What Do We Want From Life...

"What do we want from life"
Ever thought what in this world motivates us? A lot of research like Maslow's theory have already been made on this. But the question is, has anyone come up with a general set of rules that is the lowest common denominator for all...?

In this cosmopolitan society, different people have different aspirations, different strategies, different goals. But does all of us have something in common?

I believe, all of us are in pursuit of satisfaction, in pursuit of completion. Say, why do we work the way we work? Some will say, for money, some for praise, some for power, and some others just for mere satisfaction. Though we might do a work following someone, the underlying motivation might be different. Like, when we are small, we follow our parents blindly, because we somehow trust their judgement completely, to an extent more than we trust ourselves! Then as we grow up, we start getting indulged in materialistic gains, and we start aiming to satisfy our ego... That's how the question of money, power, praise comes up.

But we also hear saints telling that everything material around us is Maya, an illusion created by God Himself, so that we remain detached from the truth of life- whose sole objective is to be one with God (to achieve Mukti).

Now, there are two questions out of this.
First, are we indeed doing any task that is in line with that ultimate goal?
Second, if God knows that our ultimate task is to be one with Him, why has He created Maya?

Well, the answer to the second question is beyond the domain of this particular discussion. Maybe we will try to answer this some other time. But regarding the first question, if any of our task is related to only the material surroundings, and no other value, then most possibly, that task is not aligned to the right objective. I was reading a fantastic example on this in newspaper today. When several people were asked to select their cups to drink coffee, the cups to be chosen last were those with very ordinary looks, while all the shiny and designer ones were taken first...
So, inspite when the true objective was to have coffee (content), everybody put more attention on cup(container).

So are we doing the same with our lives? Why is the general happiness level of public going down, inspite a class of people becoming richer by the day? The average number of successful people are much more now, than that some centuries back... So is this because we are sufferring from banana problem(Just like pronounciation of banana, which can be extended indefinitely...)?

We need money to survive on this planet, so there is no escape from this materialism. But does that necessarily imply that we become materialistic in the process? Now has earning money become more important than living itself...? How else can you explain that the rich and famous have little time enjoying their wealth. They are so overcommited to their commitments, to sustain the present grandeur, that the amount of free time they have for themselves and for family diminishes.

When you have money beyond a point, won't the first point of concern be how to preserve it, and then how to spend it... how to enjoy it...? Then won't we be allowing our life to be controlled by material values, while the only significance of money is that it is an enabler to help us live better?

Now here we come back to the question with which it all started... "What do we want from life".
Might be that we want a life, which will have no regrets, so that we can face ourselves in front of the mirror every morning... So that we can sleep when we lie down on bed, without any more worries... Where my means will meet my needs... Where I will no longer have to run in a race where I never want to participate... Where I can do what I really want... Where I will never have to be concerned about lack of trust on other people... Where I will know, that I will no longer have to fear people from their double standards so that I can trust anyone I choose to without the fear of rejection...

Did I just mention of utopia, or such world is still possible... Is this what we want from world...?

Questions, just endless questions...




Disclaimer: This is not any article, but a post that is based solely on the judgement of the author. Most of the ideas are based on facts, but since this work is not formal, so no attempt was made to back them up with real statistics, and there is no liability of the author in terms of accuracy of this work.
It is not aimed to highlight any discrimination of any caste, religion, gender or belief. Its aim is to simply express the thoughts of the author, so that they do not get lost with onslaught of time...