My Philosophy of Life

A man in the modern day times thinks about himself, his life, his pleasure and his well being. And he is really concerned about that. He has, hidden underneath his cunning intellect and garbed in ulterior motives, his own philosophy of life. He is not inclined towards anything that does not, by sense or the other, seem beneficial to him. He has become so absorbed and engaged in chasing the worldly pursuits that it has become very difficult, sometimes literally impossible for him to sneak out of the mundane realms. According to many, he is leading quite a happy life. David Daiches - in on of his poems- christens such person "a poor man" .

But is this is the just and pertinent approach towards life or of life?? A leftist may support the stance and antithetically, a rightist may become outrageous at the behavior. Thinking cognitively, this does not appear to be the purpose of the creation of him and his kind. For the purpose of eating, drinking and having leisure, luxury and recreation, the animal kingdom was already accomplishing the job sufficiently. In this manner, creation of mankind would have been to add to the existing prodigally inept creatures. It seems that the line of demarcation between the two species is presence of feelings, sentiments and emotions for others. The Poet of the East remarks:” Humans were created to share sorrows and pain”.

        This naive thinking might lead someone to call the person a lunatic out of his mind. And he has reasons for it too…!!! Why should a person waste his wealth on others? He has earned that money through various hardships and he deserves to be the sole person on whom that money be spent. The refutation is the evidence that in most of the cases, the ramification is such a person getting devoid of complacence and self satisfaction. So again comes all the brouhaha about values, virtues, good deeds and compassion. Ironically, their attrition attributes to the temporal avocations. Patently, this means the answer lies in rejecting the false claims of materialists and understanding the true essence of life.

Albert Einstein states:” Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile”. Glancing at the history, one concedes to the fact that history remembers only those figures that live a life, not for themselves but rather for others. In the case of otherwise, he becomes just one of those impalpable to discern in the never ending swarm of people who come and go each day. The name of a person who lives in the hearts of people can never be erased. To gain a place there, he has to work constructively. He has to perform such actions that have everlasting or long lasting effect. Handing over the poor some money is not that sort of thing. But the establishment of an institute where people get themselves educated, get themselves treated or find a permanent footing indeed comes into this genre.

A famous Greek proverb says:”By love serve one another”. Spreading love is a very easy job to do. It gives us mental relaxation, pleasure, satisfaction and calmness more than any other activity does. And why the likes of Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, Nelson Mandela and Abdus Sattar Edhi are remembered still now even though some have been dead ages ago? Simply because they set their self and esteem aside and plunged day in and day out in philanthropies and humanitarian work for the greater good. Still now, especially in our region, there is so much work to be done for the ailing humanity. Hundreds of thousands of people do not get even single meal a day. Millions do not have access to clean and potable water. Sanitary conditions in most of the areas are absolutely pathetic. More than one fourth of the population lives below the poverty line. And talking about education and health facilities in the contemporary scenario seems a mere far fetched thought. If we are not concerned and trying to eradicate these problems, then who else would? Our fate perhaps would be the same as of millions of other people who live a life throughout circumscribing themselves to their coveted shells with shutters closed down.

As humans, we should be bound to uphold virtues as “Virtue is mightier than wealth”. We should be truthful, contented, honest, just and ever ready to alleviate human sufferings. We should make our lifestyle simpler and simpler considering our poor brethren having a share in our wealth. Materialism always leads to self centeredness. We should be courageous enough to shun away such states of mind and work for the collective benefit. And furthermore, ought to be strengthening ourselves through prayers and supplications to gain the blessing and bounties of our Creator side by side. Only in this way, we would become able to make this world a true haven and an abode of peace, love, harmony, sacrifice, fraternity and brotherhood.