Thoughts Unlocked

Nihilist: The world is pointless. It means nothing .It is here only because of an explosion that happened billions of years ago. There is no higher purpose, no aim and no final relevant end to humankind’s existence on earth.

The Dude: Huh… What were you saying again? By the way, this white Russian is marvelous. Cheers

Nihilist: I am saying that God is dead. There is no one to guide us. Also there is no free will, only what we are conditioned to do over time. Thus we can’t know what is good or evil. Thus all morality is baseless. How can we live in such a world?

The Dude: Yeah I get what you are trying to say. It is all due to the bloody government. They got the country into the useless war in the 60’s. I always said it was a shitty thing to get into but nobody listened. See, now it is so difficult for me to score my grass…

Nihilist: Yes, the government, the church. Everyone. They want to mislead us into thinking and believing that what they preach and want us to adhere to means something and is important. But it is not. It means nothing.

The Dude: Although the quality of milk you get these days has improved. What brand of milk did you put in this one?
Nihilist: We need to give meaning to our lives. We need to reject all that is thrust upon us. But then whatever meaning and purpose we give will again conform in a way to what was and is imposed on us. Since there is no free will. So it is hopeless. I am doomed, mankind is doomed. As the great philosopher said, it is the greatest crisis of humankind. There is no escape. There are no answers. There is no solution.

The Dude: What is the problem man! Everything OK with you?
Nihilist: Were you even listening to what I was saying?

The Dude: Sorry but I am kind of high right now. Still I got most of what you were trying to say. Here is what I feel. You see, I knew all this way back. Now, you can either go on thinking and fretting and doing your sad philosopher routine over and over again. Or you can choose to ‘Take it easy’.

You can either try, in vain, to find some higher meaning in life or go with the flow and enjoy what you can and when you can. When it is a given that all this world means nothing, then live your life that way you want to. Don’t conform to any rules or traditions or hierarchies or class or money or power. If you try to change the system then again you are trying to force your rules on someone else like you. So don’t do that. Make your own rules, ignore all the bullshit going on in the world and live your life as you want to.

What you call meaninglessness I call freedom. I need not pretend to be someone I am not. Earn money that I don’t need, starve myself to have an athlete’s body since I need not impress anyone, preach since I don’t believe in anything or anything worth telling others.

Chill man. Take a sip of this fabulous White Russian you made. Observe, enjoy the dance of Life and have a damn good time while you are here . Cheers !!!

P.S: Dedicated to all the Dudes of the world , especially S.C \m/

Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing…... (Macbeth), William Shakespeare

I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength. It is possible. . . . (Complete Works Vol. 13) ,Nietzsche

Socrates actually understood that death is not the end.To him his belief was more important that the whims of men , abiding by which he could have lived.... He lived life of the basest beggar but died richer , beyond the imagination of any mortal man.... I hope he got what he sought in his next life...

Existentialism refers to the works of 19th and 20th century philosophers which broadly seeks to emphasize on the individual and how he/she seeks to understand his/her existence is this world. Thus individuals throughout their lives make choices and decisions and thus define who they are. The core of human existence is to find meaning in their lives and identify themselves in this world. Thus „Existentialism „seeks to analyze and understand human existence.

According to Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism is a body cover that writers put for philosophy against traditional philosophy. Existentialism as theory defines the freedom available to mark dissatisfaction against traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life. It supports the idea of not being associated with any particular school of thought, beliefs and systems. It is a timeless sensibility that can be discerned and can be sustained protest and preoccupation.

One of the grounding principles in existential thought is that reason cannot be the only basis for human identity. It‟s only our work and we ourselves define what we are as human beings. Existentialism is referred to as a reaction to a secularised world; where role of religion, morals, purpose, virtues and universal truth are minimal. Existentialism made an effort to describe the implications and possibilities of the foundation less world.

According to existentialism what is "good" for us cannot be determined and so we must be the founder of our own values and projects. Radical sovereignty comes with radical failure and we must be prepared to deal with both.

This cannot be done solely on the basis of Sciences like biology, physics, psychology et al. Nor can existence be understood by adding the concept of morality to science or taking recourse in the concepts of God, nation, authority , tradition, work et al. Existence is something more, something that might change from individual to individual. Man thus exists first and then he seeks to define himself in this world. Rather than Man being predefined or Man being a fully described model of a „Human‟. This responsibility of his own existence leads to „Angst‟.

Existentialism also stands for the free will, ability to make choices and responsibility of his choices/actions of Man. Thus Man is free to choose and decide how he interprets the world and what choices he makes. But at the same time he is wholly responsible for his choices. He is the one who bears the burden of his actions and cannot blame society, laws, ethics, culture et al for making him do things and their future consequences. Personal responsibility and accountability is stressed upon.

Another important thought is the „Absurdity‟ of this world. Existentialism begins with the realization that the world is not totally rational and is ambiguous. Thus, it is not an easy job to find the meaning of one‟s existence in such a distorted world. The concept of Facticity also is an important concept. Basically it means that Man is free with respect to his present and future but he does carry the burden of his past. Thus he can do whatever he wishes to do keeping his past existence and its consequences in mind. Freedom is always there but only within the range of what is allowed by the results of his actions in the past for which he is totally accountable.

„Authenticity and Inauthenticity‟ are related to the actions performed by Man. Thus man should be authentic in his behavior which essentially means that he should act and make choices so as to be what he is. He has to act keeping in mind that he is free. Inauthentic behavior on the other hand means when a person behaves so as to meet or confer to certain rules or standards or tries to ape somebody or concept and thus forgoes his freedom. When he acts believing that he is constrained due to lack of choices and thus can blame reasons external to his self for his behavior.

Existentialists as a rule were against „Rationalism and Positivism‟. The basis of this treatment is that the world is irrational and the concept that human beings are rational creatures. Adhering to rationalism leads to suppression of individual freedom and thus leads to anxiety. If one seeks to give a meaning to his world, he can do only when he let goes of reason. This is the only way to exist and find meaning in life is through deciding and assigning meaning to one‟s life. This cannot be achieved through pure rationalism and the person who tries to do so will forever be lost, in despair and will not be able to succeed.

The existentialist thought was shaped by a number of philosophers but among them Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre stand out. The thoughts of various existentialist thinkers vary vastly. Thus it is difficult to come up with one exact definition of existentialism. Still, the concept of individual human existence and absurdity of the world (to an extent) seems common in all their thoughts.

The existentialist movement was hugely popular during the post war era primarily due to its focus on freedom of the individual and partly because of the strong views and literary works of various existentialist thinkers.

I woke up to the sight of a pristine lake set amidst old conifers grazing past my window. “You are now entering Norway and leaving the European Union. Please keep your passports handy for security check”. The police woman greeted me amicably and wished me a pleasant stay. I got down at the next idyllic station with a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. The station was all but a small cabin meant for the station master and I could see the village through the entrance.

Cut back to the next day, I was walking on the international highway with cars zipping beneath me at 100 miles an hour and the Fjords visible across the horizon. I was kind of lost. It was pretty apparent, as the kind lady came over and gave me directions in as much English as she knew.

The next day I was roaming around Oslo at 5 in the morning with glassy mist shrouding the city. I went to parks and monuments and sculpture gardens with no care about my safely. Why would I. It was Norway after all. The most developed country and among the richest and safest in the world. Good times, no worries and sparkling life long memories.

Two days ago the Sunday Times headline read “Terrorist strike in Norway”. I was in utter disbelief. It rapidly turned to sadness and my first reaction was “At least let some places free from all the mindless bloodshed”.

Somehow we have sadly come to accept bomb blasts as part of life in India. But the above incident made my conviction even stronger. We really have nothing in our control when it comes to security. Be it any place, any situation. The reason is simple. You can have all the control and precautions in place. But how can you stop a ‘human mind’ with its conviction, whims, madness and bitterness from exploding. How can you judge that the person sitting next to you in your office, bus, with which you interact, buy stuff et al is not going to explode? Just imagine the activation mechanism of a nuclear bomb in the hands of a madman and how his one flick can change the course of millions of people.

Is there any protection against that one Human bomb who can be anyone among the billions who tread this earth? I am not saying that we should start looking at adversity and begin to see people who are out to kill us at each juncture. All that I have personally realized is that Human Life is so fragile and vulnerable. We think and act so as to feel that we are in control but who are we really kidding on an absolute level?

Just a last thought. In the utterly sad Mumbai attacks a few weeks back an unlucky person was found dead with 10 lottery tickets on him. Just to say, how small our Big plans for life become when fate strikes that fatal blow.

Time and again when I visit Mumbai and happen to observe the struggle ( described as animal like by a friend) that people go through every day I go back to the perpetually elusive question that has been plaguing me since past few years. What is the point of everything? Why do we exist? What we running after? Is there a goal or an objective at the end or the billions of humans treading this earth are just doing the same thing over and over again just for the sake of doing .Rather than the achievement of any specific and definable aim ? What has the existence of centuries of life on earth counted to? Is all this frivolous? Are we here just because the odds were in the favor of the genesis of life thus culminating in the right conditions during the big bang (of course to the subject that we are smart enough to find out what really happened when all this began )?

Humans might continue to exist for as many moon life cycles as the number of stars being born everyday but will this lead to anything? Except than being involved among ourselves, what do we truly stand for? Sartre in his controversial play “No exit” said that “Hell is other people”. If you really think it is empirically true. Let’s go back to the beginning when we assume that the 1st few Neolithic humans started to exist. They reproduced and created more like them. The world for them would have been mysterious but serenely at peace. Imagining living your life like a 1 year old for whom everything is new. Don’t you wish that were possible? So Man created more Men resulting in the aphorism “Child is the father of man “. This led to the classic economic problem of efficient allocation of resources. When these problems were created few of them moved on to look for greener pastures, something like diversification into new markets.

This process continued for ages and ages. In between man learnt how to hate, kill other men, greed, envy and similar other terms. This led to the creation of justifications and punishments which eventually led to the concept of the modern society /civilization and religion if we keep an objective view. Yes, Man is capable of solving his problems and has done so for millions of years. But who created these problems in the first place? Was it not the acts and whims of men? So now Man has become a vehicle of cleaning fellow men’s dirty deeds (Do we smell lawyers/consultants/ even doctors here?). The problem aggravated and has become so big that practically whatever anyone does , at least in the terms of earning a living , is to solve the problems created by others who were before them.

Thus in a way the existence of men has been defined by men themselves. In simple terms this is just the bartering of goods and service to run the economy. The matter though is not simple as we can show by drawing beautiful artless looking graphs. What about the suffering which has been created? The alleviation of suffering has become a big industry now and is regarded as the best one. But again my fundamental question, why did man create this problem? Come to think of it, the ‘Original Sin’ is probably the most important piece of knowledge which we know. It kind of answers the question of what created all this mess in this beautiful world. Sartre was right in his thought of ‘Hell is other people’ but unknown to himself he proved the existence of the ‘Original Sin’.

So, Man is doing what he created for himself to do. Yes I am wrong since I am not discounting the fact that natural calamities do exist and related issues. But then was Man even supposed to be present when those calamities struck? What if the deviation of rivers was a predestined phenomenon for the sustenance of earth and man was not supposed to be present there? Earthquakes would not have been so devastating had man not created concrete structures.

I am not saying that man should not have done anything. Action is the most revered word and everyone should do the work or action required from him. But why? Just so that his actions result in some more work which would require more action from Man? Why it is that man is always coaxed to work and work and never to actually think and introspect. Why? Is there any bigger aim? Or is all of this merely “Pointless”

Life seems to be just this. If we achieve something, we are happy; well and good. If we are not able to bridge the gap between expectation and reality it indeed leaves a hole inside us. Then begins the difficult, frustrating and seemingly impossible task of filling that void. We try to pacify ourselves, talk ourselves out of it, settle for the next best thing, believe that what happened was for our best, degrading the value of our expectation, so on and so forth.

But can this void be ever erased from our memory and our whole personality per se? Or do we keep on accumulating such voids throughout our lives. Just try to imagine the sum of all such voids. It will indeed be a very heavy one. A whole bunch of memories standing for missed opportunities, chances, bad luck, regrets. So as we grow up, all these need to be discounted at the rate of “peaceful and boring” normal existence to get a net present value. Is it not really hard to have that, on ones shoulders, even more so as time goes by. The concept of compounding losses???

What is the solution then? Mathematically it should be:

NPV of Voids = ∑(The magnitude of Void)/(1+Normal happiness rate)t

Now this will turn to 0 , which we ideally want as Normal happiness rate tends to Infinity. Since we can’t really control the magnitude of void all the time (Yeah all of us have got a great illusion that we are in total control of our life , but are we really? ), the most obvious answer is to make our normal boring life so happy and content that such voids may come and go without having any effect on us .

The most obvious answers and solutions are the most difficult to implement.The above is what the Yogis and Swamis do. They do not live in the future (or the anticipation of it as sugested by Heiddeger ) like us, thus time variant voids do not matter.
To put it in another way revise your “Bhoole Bisre geet “--- Mein zindagi ka sath nibhata chala gaya …… “Gam aur khushi mein fark na mehsoos ho jaha”. And again we arrive at the same result .
Think !!! :)

Man: Forgive me father for i have sinned.

Father: What have you done my son. The Lord is merciful , he will forgive you.

Man: I am not sure about that father.

Father: Tell me son.

Man: I killed the child inside me Father. Killed him second by second. In cold blood. Consciously. Like the killers they show on crime shows. I knew what i was doing. And i knew that what i was doing was not right. But still i did it .

Father: Did you enjoy it?

Man: Oh no no. Not even for a moment. But i had to it . Didn't i?

Father: Why do you feel so my son?

Man: Because i had to belong. Belong and be part of the group. Do what others did. Do what others validated and accepted . And applauded. Is it not what we do. Belong?

Father:Define others my son.

Man: My friends , family ,coworkers. Society.

Father: Have you succeeded ?

Man: Yes, I have. They all love me and accept me.

Father: Then why are you discontented? Why can't you sleep peacefully at night like you used to? Why don't you laugh out these days? Why ?

Man: Because i killed him. I killed the part within me which was the biggest source of my happiness. I killed my urge to do what i wanted. Curbed the way i wanted to feel. Got consumed by the mad rush for materialism induced by this society. Bartered my happiness based on emotions for a concept of happiness that was based on material objects.

Father: You have your answer my Son.

Man: But, what now father? What can be done ?

Father: Find the child within you my son. The child which you thought you killed was, is and will always be within you. He can't die. No one can kill him. Not even you. Because he is You.

I experienced a mixture of feelings on Saturday. Woke up early since i had slept really early the night before . Thought about taking a nature walk around campus. It turned out to be an amazing decision for i witnessed the glory of nature bestowed upon the WIMWI campus. After the winters the trees around campus are getting laden with new leaves. The symmetrically planted trees near the entrance with their black branches and light green colored leaves just looked amazing. To top it off the sunset from various locations along with the play of brush strokes of various hues ranging from orange to blue across the sky was mesmerizing. The weather was cool which exacerbated my pleasure of having hot 'moti chai' outside the campus gate.

In the afternoon i attended the allocation for foreign exchange seats and was lucky to get Copenhagen Business school. But after looking at the foreign allocation list a few not too happy thoughts cropped in my mind. A few weeks ago i had applied for various clubs and events for the post of organizing member. At IIMA club coords are chosen who in turn choose their team . During interactions just about everyone told me that since you are going on exchange it would be difficult to do the work and so number of exchange people is limited in the clubs. I thought it was fair enough.

But after looking at the list of outgoing students i found a significant overlap. Now i know my capability , at least in organizing events , so it was kind of a shock. I tried to find reasons but then i realized how pointless it is.

One of the best things about JEE or CAT(not this year :( ) is that by and large it is a level playing field. You are judged according to the same parameters as everybody else. But all this objectivity goes to the dolphins( Hitchhiker's hangover) once the human angle comes into play. Howsoever stringent the parameters might be one can never remove the inherent randomness originating from the complexities of the human mind. Also factors like favoritism, friendship and a range of other groupings ranging from country, religion to even your 'gali- mahaullah' comes into play. Add to this ,the preconceived notions which leave an indelible mark upon the decision making neurons of people.

As aptly stated by my Finance professor in class today " Life is not fair, you make the effort and somebody else reaps the benefits". The number of uncontrollable variables which influence our life (at least in the materialistic sense)is huge. But then how does one live with this . How does one enjoy a peaceful sleep knowing that he is as good or even better than his boss ( or fellow students / co workers etc) but does not get what he deserves in life ?

A simple solution as suggested by a yogi is to realize that all this is maya (now don't get any naughty ideas ). Live in a detached manner, observe life and all its happenings as a meek observer. Enjoy the 'Raslila'. Since eventually all of this shall pass away. Do the 'Karma' and accept the results. Don't try to find reasons for all the randomness in this world. Accept that this is how it is .

Do i agree??? Guess ....

P.S: The title is in Danish :)

Just finished watching a movie titled "A serious man " by the coen brothers. It is based on the Book of Job , where God tests Job's faith on him . There can be two interpretation , as i see it, of the movie.

When i was a kid just having a plastic ball was enough to make me happy. Now, to achieve the same level of happiness i guess i will require a number of intangible and tangible things which do not include that plastic ball.

How often has it happened to you.

Life seems to be going along at immaculate pace like seasoned actors playing the perfect roles in a smooth screenplay in a prodigiously crafted script.The apt word to describe your existence and current state of being is --- Insouciant.

Then suddenly out of oblivion ---WHAM, a thunderbolt strikes you and sends you twirling into a downward bottomless spiral.A spiral where the depth is directly proportional to the misery,hopelessness and loneliness you experience.

Subdued by the dual burden of present problems and emotional attachment and memories of the glorious past,the process of fighting back is exacerbated.

So what does one do....

A possible answer can be summed up in the following lines from the poem "ULYSSES" by Lord Tennyson.....

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven,
that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

There arer 3 types o cases which one encounters in life.

1) You have complete control---- Studies,Career,What are you going to eat :)

There is a chance of Fate and Luck affecting it, but still you are in control.

2)You dont have Control---- Death, Accidents , Coming into wealth by of an Old Relative ;)

3) uYou hav partial control---- Relationships, love, Team Events.

And-------

You are 100% accountable for 1)

0% for 2)

and 0-100% for 3)which depends on a lot of factors.

To be happy and do the right things in life for the cases---

1)Make all the efforts that are possible according to your capability.Enjoy the Journey and accept the end if you have given your best shot.Else try again.

2)Since you don't have any control,don't worry and stop thinking about what's going to happen ,what could hav happend and what did not.

3)Think ,analyse and then decide if it's in your control or not.Then Make effort or accept the reality and let go off the Past.

I happened to read an article in The Times of India today under the Speaking Tree Section of the Editorial.Here is the link http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Lord_Kirshna_in_my_wallet/articleshow/3270241.cms

It actually got me thinking.I m a single child but have always had the company of friend.Thus i have never felt lonely or alone in my life.Also being a very lazy person always ready to doze of helps:)
But the point is,throughout the day when one is surrounded by people at work,home he doesn't generally feel alone , unless ,one is of the type who are "Bheed mein bhi akela".But when one goes to sleep(even with his beloved,not in the wrong sense ;)) he is alone.To himself.No one to disturb him,no one to say anything.People who fall asleep within nanoseconds of lying down are lucky since they don't have to be alone in this fashion.But most of us ,specially in their progressive years ,are not so lucky.

At this what does one feel.Lonely??
Change is the only constant think in this world is aptly said.We love our family and friends and of course girlfriends but will they be there for us always.I actually shiver at night when such thoughts creep into my mind.What will I do?

I find solace by the fact that i will still have my books,music,movies,sports etc etc .But as the article said eventually one has to be alone.According to the article,one should love God the most since he will be with you forever.I am not a Cynic nor an Atheist but Isn't that a way of Believing that you are the only one who Will always be with you.

What is God.A Manifestation of Perfection.One who is Strong,Invincible,Powerful.Who gives courage and happiness and bliss.Are these not the qualities of what just about everyone aspires to be in his life.
We are gifted with people who take care o us when we are born.Then along the way we meet people and bond with them but all along the only person who is constantly with one is himself.

People say there are Soul mates.I guess i am not lucky since i have not found mine in my 23 years of existence.But even if there is ,will he or she be with you forever?

People fret and complain and cry over the argument that no one loves me,no one understands me.
But the one person who loves you the most and who understands you more and better than anyone else in the world is ......

The one who stares at you every day when you look into the Mirror!!!