Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Purpose..and lack thereof!!!


Just finished reading The Da Vinci Code...
And i agree with New York Times et al that its one hell of an intelligent thriller.... however it raised some fundamental questions for myself , which i guess i have always avoided for the lack of a clear answer.

Why do i fail to understand the concept for an eternal quest , more so the motivation of those quests.... quest for the ultimate truth , the ultimate wisdom or Nirvana? What next , after the success of your quest , after you find what you are seeking? Do you attain the ultimate happiness / contentment? What is ultimate happiness ??? Is it not ok to be content with day to day happiness? What would have happened if the Holy Grail secrets were found and revealed? Would it have changed the way Christians look at their God? I doubt that. After all , dont all religions in principle say on one level or the other that GOD is nothing but the goodness within you. Then how does it matter whether Jesus was married or not? How would have that changed the faith and the daily life of a devout Jesus follower who believes in the goodness of Jesus as the personnification of the concept of GOD?

Or are all these quests and their glorification thereof just an indication of the fact that its vital to have a guiding purpose in your life? So does it mean then that living life , devoid of any such purpose , is devoid of all meaning too?

I think of myself as an ordinary mortal who leads life without any such purpose in life. Now i dont see anything wrong with that and have simple philosophy of being a good human being , spend my lifetime as any other ordinary man/woman (eating , drinking , laughing , loving , procreating, parenting et al) . I have no such guiding purpose in my life except for trying to take the highs & lows of life in the same stride and enjoy most part of it. And i see no flaw in this philosophy of mine....except that , at times i am haunted by an Emptiness so strong that i am forced to seek within myself to find that purpose. I havent succeeded till now, after 30 years of doing so..... and the problem is I dont know whether I should hope that i find it (the purpose of my life) someday or I should hope that i manage to shoo away this feeling of emptiness afterall, with my living my life just the way it is!

3 comments:

Anand said...

Teleonomy doesn't necessarily lead to redemption, for if you have a purpose you need not be redeemed ;D

sunshine said...

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
If you can live a happy life, w/o feeling a compulsive curiosity/obsession for something, consider yourself lucky :)

Paradox Philic said...

Sunshine - I try , and perpetually so! Succeed most of the times (i.e. feel lucky). However that empty feeling comes back to haunt me sometimes :)
I am sure you know what i mean!