The auto I tried hailing this morning, unsuccessfully of course, was going to Andheri. The neighbours are going to Thailand this summer. The guy in the cubicle next to me is going to get a promotion next year. And I am definitely going to the end of the world in 2015. Maybe you will too one day. In a nutshell, all of us are going somewhere or the other-in space or in time.
Why? Why do we bother to move at all?
As a friend of mine put it, what is the purpose of it all?
Not wanting to appear blank I quickly replied, ‘Because of the need to see tomorrow.’
Not letting it go, my friend persevered, ‘Where is the need?’
The need arises from the knowledge or the hope that there will be a tomorrow. If I knew I had one month to live, I’ll call in dead (my office), sign up for the space program going to Mars, get Robert Downey Jr. to take me out (or at least try to) and of course take out a large loan and buy an island. But because I know that I am going to see tomorrow I refrain from all this and instead I prepare. I prepare because I want to have some control over my future. I want to know where I will be tomorrow, next month, next year. I forget that control is what I don’t have and never had.
We, the world, the whole universe are like that ball in the bowling alley that someone has set in motion and is now rolling towards the pins. Only I don’t know what those pins are that we are hurtling towards. Maybe death is not the end. Maybe it is true that the soul lives on even when the body dies and continues on its journey in through different bodies towards that grand finale. People get tired and want out so they strive for ‘moksh’ or ‘nirvana’.
Why they want ‘out’ I am not sure. Maybe I’ll muse on that next time!
As Lewis Carroll put it
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
Why? Why do we bother to move at all?
As a friend of mine put it, what is the purpose of it all?
Not wanting to appear blank I quickly replied, ‘Because of the need to see tomorrow.’
Not letting it go, my friend persevered, ‘Where is the need?’
The need arises from the knowledge or the hope that there will be a tomorrow. If I knew I had one month to live, I’ll call in dead (my office), sign up for the space program going to Mars, get Robert Downey Jr. to take me out (or at least try to) and of course take out a large loan and buy an island. But because I know that I am going to see tomorrow I refrain from all this and instead I prepare. I prepare because I want to have some control over my future. I want to know where I will be tomorrow, next month, next year. I forget that control is what I don’t have and never had.
We, the world, the whole universe are like that ball in the bowling alley that someone has set in motion and is now rolling towards the pins. Only I don’t know what those pins are that we are hurtling towards. Maybe death is not the end. Maybe it is true that the soul lives on even when the body dies and continues on its journey in through different bodies towards that grand finale. People get tired and want out so they strive for ‘moksh’ or ‘nirvana’.
Why they want ‘out’ I am not sure. Maybe I’ll muse on that next time!
As Lewis Carroll put it
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
