Thinking about Life
Our life is a miracle, a mystery, a puzzle or a journey! It is life as a journey that is the subject of my this essay. I think that our life is like a long journey, like the one undertaken using railway services, may be like a journey from Delhi to Kanyakumari. It is a rather long journey and the train passes through several states of India a and stops at several different stations! I have undertaken such a journey! What does the traveler experience during this journey, not just the overall experience but the experience every hour of the journey?
When the train leaves the first station, the mood is of hope! Particularly if it is the first asuch journey. One is perhaps as ignorant as a child. One gets excited as the train approaches the first few stations, or as it passes through different terrains. But, after several hours when one gets used to the novelty, the excitement tends to wear off; but still all the major stations arouses once curiosity, as does the cuisine for the meals. Isn't that so as one approaches adulthood?
By the time, one is close to the destination, one is often tired and starts thinking of the arrangements there.
The scriptures of the Hindu religion(Dharmapada) recognized only four phases of life, something like four major stations in long train journey. They have been summarized by Madhu B. Wangu in an article follows:
Four Phases of Life
Depending on what kind of person you are and what stage of life you are in, Hindus believe that your life parallels a day in your life. Morning, afternoon, evening and night:as are your days, so is your life. An ideal life, Hindus say, is hundred years and it passes through four phases, each a quarter of a century long. Each phase has its demands and expects certain behavior. From the time you are born to the time you are in your mid twenties the focus of your life is being a student. Your primary responsibility is to get educated, to learn. At this stage your only obligation is to pay attention to what the teacher says or shows. Good study habits are to be cultivated. With the help of parents and teachers strong character has to be acquired. By the end of this period the graduate has good liberal education and beginner’s professional skills. The morning is over.
The afternoon, the second stage, is the time to take over the responsibilities of a householder. During this phase, men as well women are physically at their zenith. You are energetic and interested in achieving position and power and accumulating possession - car, clothes and things. The life feels fulfilled through activities that are directed outwards: sexual pleasure, children, professional success and friendly social interactions. After spending years of life delighting in the senses, the novelty and surprise begin to lose their attraction. The life seems repetitive and stale.
The evening has arrived. It is time to move on to the third phase of life– retirement. Some get stuck at stage two. They never cross the threshold to phase three. By this time you have become a grandparent. You are ready to withdraw from the immediate familial and social obligations that you have so far shouldered. You have specialized and generously given to your family and society at large. But now you realize that life should not be over before you have understood it.
The time has come to go within, to ponder, and reflect upon the meaning of life, without interruptions. This is the time to know yourself. Who am I? The “I” that you have been so close to but had no time to really be with. This is the time to get to know this “I”. You mull over what your life is about. Why were you born? why did you study, excelled in your profession and created a loving family? You reminisce how you delved into pleasures of life, loved your wife and children. At times they got sick and you got sick. You had your share of happiness and sorrow. But you struggled long, only to die too soon. You read. You spend time with the wise, with the like-minded individuals to know what does it all mean?
There is a beautiful poem written by a Jewish poet, Rabbi Alvin Fine, In a poem "Life is A Journey" he wrote:
Birth is a beginning
And death a destination
But life is a journey,
A going — a growing
From stage to stage.
From Childhood to maturity
And youth to age.
From innocence to awareness
And ignorance to knowing;
From foolishness to discretion
And then perhaps to wisdom.
From weakness to strength
Or strength to weakness–
And, often back again.
From health to sickness
And back we pray, to health again.
From offence to forgiveness,
From loneliness to love,
From joy to gratitude,
From pain to compassion,
And grief to understanding—
From fear to faith.
From defeat to defeat to defeat—
Until, looking backward or ahead,
We see that victory lies
Not at some high place along the way,
But in having made the journey,
stage by stage
A sacred pilgrimage.
Birth is a beginning
And death a destination
But life is a journey,
A sacred pilgrimage
Made stage by stage—
From birth to death
To life Everlasting.
Unlike any train journey the journey of life has a much longer time span. So, it is inevitable that one commits some mistakes! Often we regret making mistakes, but should we? Read the following, paragraph written by Daniel C. Dennett:
“Making mistakes is the key to making progress. There are times, of course, when it is important not to make any mistakes--ask any surgeon or airline pilot. But it is less widely appreciated that there are also times when making mistakes is the secret of success. What I have in mind is not just the familiar wisdom of nothing ventured, nothing gained. While that maxim encourages a healthy attitude towards risk, it doesn't point to the positive benefits of not just risking mistakes, but actually of making them. Instead of shunning mistakes, I claim, you should cultivate the habit of making them. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. You should seek out opportunities to make grand mistakes, just so you can then recover from them.
First the theory, and then the practice. Mistakes are not just golden opportunities for learning; they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning something truly new. Before there can be learning, there must be learners. These learners must either have evolved themselves or have been designed and built by learners that evolved. Biological evolution proceeds by a grand, inexorable process of trial and error--and without the errors the trials wouldn't accomplish anything. This is true wherever there is a design process, no matter how clever or stupid the designer. Whatever the question or design problem is, if you don't already know the answer (because someone else figured it out already and you peeked, or because God told you), the only way to come up with the answer is to take some creative leaps in the dark and be informed by the results. You, who know a lot--but just not the answer to the question at hand--can take leaps somewhat guided from the outset by what you already know; you may not be just guessing at random.”
I think that leading a life is much like playing Solitaire (a card game played by a solo player) on a PC. I think so after my experience of doing so on my dear PC that has Ubuntu 9.10 operating system; playing AisleRiot Solitaire and reflecting on the results of several such games. I now believe that life is as much such a card game as it is a journey. One gets various opportunities (cards) often if one does not pounce upon them and utilize them effectively to achieve success. The result is failure! But, one cannot win all games. The success depends on the sequence the cards are dealt in!! But, unlike a card game, in a game of a lifetime one can get only one deal there are no re deals.