The Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? The sages of yore have given us so many answers. I am not delving into any one of them because the world is still here from which they have drawn all those answers. Let us look around us and see what we can deduce from it.

What is that mango tree doing, that grasshopper, that elephant, lion, grass, trees, beetles, bugs, birds, bears and yes, all the other living beings? They are busy making copies of themselves and making their surroundings more conducive for their living. Nothing more or nothing less, this we can deduce from looking at their life. Now, if we look into our own life we also could find that we are doing exactly the same, even though we may be talking big, running companies, making empires, waging wars or writing scriptures. Every living being is busy living. There is no other aim to life than living. So, life means living; living maximum possible, without a break, in the most suitable environment. We search for the best environment and/or transform it according to our needs. Even the space exploration is the natural survival instinct of a species in search of a better, suitable environment and nothing ‘great’ about it.

According to the ability to live and transform its environment we see the differences in living beings. It is the differences in response to a given environment that sows the seeds of difference or specificities to form in living beings. In the same world, of the same earth, under the same sun, moon and stars the existence of many different living species proves that there are ‘very many possible ways’ to live successfully. Every living being is a proof of its success in living. The real difference lies only how they succeed. So there is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way of living or ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ way of living. There is only one criterion before life, ‘have you lived, procreated, reached all possible corners available anywhere on Earth or outside of it’.
Abilities that once were a boon to survive and prosper in one particular circumstance could turn into a bane in another. So, we should not view ‘abilities’ as abilities per se. In a changed circumstance this self same ability could become an impediment for survival. That is how a species go extinct. But if they can balance it out quickly they would survive. After life originated on Earth, around 3.87 billion years ago, many species came into being and became extinct. 99.99% of all living beings that germinated on Earth are no more here. But the lost ones also exist through the multitude of living species we see on this Earth. The descendents of all those vanished life forms are the ones we see around. So, if there is one species existing anywhere on Earth, life still remains triumphant. From the point of view of life, existence of any life form is ‘life’s victory’ and that need not be human species. We, humans are just one among myriad life forms – there is nothing ‘special’ about us.

Maitreyan