Robert
J. Hastings had written an extra-ordinarily nice poetic piece titled ‘The
Station’ which was a massive hit among readers years back. It can be read here:
http://robertjhastings.net/
Hastings,
in this crisp and touching piece, correctly points out that ‘the station
constantly outdistances from us’. There is no ‘eventual’ station which when
reached will make us happy, rather, it’s the journey to the ‘station’ which
needs to be enjoyed and lived fully before the ‘station’ arrives. It is very
true for each one of us for the simple reason that anxieties and uncertainties
in our life never cease to end. We run out of time and embrace death soon
enough in the hassles of our daily life which we cannot avoid, paradoxically. It
is indeed the journey, seriously, which needs to be lived – to climb more
mountains, to swim more rivers, to enjoy more morning sunshine, to listen to
birds’ chirps, to take more evening walks, to hug our dear ones more – all these
truly embellish our otherwise super-transient life with so much of meaning, so
much of beauty and serenity. While in school, we are excited about a college
life full of ‘freedom’ and ‘coolness’, but while in college, worries of
securing a job or establishing one’s career suck up our life’s colors. While in
higher studies or in job after marriage, responsibilities of raising kids and
saving enough bank balances for their future keep us occupied. Hence, Hastings
is right when he says that instead of waiting for an ‘ultimate’ destination to
provide us ‘true’ happiness, we should rather live and try to extract happiness
en route. It is the ‘present’ moment as wise ones say, which needs to be lived.
I am perhaps ‘trying’ to extract colors and joy en route the journey, literally,
as is seen in the picture, fully enjoying the eye-soothing sight of soft
orange-yellow hues of the trees adorning the fall season besides getting a
picture of myself clicked against such an unforgettably beautiful background,
the journey taken referred to in this context (pictures) being my daily walk to
the clean-room (sigh!!). [It was supposed to be humorous, but instead
highlighted my poor sense of humor.]
‘Life’
is very uncertain in term of its duration, for we do not know when we shall
die, and once we die, it’s all over for us. It doesn't matter if someone
remembers us or praises us or makes us ‘immortal’ due to our achievements (if
any), for, we are no more – our consciousness, our ‘I am’ feeling, our ‘It is
me’ identity. Irrespective of what various religions claim, no one has ever
come back from after death to tell us what conclusively lies after death, and
so, whether there is heaven/hell or whether we take re-births is something
completely (scientifically) non-provable. Any extent of debate, justification
or argument in favor or against ‘life after death’ is absolutely nonsensical in
nature and a waste of time. As of now, what we know for sure is that after
death, we cease to exist, and vanish, forever. We never come back. Period.
Still,
‘life’ demands to be lived. Challenges demand to be overcome. Just because we
are going to perish into nothingness one day does not mean we stop working and
wait for our end. And the interesting part is that, we do not know when our ‘end’
will arrive. The innocent people killed in the Beirut car explosion yesterday,
for instance, did not know the previous day that they were going to embrace
death the very next day. Instead, they were working, as usual, living life to
the fullest perhaps. And then, suddenly, with absolutely no warning, embraced
death due to the activities of some pathetically moron and brainless people. The
crown of creation, as we know it, is – we, humans. We exhibit such
contradictory behavior which defies any logic, any rationality. Barbaric and
worse-than-animal behavior is still shown by a lot of people all across the
world, who supposedly take pleasure and pride in brutally killing innocent
people for the sake of some absolutely stupid and moronic ideas, which in turn
are ignited by some vicious circles of hatred and anger fueled by cheap and
pathetically distorted concepts of communalism, caste, religion, nationality,
etc. The lady covered in blood and being carried away, for instance, did no one
any harm, I believe. 
For what crime of hers is she covered in blood due to the
explosion? On the same day that this explosion killed innocent people, millions
of miles away on Mars, the rover Curiosity is scanning Martian soil, examining
the ‘shiny’ objects it has found buried in Martian soil. What a contrast of
human activities! One hand, an innocent lady is smeared in blood testifying the
existent barbaric and zero-brain nature of some worse-than-beasts ‘human beings’
while on the other hand, the indomitable spirit of the human brain and its
ability to push frontiers of human knowledge is testified millions of miles
away! This only highlights the bizarre and super-complicated nature of human
beings. The complex maze of economic, socio-political, geographical and other
existential problems staring at humanity’s face does not allow us, humans, to
pause and think of all human beings as belonging to just one goddamn race, or
to think of how fragile our planet is and how precious human lives are.
Why
do we all (mostly) want to live long? Why does (almost) no one want to die at
an early age of say, 40 or 50? Is there any purpose of living till 100, or 120?
If yes, what? Is it the wish of seeing one’s children and grandchildren living
their lives happily, or is it the wish of ‘enjoying’ ‘life’ and the world &
nature around us? Is it the fear of vanishing into nothingness for eternity
which forces us to wish that we live longer? We don’t want to perish forever,
for eternity, with absolutely no chance of coming back with absolutely no part
of ‘us’ or our consciousness staying behind, do we? Perhaps that is why we want
to delay death. Personally speaking, I wish to delay my death too, given an
option. And I do not wish it for any typical reason like amassing wealth or trying
to earn fame or raising a ‘happy’ family as I was telling to one of my friends
yesterday. The only and only reason I wish I die as late as possible is, I
strongly wish to see or witness how much human civilization progresses in terms
of science & technology before I leave this life & this world forever.
I wish to see before I die, if there is any major breakthrough in physics that
can lead to close-to-speed-of-light travel or lead to understand ‘who’ gave
charge to an electron and ‘why’ so much; I wish to see how far technology
reaches – if any path-breaking invention replaces ICs and transistors in our
electronic devices; I wish to see if we conclusively detect ‘life’ outside of
earth or if we conclusively detect/communicate with an advanced alien species
in another planet; I wish to see if humans start colonizing Mars and start
flying outside of solar system. Once I die, I will miss out all these fun, all
these super-exciting things that await discovery/invention. But unfortunately,
that’s how life is – I shall perhaps not have the fortune to see and witness
all these marvels happening. Even legends like Shakespeare did not have the
fortune of seeing humans talk to each other while being separated by thousands
of miles, just as Einstein did not live to see how e-connectivity (internet)
has changed our lives at present times. We have
to die, and let our future generations take our knowledge and achievements
forward, discovering new laws of nature and applying them to innovate new
technological marvels. And then perhaps, one fine day in the (hopefully close)
remote future, our future generations will be able to understand ‘what’ death
really is, and ‘where’ we go after we die, and who knows, may be able to bring
back dead people to life, or understand what ‘life’ actually is, if we are
designed or if we are a result of billions of years of spontaneous chemical
reactions on a rocky planet. Perhaps.
nice red Diggi!
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