WHY ARE THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE??

WHY ARE THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE?
One of the most irksome things about life, (My life or any one’s life) is that why is there a life at all? What if there wasn’t called life in the first place. Will we live in a fourth dimension? Is life the only medium to reason things? Or is there any other mode of existence (If there is, will it be existence?) Is death the only opposite of Life? Or is death an entrance to ‘Life’ in another sphere? Well, I am not in a suicidal mode or it is not that I am vexed with my existence. I am fighting for life the way others are and I am not complaining, as it is the Survival of the Fittest. I believe any one who using his gray matter will realize that there is much more to life than just breathing in the concoction of 21% of oxygen, 78% nitrogen and 1% other gases. Okay, lets move from the confusing questions regarding Life as such. Looking into our own lives, one finds that we all grow up (at least physically), slog like asses and study, again slog to find a proper ‘Safe’ job, keep our parents happy and settle in our life with a nice family. The ordeal doesn’t end there, the process of graying of the hair begins with our juniors growing up. Now, see to it that they are properly settled in life. In the meanwhile there is all this complains about the way things run. The neighbor lacks manners, the boss doesn’t give you your due respects, kids flunk in their exams, there is a growth in the list of visits to the doctors, the inflation goes up, there is another war coming up, blah, blah. Why this kind of ‘Living’ where one doesn’t get satisfied in any way and is in one way or the other in a catch-22 situation on his next approach? If such kind of living guarantees no ‘Total satisfaction’ then why is 95% of humanity living the way it does now? (Don’t ask about the remaining 5%, nerds like me form them) To this people will say, that no solution is a perfect one and that everything has its loopholes. I then ask, if you guys out there knew that this is not a satisfactory kind of living then why live a wretched life? Or if there is another mode of living then why not adopt it? The answer probably lies in our not trying to think individualistically. I have always believed that in Individualism lie all the answers to many if not all our problems. The common notion of ‘Follow the Herd’ is the most dangerous and yet the easiest method of self-destruction. It is very much necessary that we all do things that we believe will benefit us. After all, the very struggle for existence is based on the foundations of taking things that benefit us and eradicating things that hurt us. But, the process of surviving cannot be generalized onto a population of 6 billion. It is different for different persons. Time and again children are taught to follow the examples of the bright kid in class thereby killing the poor kid’s ability to think and act on his own. It is been this way since eternity. Probably it began when man was struggling to survive as an early man among wild creatures. And suddenly one man kills animals and provides food for his tribe. The people then revere him and now everybody wants to be like him. So, ultimately everybody is ready to be guided by another or that the tendency to be a slave to anyone regardless of the authenticity of the man. Consider the example of Russia and China. Both were in dire straits before the revolutions changed them. The tsarist regime had made the peasants a deprived lot and when Lenin came to the picture, he was readily accepted because the majority had no other option available for a better living. They blindly followed his policies in the hope for a bright future and are today a hopeless lot of people. China was staring down the barrel in 1949 and then came Mao Tse Tung promising them a strong People’s China. The result, millions of intellectuals, liberals, and individualists were killed in the state’s policy of compulsory socialism. Hitler came to power for the same reason. The humiliated Germans needed a messiah and when somebody as stern as Hitler comes and promises a bright future it is understandable that the downtrodden look unto Hitler as the messiah. The rest of the history, we very well know. The primary mistake we all make is we fail to recognize what is right and what is wrong for us. We in a way refuse to apply rationality in our actions. When we say, “I can’t do that”, the hidden statement over here is “I am not willing to do that”. This leads to a situation where we stop following our conscience and follow the easiest way out of the trouble. Well, the conclusion is that we all lead a miserable ‘Life’ out here because we don’t do by natural tendencies and a blanket of falsehood shuts the eyes of our brain. It is not necessary for us to follow the steps of a person whom the society considers as Successful. Success or a failure is determined by our own rational judgment, which is again guided by our sense of what is beneficial to us and what is not. The tag of being a successful person need not come from the mouth of a loser. To a loser the mediocre is always a superior. The standards of our actions are to be set by ourselves and we don’t need a stranger to come and tell us what is good and what is not. Even if we experience what may be a failure to us let us learn Life the hard way, at least we will have only ourselves to blame. It is imperative for us to realize that our success or failure and our present status in life are the result of our own actions. So, people out there do something about the hollow ‘Life’ that you are currently living. Let there be no regrets later.
Vivek

JEALOUSY FOR PROGRESS??

JEALOUSY FOR PROGRESS?
Jealousy – A state of mind where a sense of frustration occurs when one feels he or she feels that he is missing something that others have. Well, probably jealousy starts when admiration reaches a saturation point or may be jealousy is the peak stage that admiration can reach. One cannot actually say if jealousy always has a negative effect. It depends on the sturdiness of the person’s mind. There are people to whom jealousy drives them towards optimum performance and there is a majority, to whom jealousy takes them to a point of self-despair, a point of no return. Lets take the optimistic look of life, let jealousy inspire us to better our standards, to increase the limits of our endurance. But, here comes a twist, are we not supposed to set our own goals? I had always believed that one should not be driven the emotions of others. This is a different plane. Nobody is forcing you to change your plans, nobody is driving you, yet jealousy only reviews your already set plans. It need not kindle you to follow the way of the person you are jealous of. That defeats the purpose of individuality that ought to be safeguarded by jealousy. When you merely follow the person you are jealous of, it is nothing but the complete enslavement of the mind, of intelligence, of self-propagation of thoughts. X may be jealous of the way Y dances, but this should not drive X to follow the steps of Y. X may only be good at singing. But if he is sturdy at heart he may better his standards at singing. Then jealousy brings out the best out of the jealous. However it is to be known that the end result of jealousy is to be a feeling of satisfaction that comes from within. One should remember that the people around you tell you not to be jealous of others. But if you are and you successfully overcome pressures from within your conscience by achieving better standards, then the same people pass expert comments on you. That’s no way fair! The purpose of nurturing jealousy is not the verbal awards given by society. It should be a sense of satisfaction from within. Of passing your own judgment on your performance with the help of nothing but your conscience i.e., your brain, of the victory of individuality over mind slavery! Effectively jealousy is a path to progress as long as it gratifies your needs. But, one thing to be remembered is that it should in no way cause harm to the person you are jealous. Nobody ought to be accountable to your thoughts but you yourself. Just like the credit for a man’s success is taken by his intelligence, similarly the bearer of his failures or his negative thoughts should be he himself! No man should be the scapegoat for another’s whims or emotions! On the contrary imagine if one is in no way affected by others’ high standards, he or she will give way to mediocrity! It is the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence, and it is unlike man’s nature to give up in the race for survival. Therefore, jealousy is a need for existence, for the functioning of the thought process. So, do not succumb to ‘Never be jealous of anybody’ and lead your life for your survival.
Vivek

Be Humble... At your own peril!!

BE HUMBLE… AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
Humility, the dictionary says it means ‘to be humble’. And, what does humble mean? It means to be less proud of oneself, to perceive oneself as less important! What further fuel does one need to hate the common ideology that we all follow as a yardstick to measure one’s potential. The present form of ideology called ‘Altruism’ that we all sadly follow today is the most potential weapon of man’ quest for self-destruction! Does it make sense to anyone when some body comes and says that you have to demean yourself, lose your self-esteem and in the process be HUMBLE? The Altruist ideology believes in sacrifice of our own self-interests, interests that are chosen values that determine our happiness, our success, and above all our way of life. The society asks us to measure your success by giving to others and be penniless in turn. It doesn’t value our morals, our likings and our self-interests. To explain more, take the case of an interview where two candidates appear for a single post. One of them is poor while the other is reasonably well off. Both have their vested interests in achieving the job. Fortunately or unfortunately the better of the two receives the job. Well, the idealists of Altruism will argue that the richer of the two should ‘sacrifice’ his job for the betterment of the poorer candidate! And what, subject himself to self-humiliation? The term ‘sacrifice’ is defined in a distorted way in order that it refers to an act of losing one’s object of higher hierarchical value to an object of lower value to one’s own interests. That’s unfair means of doing things! To the society not trying to gain something for one’s own happiness at one’s own hard work is ‘Selfish’ while giving away one’s emotional well-being in some other’s interests is nobility! If one were to apply the conventional definition of ‘Selfishness’ to every action of man then the very fact that a man thinks for his own good is selfishness! For a man to reason a situation in order to achieve the best of productivity is Selfishness! For a man to analyze and modify the forces of nature to his suitability is selfishness! Where does our integrity go? By Integrity I mean a man’s potential to respect his values that in turn help a man maintain a moral code of conduct that again in turn leads him to achieve his goals which again in turn help him satisfy the needs of his life that he feels is best for his existence! To surrender to some moron’s needs is to surrender one’s integrity to the moron. It is in man’s best interests as a species entitled to fight the odds for survival to respect his values and more importantly recognize his potentials in achieving his goals. It deals with his self-esteem. When a man loses his self-esteem it means he simply stops reasoning or thinking and surrenders his conscience to the code of values set by someone else’s whims and emotions. And when one stops reasoning he loses the race of survival and will eventually lead to his living as a recluse and finally to self-destruction! Does all this mean that we all stop caring a damn about others and be mean? Not until caring of other’s interests doesn’t hamper our own morals and ethics for survival. If a man is bankrupt, one can only help him stand up own his feet till he finds his own way to betterment. It doesn’t mean we spoon feed him all his life and lose our survival tactics. However it is to be noted that every person in a man’s life is valued in a hierarchical order that suits his interests best. If a man’s brother who has the same notion of seeing things and has similar values as that of the person concerned and he falls into deep debt, then it is in the best of the man to help his brother as his life depends a lot on his brothers existence in happiness. But if some outsider undergoes the same problems then it is nobody’s problem to help him out. Consider yourself in the position, will you expect someone outside to come and help you out? It is all for one and one for all. It is a responsibility of every human to lead his life his way and subject oneself to the cheap appreciation of the Altruist society that only demeans the powers of man to live his life. In all, I will conclude saying that it is very much important for a man to realize his potentials, responsibilities, and his dignity in order to face the adversities of life. There is therefore no necessity for someone to demean himself to get admiration from a group of non-thinkers! Be proud of our existence, of your achievements, and be prepared to get the maximum of your hard work to yourself and not to sacrifice your results of your hard work for the benefit of a thankless society.
Vivek

Hypocrisy In Our Bloods!!

HYPOCRISY IN OUR BLOODS! – TOWARDS OUTSIDERS AND TO OUR CONSCIENCE Man, supposedly the chosen creature of God! A fact claimed again by himself. Such is the attitude of the CHOSEN ONE that he is self-praising and says that it was said so by God himself. As a young man coping with the shocks of realizing of what Life gives us (some nice, some painful) I have gravely realized how we as humans are the most hypocritical of all beings, in fact no creature shows such pretence as Man. We all lead a false life living under false pride. To start with the most basic of all examples, we get all kinds of silly and criminal ideas yet swear by the Holy books. When we see Ambani earning in Crores we wish we could get hold of such money by hook or by crook, yet we teach our children to be satisfied with what they have!! The basic reason why we do so is because of the element in our live called ‘Moh’ (desire). Every second, everywhere, we put on a mask of hypocrisy. It’s been the case from the time of our existence and will be so till we are extinct. Somebody tell me a person whose intentions are actually the way it appears from outside. We go to a temple in the pretext of practicing ‘Bhakti’ and what do we do there? We are conscious of the way we look, of being one among the so called religious people, of thinking that all problems will now be solved. We of think God in the same terms as a Govt. official, bribe him with a few coconuts; offer him huge amounts of money (a la Amitabh) and lo all your problems simply vanish! Do people take Him to be as materialistic as we are? We advice our children to be obedient, disciplined and what not, knowing the fact that the there is no such thing as the ‘Perfect Man’ (sue the Raymond’s people for spreading disinformation!) Look at our leaders, they speak volumes about poverty and in turn ride BMWs, live in castles guarded like Fortresses! Talk about setting examples and our leaders come first. We as civilized people have no rights to criticize people (if we are civilized that is, the term is again a product of hypocrisy!). Look at yourself (not literally) and ask the question: Do I deserve to pass comments on someone? As an individual I have realized firmly that there ought to be no such term called Selfishness, as I believe that once we have come in to the world as humans we all have this trait. Ever noticed small kids? They tend to keep their things to themselves & never show the slightest intention to be Angels unless noticed and taught them to be so by their elders. We all have it in our blood. Why do we keep friends? To achieve some happiness in his/her company, in turn our friend expects the same from us. In all, both of us crave for something that we don’t have!! And all that talk about some relations being unselfish in itself is Rubbish! Just like we cry when we are emotional, we laugh when we are happy, selfishness is a trait. One cannot remove moonlight from the moon, moonlight can only be hidden by clouds that too only momentarily. We can only be Hypocrites if we say we are not selfish, which we actually are and so there is nothing wrong if somebody pretends to be good (if somebody is a hypocrite). It’s a trait, just like selfishness!! All of you spare a moment thinking when was the time when you did something without any thoughts of keeping yourself happy?! When someone says that he does social service to see the needy happy and that he does not expect anything monetarily, people call him an Unselfish man. Fair enough, materially he may not be selfish but the desire to gain a satisfaction, happiness from others is nothing but selfishness. We all have a craving for happiness also called ‘Anand’’ , but does this Anand last long?? When we say that settling in a life with a Home, a nice Honda, with nice kids is ENOUGH; we are the biggest liars, because no amount of anything is sufficient for us!! Our ultimate aim becomes a Mercedes from a Honda!! That’s how it is for every one of us not realizing that this material happiness will get us nowhere and such happiness is forever declining with time.
VIVEK