One of my old essays...just because I didn't post anything in a long time am posting this. Now when I read it just now I couldn't believe I wrote it...I can't even remember the meanings of a few words in it..lol..but its fun that way! :P
From the dawn of human civilization to this day, the pride of being a human has always remained the same. Times changed and so changed the circumstances, ages came and passed, and changed were the attitudes of folks, but what has remained constant is this pride, the identity of belonging to this mighty race. A day will come in time when man will be animal again. A journey back in time, to the origin; to the birth of life, to the day when first man treaded this planet. Our roots are strong; strong enough to stop us separate from the reality, strong enough to not let us drift away in the eternity; where there is no beginning and no end. How can we forget our past? It keeps peeping into the present every moment. A brief interplay of those ideas as if it were, being superimposed on the transitory present. Our past, won’t ever spare us, it would keep haunting us forever, just as it always did, is doing now, and will keep doing tomorrow; when the morrow will be today and today will be the day long past. From one point of view, we are no different; we have evolved from the primates after all, making us no different than those monkeys, stupidity and clumsiness being the most marked features. Still unsuccessful in taming our animal instincts, where do we head? Leaving behind our footmarks in time, building the milestones of each success achieved, and the most important of all, totally unaware of where we come from, where do we go? Come to think of it and reflect on the reality, the few of us understood that there is none beyond us. All that “is”, is in the here and now; all that is true is this very moment, it’s just our distorted perception that makes us conceive the one as many, and we perceive plurality in the one eternal and immutable singularity. It was same then, and not a bit changed even now, trying to catch a flying bird, leaving behind the one in hand has always been our favourite hobby. But who can help! We are monkeys nonetheless, just a little more evolved and a bit more sophisticated in our acts, that’s it. No more differences whatsoever.
Life itself is a big question, even more so, is how to live. The very thought of the answer being what we never expected it to be is somewhat irksome. We know that if we delve deeper into the ocean of existence, we will find the impeccable reality, somewhere at its bottom, but the hint of it being something totally out of the world prevents us from doing so, from even feeling the waters of the ocean, from even bothering to simply ponder on thought or imagination of its nature. Hiding behind the shadows of ignorance, we practically waste all our lifetime. Chasing false ideals, where do we end up? In the middle of nowhere, utterly confused and lost. This does create a pretty gory picture of reality, but is it really all that gloomy? Perception matters, what I may see as a half glass filled would be perceived by you as half empty. But one thing is for sure; there definitely is a way out, if at all we bother to try!
However, from the other viewpoint, we occupy the highest seat on the ladder of the degree of sentience. We boast the top position. Most superior of the animals, we claim to be the owners of this universe. But one question that consistently struck me was whether other animals believe similarly or not. Now we all know they certainly don’t. Most common of the rarely found sense can assure us about this. So what’s in us that makes us different? It’s not just like that, that we have reached till here. The answer is simple, we can think! Eureka!!! What a truth of life indeed it is! Analysing the silliest of our acts and clumsiest of the deeds, we can reach to one conclusion, it is not our achievements which make us proud, but it is this basic truth of life that we think, is where the pride has its origin. Most developed of the currently existing sentient beings, maybe we rightly deserve the right to occupy that top position and be proud. But it is this very fact, which makes us special. With great powers come great responsibilities, and perhaps Mr.Friedman was right, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” There is a price for this upgraded version of life, which we ought to pay. Creativity and imagination are the only things, which make us what we are today. Incredible although they are, with the acquisition of these faculties comes a responsibility which we ought to fulfil, and that, precisely is the price!
We fall, we stumble, but it is the fact that we get up after each fall, determined even more and ready to go for it once more, which has helped our species to survive for so many millions of years of evolution. We rise with even more confidence, ever ready to face the challenge, to finally make it our slave, marching ever forward, achieving one success after another and cherishing the victories. Pride saves the day again! One of our ancestors faced extinction because they weren’t the best of the lot, but the sacrifice didn’t go in vain. We owe them our existence today, we owe it all to them, for without their sacrifice, we would have never come about. Why then, or rather, how then, did we manage to travel so long in time? How was it possible for us to come this far? The journey was never an easy one, neither was it supposed to be. Treading through the span of millions and billions of years, we did manage to reach this point safely and sanely (although sanity is highly doubtful). But couldn’t it be the fact that we did managed to come till here, which implies that our existence serve a purpose? Couldn’t it be this very fact which is the long lost secret of existence? Devoid of divinity, as it is, in the here and now, lying bare in front of our eyes, how did we not manage to spot it before? Well, many of us did, but the others of us were too proud to pay any heed. Revisiting it though, wouldn’t it be of the utmost delight that we have finally found the grail? Perhaps we stretched our imaginations a bit too much in its search. What lied at the feet was being searched all around, everywhere else. However, now that we know it, we are at the perfect time to repay the price of being what we are. One thing is for sure; we can never get away with it. We must repay the debts of nature, and so we would. Have we another choice?
To sum it all up, the facts prove themselves. The truth is simple, “live and let live”, go against it, and we face the consequences, live by it, and we see the life! That is what our responsibility is, being not the “only” ones to be on this planet. We do not own this universe; we share it. We do not rule the existence; we are an indivisible part of it. Our role is that of the guardians of this wonderland. Our role is to ensure harmony in it. Our job is to make peace. Although an ultimate ‘Utopia’ can never be achieved, we are obliged to achieve whatever we can, reach the highest degree of perfection, get as close as we can, to that unattainable Utopia. Whatever we do, are we ready to take the responsibility? Or will we let ourselves down? Only time can tell what we do, but there are only two things, which could happen, we would either keep developing, provided we fulfil our responsibility, or face extinction. The choice is ours; after all we possess a thing called ‘free will’!
Life itself is a big question, even more so, is how to live. The very thought of the answer being what we never expected it to be is somewhat irksome. We know that if we delve deeper into the ocean of existence, we will find the impeccable reality, somewhere at its bottom, but the hint of it being something totally out of the world prevents us from doing so, from even feeling the waters of the ocean, from even bothering to simply ponder on thought or imagination of its nature. Hiding behind the shadows of ignorance, we practically waste all our lifetime. Chasing false ideals, where do we end up? In the middle of nowhere, utterly confused and lost. This does create a pretty gory picture of reality, but is it really all that gloomy? Perception matters, what I may see as a half glass filled would be perceived by you as half empty. But one thing is for sure; there definitely is a way out, if at all we bother to try!
However, from the other viewpoint, we occupy the highest seat on the ladder of the degree of sentience. We boast the top position. Most superior of the animals, we claim to be the owners of this universe. But one question that consistently struck me was whether other animals believe similarly or not. Now we all know they certainly don’t. Most common of the rarely found sense can assure us about this. So what’s in us that makes us different? It’s not just like that, that we have reached till here. The answer is simple, we can think! Eureka!!! What a truth of life indeed it is! Analysing the silliest of our acts and clumsiest of the deeds, we can reach to one conclusion, it is not our achievements which make us proud, but it is this basic truth of life that we think, is where the pride has its origin. Most developed of the currently existing sentient beings, maybe we rightly deserve the right to occupy that top position and be proud. But it is this very fact, which makes us special. With great powers come great responsibilities, and perhaps Mr.Friedman was right, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” There is a price for this upgraded version of life, which we ought to pay. Creativity and imagination are the only things, which make us what we are today. Incredible although they are, with the acquisition of these faculties comes a responsibility which we ought to fulfil, and that, precisely is the price!
We fall, we stumble, but it is the fact that we get up after each fall, determined even more and ready to go for it once more, which has helped our species to survive for so many millions of years of evolution. We rise with even more confidence, ever ready to face the challenge, to finally make it our slave, marching ever forward, achieving one success after another and cherishing the victories. Pride saves the day again! One of our ancestors faced extinction because they weren’t the best of the lot, but the sacrifice didn’t go in vain. We owe them our existence today, we owe it all to them, for without their sacrifice, we would have never come about. Why then, or rather, how then, did we manage to travel so long in time? How was it possible for us to come this far? The journey was never an easy one, neither was it supposed to be. Treading through the span of millions and billions of years, we did manage to reach this point safely and sanely (although sanity is highly doubtful). But couldn’t it be the fact that we did managed to come till here, which implies that our existence serve a purpose? Couldn’t it be this very fact which is the long lost secret of existence? Devoid of divinity, as it is, in the here and now, lying bare in front of our eyes, how did we not manage to spot it before? Well, many of us did, but the others of us were too proud to pay any heed. Revisiting it though, wouldn’t it be of the utmost delight that we have finally found the grail? Perhaps we stretched our imaginations a bit too much in its search. What lied at the feet was being searched all around, everywhere else. However, now that we know it, we are at the perfect time to repay the price of being what we are. One thing is for sure; we can never get away with it. We must repay the debts of nature, and so we would. Have we another choice?
To sum it all up, the facts prove themselves. The truth is simple, “live and let live”, go against it, and we face the consequences, live by it, and we see the life! That is what our responsibility is, being not the “only” ones to be on this planet. We do not own this universe; we share it. We do not rule the existence; we are an indivisible part of it. Our role is that of the guardians of this wonderland. Our role is to ensure harmony in it. Our job is to make peace. Although an ultimate ‘Utopia’ can never be achieved, we are obliged to achieve whatever we can, reach the highest degree of perfection, get as close as we can, to that unattainable Utopia. Whatever we do, are we ready to take the responsibility? Or will we let ourselves down? Only time can tell what we do, but there are only two things, which could happen, we would either keep developing, provided we fulfil our responsibility, or face extinction. The choice is ours; after all we possess a thing called ‘free will’!
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