The survival race

[vinaygmurthy]

I have always wondered if there is anything like a goalless existence. Should all of our actions be justifiable and tied to our efforts of achieving a goal ? Can I reach a state where there is no goal to be achieved and hence no actions to be performed ?

As human beings, we are great at setting ourselves goals and working towards achieving those

Comments

[anonymous]

Ah...the existential questions that trouble everyone at some point or the other.Look at it this way- doing what you have to do is your "dharma".What happens to you is your "karma".There is no connection between the two.Which essentially means you don't have control over what happens to you.

"But what if there is no larger goal at all ?" well...the answer to that question is that probably there is no goal.If you stop doing stuff because you have no goal,you wont have a reason to live.Which is not a good state to be in!

Harsha

[vinaygmurthy]

Which is not a good state to be in!
Why do you say that ? What makes you believe that one has to do something in life ? Why should one do anything at all ?

[pramodbiligiri]

I don't agree that everything got created because of people trying to survive. Lots of useful things were invented because people were just enjoying themselves. Isn't that kind of what Adam Smith's invisible hand says?

I have come to the conclusion that there's no larger goal in life, except those that evolution has programmed us for (survival, as you said). But we humans are lucky that we get to make our own goals, get attached to pet causes and the like.

I wrote about my guiding principles in life around an year back. Looking back, not much has changed. And this one comment from Preethi ought to be pasted on your cubicle or something! "What's romantic is what people choose to do with this world of theirs, knowing that it has no intent. Its how they balance their beliefs against the overall truth that everything is random and chaos, how they live in their microcosms and what values they choose to prioritise."

[vinaygmurthy]

I read a couple of posts on my friends blogs where they spoke about having a goal in one's life and all that. My question was "Why should one have a goal at all ?" The popular reply to that question is "Won't life be boring if you didn't have a goal ?"

A bit of recursive thinking made me ask "Does my life have a goal and hence a purpose to it ?". Is there a purpose to my life outside this world ? Is it important that my life happens so that we (universe ?) achieve something ? If so, am I leading life in the correct way that'll lead us to that goal ?

If there is no goal and I simply need to lead a life just for the heck of it or just because I am born to a society where everybody is trying hard to lead a life, I should try to simplify my life to such an extent that it should never come across as struggle to me. After all, doing something that isn't going to be useful is like carrying extra baggage. You should make it as light as possible and not make it heavier by stuffing things into it.

[pramodbiligiri]

Woohoo, I totally agree to your last para.

[pramodbiligiri]

I also felt I should paste the last para of this Russell essay called A free man's worship(link)

"Brief and powerless is Man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for Man, condemned to-day [sic] to lose his dearest, to-morrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day; disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of Fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance, to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyranny that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate, for a moment, his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power."

W H Davies "Leisure" (link) comes to mind. You should also see my

[kandarp]

Deep thoughts Vinay.
Indian Philosophy highlights this distinction between humans and animals. Animals are totally pre-programmed , they don't have the will power to decide the course of their lives. A tiger cannot wake up one fine day and decide to become a vegetarian !

So, Vedanta says that the beauty of human existence is that we have the power to think - to ask the kind of questions that you are asking. According to Indian Philosophy , the final "goal" is supposed to be "Enlightenment".

In short, you need to stick to your questions, take a few weeks' leave from Trilogy and find yourself a Bodhi tree :)

[skthewimp]

too much philosophy for one post! i put NED halfway through

i demand more posts on Dandarp and Davan and Dhavan and ...

[vinaygmurthy]

Hehe.

Btw, I am thinking of watching two plays at Rangashankara this month - "Neenaanaadre Naaneenena" (did you figure that out in one reading ?) and Sankramana. Coming-aa ?

[skthewimp]

yes i understood that
i may not have formally studied kannada but can understand that much (especially when written in roman script)

when are these plays going to happen? let me know. i'll try puts.

[anonymous]

Hee Hee Hee Hee.