There may be two different approaches to life. First, we know, and we try to achieve the best based on the information available to us. Second, we acknowledge that we know very little and try to explore the unknown. While following the first approach, we may set different targets in this world. Someone may feel that more money brings more happiness because they can buy a good home, luxurious cars, branded clothes, and travel in luxury to different parts of the world. Somebody may target powerful positions and feel that once they reach these positions, they will get respect from society and VVIP treatment from everybody around. Somebody may set a target around knowledge because he feels that, with knowledge, he will be able to get both money and power. Somebody may keep the target around some spiritual experience because he may feel that spiritual experience is above all these worldly experiences.
Whatever the target, we feel that we will be happy after achieving that target. We have tagged our happiness to that target. Most of us never reach the target, and that always remains a story. A student who started preparing for civil services and could not clear the exam may keep believing that if he had cleared the exam, his life would have been happy. The same applies even to children who clear the exam and get a service other than IAS. Many of them keep believing that they would have been happier had they got into IAS. Many people who could not marry the person they wished to marry may keep believing that their lives would have been wonderful had they married their beloved.
However, some of us are able to achieve the target we set for ourselves. Having achieved it, we also feel that we are not happy. If we dare to stay there and examine the root cause of that unhappiness, we can probably realise the fundamental flaw in our assumptions and presumptions. We can see the fundamental error. We can see that we set the target influenced by social narratives or propaganda from commercial companies that have financial interests in selling that "happiness". It's like the AI suggesting the meaning of happiness to us without ever understanding us. Similarly, our minds pick up some meaning of happiness driven by these narratives and propaganda without ever contemplating what we really want.
However, we don't stay with that discomfort and soon frame another theory and the next target. Okay, we have earned a lot of money, and it has not made us happy, but becoming an MP or minister will make us happy. One promotion has not made us happy, but the next will make. We keep running after the escapes, one to the other. No home, then one home, then a better home, then many homes. No job, then one job, then a better job, then a more powerful job. Nothing makes us happy. In fact, the more we achieve, the more hollow and fearful we become from inside. Think of a situation. If somebody has to imagine at the age of 50 that the targets he set for himself at the age of 20 were actually based on some false propaganda or social narrative, he will never be happy with that. It's not easy to accept that 30 years are wasted, that too when 20 more remain, and that too is uncertain. The first thing the brain will do is reject this idea and convince the other person that life has been very meaningful. Our brain, as a natural defence system, will stop listening to any such idea.
That's why this clarity is very much necessary from the very beginning. But at the beginning, our brain is very instinctive and lacks exposure. That's why we get very influenced by the social narrative. The red lights on the top of the vehicles look very attractive. We also want to sit in a vehicle that can cross the toll plaza with the sound of hooters while the rest of us are waiting in the queues. It looks very attractive to win a debate, and it doesn't matter whether the logic was right or wrong. It is very difficult for the instinctive mind to realise the falsity of the assumptions and presumptions, especially if these assumptions and presumptions are endorsed by society. How will the poor child examine the falsity of these assumptions and presumptions when everybody around, including the parents, is busy forcing them on him? Even at the age of 50, you say that I would like to work for society; the first question from everybody who is your "well-wisher" is, "What about your family?" I don't know what it means. Education of children: where? In some foreign university? Lavish marriage? Buying a good home for them? Where does it end? After children, the grandchildren, and so on...
On the other hand, people like Einstein and Swami Vivekananda have been able to break free of these fixed frames. Exploring what we don't know is not easy. There is no ground in that domain where you can feel stable. It's like walking in space, with everything unknown. When Einstein worked in the field of quantum Physics, something may or may not work. When Swami Vivekananda talked about getting out of the well, people may reject this idea outright or may listen to it. Probably, exploration in the domain of the unknown is not possible for those who still seek something in the domain of the known. Only somebody who has seen through the domain of the known and is convinced that there is nothing left for him there can actually step into the domain of the unknown. One hidden desire to achieve something in the domain of the known, and you fall flat on your face. That's why we see so many spiritual gurus fall flat: some hidden desire takes over, and they have no option but to enter the dark world of pretentions and manipulations. Celebrating the achievement is easy; it's hard to introspect on the real reform, whether within or outside.
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