Page 19 - Seniorstoday May 2024 Issue
P. 19
This leads me to wonder if animals ever in life to explain our existence. Does a rose
think what’s their purpose in life. To you think about its purpose or for that matter a
and me, their purpose is to live for the sunflower? We may see them as fragrant or
day and care for their brood (that too only beautiful, but do they see themselves that
up to a point unlike the human beings). way? As they are, we too are but a cosmic
They would not know about their relative purpose at best, if one were to argue.
importance in the food chain or the survival “Find purpose, the means will follow”
of the fittest. They just survive their lives; is a lofty quote of the Mahatma, fuelled
whether quadrupeds or centipedes or by the need of the hour for motivation
reptiles or amphibians or mammals or of the masses to get out of the colonial
protozoa. They are either the hunters or yoke. If one were to vivisect it, and to
the hunted, quite simply. Whichever way me at least, he was impelling people to
one wishes to see it, their purpose is to live. fulfil their responsibility to the nation,
If one were to visualise the Jataka tales of notwithstanding the overwhelming power
the ancient Indian lore, it’s probable that and pelf of the British colonialists. But he
the animal kingdom would think exactly had to couch it in inspiring and simple
the same of mankind and having a ball words. Reading in-between those lines, was
discussing us humans in their jungle not life itself the purpose?
panchayat. A toddler’s purpose is to live, a
They would not be off the mark. But the householder’s purpose is to live, a totterer’s
ego of the humans will not accept it. After purpose is to live and a dying’s purpose is
all, we have the arrogances of the intellect to live. So is yours and mine. Quite simply,
to counter that and find a larger purpose what is Life, if not the Purpose.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #59 | MAY 2024 19
