Thursday, April 10, 2008
~suchitra
"What is the need for purpose? Why do we seek a purpose in everything we do and why do we feel lost without it? Can life be without a purpose, is there a purpose for everything? Can we live a life which has no purpose?"At the outset, my apologies, if I seem to ramble on a little too much in here. I am committing the first thoughts that rise to my mind on paper, and order is not very much in order here.
We, that is to say, every man/woman who has lived or is living on this earth, seek a purpose because we cannot reconcile ourselves to the fact that everything that exists (or does not exist), including ourselves, has no special significance. We do not want to accept the fact that our lives are intrinsically meaningless, and the loss of that life, that is death, does not mean anything. The contradiction is in the fact that our lives actually mean so much to us, but in the end, they are not really as ‘special’ as we would like them to be.
The question is, why would I want an external purpose, and external justification for my life. I think the answer is this: that without purpose, we ourselves mean nothing to us, and any purpose that we create for ourselves, would in some ways seem just a random illusion to us. An external purpose would give us a destination.
The thinking animals that we are, even the dullest amongst us cannot do without asking ‘why’. The reason for this is something that fascinates me as a student of biology. Nature’s amazing when it comes to energy conserving mechanisms. Nothing is done by nature which eats up more energy than it has to. In such a set up, to actually understand the fact that there are so many life networks (and ‘many’ is a terrible understatement if you consider the sheer number of microorganisms, ranging from viruses to bacteria to fungi to protozoans to annelids to birds to mammals.) existing at this point of time, in some steady state, on our tiny planet is in itself an astounding experience. So the question arises: why is there so much of negative entropy? Is there a reason why these pockets of energy which actually have the power of perpetuation of something like itself exist? If there’s no apparent purpose, then why does it exist without purpose? Isn’t the logical conclusion that it should not exist? Why should something that should not actually exist, exist? I hope you get what I’m saying; there’s a contradiction between what’s logically the result and the practical experience.
The best part is what the paradox means to a thinking animal like man. Logically, he should not even be alive. He knows this by the power of his mind, which is a consequence of his being alive. So what’s the point of the little things of his life? What’s the point with say, whether he takes a bath this morning or he does not? What’s the difference whether he does the work he likes or not? What matters whether he follows what he thinks or goes by what people tell him? And indeed, what does it matter whether he has kids or not? Why should he pass his genes on? All I know is nature dictates it, but I do not know why nature dictates it. Now, the trump. What does is matter whether I am alive or not? At this point, I am too tangled up to move on.
This is where religion steps in. A purpose-dictating God gives you a ready made purpose. You are saved from the hellish torture of too much questioning. All you need to do, is to believe. After all, as we saw in the other post, everything does square back to belief at some level. If it can give me peace of mind and if I can convince myself enough to believe, why not? When I see the believers rewarded with the heaven of ready made answers and sound sleep unracked by thoughts of this kind, why not?
But we cannot will ourselves to believe if we don’t really. It is like how we cannot will ourselves to not believe if we do. But life without a purpose still seems scary. So, make one up. Talk about karma. Fate. Destiny. Your life’s already been written. You are following a pre-written path. Nothing’s your fault, ever. And then talk about being on earth to do good for the others. (It still beats me how so much of evil could be on earth if each of us were created to ‘do good’!!!) Talk about patriotism. Communism. Nihilism. Whatever. Make something else higher than yourself. I guess the best part about ‘religion’ is the fact that you can really be your own God at the end of the day with religion.
Predefined purpose gives you immunity from blame. You did the thing because it was your karma. Nothing personal.
There’s a world of a difference between a reason to live and a purpose of life. A reason to live is personal. It involves the journey rather than the destination. I hop onto a train at the Lighthouse with a friend and ride all the way to Tambaram chatting with her. And then I hop on to another train at Tambaram and return back to the Lighthouse. My travel had no destination, if you notice. It was without purpose, but the reason was the time and space obtained for sharing her company.
A purpose is something that’s universal, that can answer my question about the purpose of my existence and yours, at one go. It talks about an end, a coomon end to different meandering journeys.
One thing that I have noticed. A life lived with reasons, but without purpose, is not necessarily happy. Because the thought comes up: what is the happiness the reason gives me for? I am not sure if this is a common phenomeneon, but personally, I have not been able to accept the ‘high’s of happiness just like that without knowing what the purpose to the whole thing is; logically, there must be one. The need still rules.
But with a purpose, even imaginary, even borrowed, there is bliss, even if the reasons are not there. The best example I can think for this situation is from life; the time I prepared for my boards about four years back. Thinking about it now, the reason was not even one; it was something you did because you were expected to write your boards at 17, no one questioned ‘why’. But the purpose was there…the purpose was very simple. Get the maximum marks possible in all the subjects. Once the purpose was defined, every small step was automatically taken with the purpose in mind. Everything from a meal to watching a movie to using a particular pen was decided based on thinking how it would affect the outcome of the desired purpose to be fulfilled. Life fell into picture very quickly. It was very simple and very straight-forward. The best part was, there was no time to think of anything else, so there was nothing but work and the joy of work, even if the work was meaningless in the first place. People in armies speak of single minded devotion to their work and the higher purpose they perceive of protecting their people; I guess that is also purpose without reason.
In the end, purpose matters. Simply because it gives you and end, and it decides the means to the end. One path out of a thousand choices is only to be taken to realize that purpose. So, you are spared the necessity of making a choice, one is already made for you.
Why do we seek a purpose in everything we do and why do we feel lost without it?If there’s no destination the journey becomes meaningless. All I know is it does, I have no idea why.
Can life be without a purpose, is there a purpose for everything?Can we live a life which has no purpose?"Aren’t we living it?
