Sometimes I wonder why there have been no major breakthroughs in science recently. None of the scientists has invented something fundamental like gravity by Newton or General and special relativity by Einstein. Social media is flooded with reels of food, dhabas, travelling, and entertainment. Why are young minds, which are so sharp to do all these things, not inclined towards exploration of nature, the world of science and literature?
I feel that our biggest enemy is our comfort. I have many childhood friends who settled for something far lower than their capacity because they had a comfortable option. Joining the family business was easier than competing for admission to engineering or management colleges. So they chose the easy option. Some took a job, became comfortable there, and never tried anything else after that. Some became homemakers and got settled in their families. Some became comfortable in their family life and ignored everything else.
While we were young, we had a goalpost to reach. Somebody wanted to become an engineer, somebody a doctor, somebody a CA and somebody a civil servant. Family members and teachers told us that once we reached the goalpost, our lives would be comfortable. It so happened with all of us. Most of us are comfortable in our jobs and family life. But what they did not tell us is that this comfort is quite hollow. We may fill our schedule with routine jobs, socialisation, gup-shups, planning vacations, and accumulating more and more wealth, but does it make us happy? Comfort can never make us happy. If we close our eyes and try to remember the happiest moments of our lives, they will definitely be the ones when we worked hard to the best of our ability. When we performed well in the examination after months of hard work and knew that the result would follow; when we worked hard for days and nights in the field, playing matches with our team; when we worked on some complex problem for months relentlessly.
Why are these moments the most memorable? It is because when we are fully into action, we live life to the fullest. Just imagine playing a game, say cricket, and watching a match. When we watch an IPL match, we have certain expectations of a team or a player and have nothing to do. We feel thrilled when the team plays as per our expectations and otherwise feel disappointed. But there is nothing for us to do. On the other hand, if we are on the field playing the match, we are aware every moment while fielding, bowling, or batting. Every moment, we try to be a better version of ourselves. As we do that, we grow. We may sit the whole day long in front of the TV, with popcorn in our hands, cheering for our favourite team, and it may win the match as well, but it is nothing more than entertainment. It does not make us grow. It does not enhance our capacity. That's why, at best, it may give us a momentary thrill, but it will never make us happy.
We may gather thousands of things around us and feel that they will make us happy. We may ask ourselves a very simple question. Would a strong person ever try to gather others' support, or a weak one? Obviously, the weak one. That means that when we try to gather more and more external support systems in the form of money, power, and people, somehow we are quite weak inside. How can we be happy with that weakness? A weak person may feel comfortable if the external support system is sufficient. But he can never feel happy. A patient on a ventilator and life support system does not feel happy. He feels happy when he stands and breathes normally. Having the best ICU bed does not make anyone happy.
All of us form many beliefs about the meaning of life, and within that narrow meaning, we try to become champions. Isn't that similar to looking for the best ICU bed in the best hospital? What do these beliefs do to us? They make us dull. We may believe in X, Y, or Z meanings of life and spend the whole of life with that belief, never ever actually examining it. It's comfortable to keep believing what our parents and society have told us. But examining the truth behind it may shake the very foundation of our lives. Contemplating the fundamental questions of life: "Where have we come from?" "What is life?" "What is the meaning of death?" may be quite unsettling, but unless we do that and live with a fixed belief system, we are already dead. All Indian Upanishads make us enquire into these fundamental questions of life. The comfort of believing in the meaning of life is probably the worst, because it leads even the most hardworking and most intelligent people to waste their lives chasing a mirage.
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