science and every complex mechanism are indeed very short-lived in nature.
We are just a physical body, which is entrapped into a labyrinth of illusive visions. Through constant changings, the very static nature of the humans is actually more dynamic to his surroundings. We all are the beings of very substantial existence and thus it is very rightful to say to say that we are not living for the earth; rather we are nothing, because the very dilemma of our existence is on the verge of question.
Then what needs to be done?
Are we not beings on earth with emotions and reason?
No, we are alone.
No matter in how densely populated places we live or no matter amid how many family members we spend our time, at the end of the day, at the end of the life; we are just one. Only one, with nothing to lose or gain, just swinging like a pendulum to fulfil the unreal and mundane tasks of what we call a ‘living’.
We are a single unit. No one has the logic to disagree with this. We all actually live for ourselves and just have the veil of being ‘societal’, to sustain ourselves. Then what propels us to be in the worldly institutions?
It is nothing but the game of mind. This is how our mind tricks our brains to see, feel and observe how life manifests on earth with an importance. Yet we keep on to be fooled by our mind because we have adjusted it so that it can change its dimensions to fit in the adaptiveness of our nature.
But we all have ends to meet and wants to be fulfilled.
This is the strangest thing in life. If we actually are nothing or a part of a single loop, then the question of needs and goals does not arise, but since we are here in this planet; though under an illusion, the purpose of life shall be well defined so that we can find our peace and balance amidst this illusion.Thus, here arises all the worldly concepts of life, love, happiness, the State, society and all the institutions which have engulfed us today so much, that often we forget to realize about our own self and often wonder who we are and why we are here. The point in saying this is to highlight the fact that whatever we do or study in this world is actually meaningless at the end. It is just the temporary mirth of carrying out the role of being a ‘human’ on earth.
All around the world, we have offices, chairs and high-ranking designations of people. The people may come and go, they may die and their post gets replaced by another one; A person may get lost in the hurdle of securing that position, but none is immortal. We say it ‘peace’; we say the end as ‘death’; but is it really peace? The peace which he needed was lost in this world of materialism. Therefore, the time which we spend while on earth is truly exclusive; but alas! None understands the depth of self-discovery in this world. We now have a world in which, the mortal beings are divided, one hates one another, and big organizations have to work hard to promote ‘peace’.
Since it is just a loop, it’s better get back to the term ‘illusion’.
If we disentangle the apparent sphere of ‘reality’, it is eternal and unreality, or illusion, is that which is temporary. Though the illusion does exist, but it is pretentious in the sense that it’s not eternal. Yes, Illusion exists, but the reason concerned with the illusive life is actually not real is because it is not eternal. It’s like a vast imaginative dream. A dream happens, in our subconscious mind, and we deem is as unreal. Just like that, our life or our soul, in a material body is a dream which is being visioned by some divine soul. Just at the end, we may realize that what we call as ‘death’ is actually the moment in which we wake up from our dream. Thus, there is no reality as such and what we see is a dream or an illusion.
So, in actual sense, reality and illusion both are segregated by time. One is eternal while the latter is temporary. Everythingperceived in the light of eternity will be manifested for such a brief period of time, that it is as if it did not take place. Same is the scenario with our seemingly illusive life and its frugal importance in the universe. If we put our meagre lifespan in years and the duration of the existence of the whole celestial system, we actually do not acquire a place in the ratio.
But we are all living and striving to attain success in this illusion only. Because we want to enjoy and ‘live’ every moment of this illusion of life. We cannot think out if this illusion and we all know this and for this reason we have enumerated ways to divert this illusive world into something meaningful and temporary, and mask this temporary existence by another long running chain- ‘generation’.
As humans, we are mould by generations to hold onto societal usages, religion, customs and politics even at the price of our well-being. From these factors our personality is shaped, and the process of this personality development is unique to each of us. Throughout our lives, we thustend to propagate these distorted practices and patterns which greatly influences our perceptions of reality. At the end of the day, we finally realize that our whole perception about the working of reality was the illusion itself all along and not originally the reality; hence we get cheated by ourselves this time too.
A thousand years will be passed by this and we will be tired of taking birth and dying and living like this in this world. The society, the State and the people will change but it is sad to think that we all will not be here permanently. Only the temporary happiness or sadness, the false notion of success and joy will lure us to cling on to the sand of earth and ‘live’ for another few moments.
Therefore, we just cannot sit and wait for death to happen. We must lead a meaningful life to make the tenure of life worthy of being on earth. As once enumerated by Paramahansa Yogananda, the purpose of life is to seek that divine joy which gives meaning and purpose to life. We should plan our life; no matter how short it is but mapping out the path of our desires will surely yield mind satisfying and peaceful goals. Such goals will not lead to materialistic happiness; but rather will sooth our soul and will promote an immortal joy in the mortal self of ‘life’
John Keats had once in his ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ emphasized how little joyous and feeble attempts to promote peace in life by a little bird is immortal, but our lives, full of worldly complicacies are always temporary, because we have made it to be illusive and we want to escape from it.
Escaping from this illusion?
Entering the reality?
Yes, we have the last resort to enter the reality and to break this illusion and that is ‘death’. We finally all have to return to the other end of the loop and meet our death. Perhaps in all our life, the moment of death is point which have the shortest distance with reality. Thus, we complete our dream to come to ‘life’ and will finally be returning to where we belong and which is not explainable by any of us.
Here ends the illusive life and what all we have achieved?
Many things.
But what we have with us as we enter reality?
well zero.
That’s all about life. On the completion of the full exhaustive loop of illusion, we are left with nothing. All we gain is ‘Zero’.
Nonetheless, amid this ‘Zero’ there exists hope, there exist aspirations, dreams, and the subtle zest to reach the ending and again start over.
Thus, a ‘Zero’ is not just a ‘Zero’, rather a cumulative sum of our whole life which is at the end negated by our awakening.
And this awakening is called ‘Death’.
Isn’t it a happy-ending?
I would like to end with some lines from Charles Bukowski’s didactic poem “The Laughing Heart”:
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
By: Upamanyu Basu
Write and Win: Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
