The Ultimate Meaning of Life

Hellow🌻

With every week that I write, I am losing subscribers which is not the kind of growth that I was looking for but at least feels good to see the numbers moving 😂. I’ll keep you guys posted when I get my first organic subscriber, should be fun.

The topic for today is the Ultimate Meaning of Life (shoutout to those 3 cuties who voted on my last poll, others probably didn’t even read till the end to figure out the poll. I am writing only for you 3:). I have recently read two books back to back and both of them are centered around the same topic. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Beautiful books with a beautiful message. You should read both of them and text me after.

Viktor Frankl, one of the survivors of German concentration camps, narrates a few incidences from his experience in the camps. You can be dangling at the edge of life with everything stripped from you, your clothes, dignity, and identity; yet you have something to live for and sometimes you can have everything in the world but not a purpose to live for(mostly all of us). In concentration camps, there were two types of people, those who had given up on everything and the will to live(they usually died sooner or later) and the ones who looked beyond the edge to see a future where suffering would end and they find a purpose to survive the torture(most of them saw the dusk of camps and survived to see the freedom).

It tells me that, even when you are standing on the verge of death, you can have an ultimate meaning in your life. So there is a meaning to life? Maybe, maybe not. Viktor who was also a neurologist and psychiatrist, later developed a science called Logotherapy, which helps you find a purpose in life. Rather than looking back at your life to derive purpose, Logotherapy focuses more on the future to derive the locus of your existence. If I have to give you one idea that defines the book,

Your life does not give you a purpose, rather it demands a purpose.

Strangely this reminds me of a marvelous scene from one of my favourite cinemas called Tamasha. There’s a scene where Ved asks the storyteller to narrate what happens in the story of his life and he asks him “Apni Kahani mujse puch puch raha hai ?“

An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson as the title of the book reads. Professor Morrie Schwartz has truly given some words to live by. Even though this book is mainly about having a perspective to look at different things in life such that you can make your time here on earth worthwhile, speaks the same thing about having a purpose in life giving your life a purpose. Morrie says the culture we have created does not make people feel good about themselves and I feel it’s true. Our Inspirations, aspirations, goals, and standards of good are always defined by our culture. We live in a world where the purpose of life is always to become successful, build a billion-dollar business, change the world, and become the best. Where as being normal and simple is looked down upon. If you are someone who does not have a goal in life, then you are wasting your life. Why? Why can’t we just live, carry out our every day with joy, help someone, crack a joke and make someone laugh, or pet a dog and conclude our day by having a meal with our loved ones? Why is this not good enough for a purpose?

Morrie had created a cocoon of human activities around him - interactions, conversation, affection and it filled his last few days with love. Morrie left the world with a smile and left people smiling. On the contrary, our definitions of meaning, goals, and aspirations take away the core human touch. You work in silos and isolation. And when you are standing on that podium of success, it’s always you - alone. Why can’t we all become Morrie?

Love wins. Love Always wins.

I don’t know why did I pick up these two books one after the other but I think I am glad that I did. One tells you that you have to give purpose to your own life and the other tells you what that purpose should be. Our culture has molded me in such a way that my entire life I either wish to do what other people do(conformism) or do what other peoples wishes me to do(totalitarianism). And this constant tussle between whether I’m chasing the right thing creates an existential vacuum in our lives. Viktor writes that one should not chase the abstract meaning of life. Everyone should present their own meaning to life and fulfill it.

And read this, this is where both books come to the same conclusion,

The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. 💜

Now, I want you to look at the following picture very carefully.

This is the first picture taken by a mammoth telescope in space called James Webb’s Deep Space Telescope. Every bright dot in this picture is a galaxy in the universe. The light coming from a few of them might as well be from the beginning of the universe. In this whole wide universe, the ultimate existence of you means nothing, after all accidental universe it is. There is no ultimate purpose, stop lying to yourself and others. So, if in larger maths, we all are just accidents, then why bother at all?

It’s one life, stop asking and start giving.

Give a purpose to your life. Love someone. Become human. Everything else is a game. I know you’ll play well. 🍻

I am not saying this, Morrie is, listen to him….

Also, Morrie reminds me of Aman :’)

See you next week,
till then stay sexy!