My Mind

There was a time, when I was all careless, carefree. Never did I care about philosophy or life. I accepted things, as they came, did what I wanted ( which was usually what people around me did ).

And then, I met a few people. These people were different, their thoughts, beliefs, customs, traditions & language. Never before had I met people with such beliefs. Their beliefs were strong.  I was in no way uncomfortable, because there wasn’t a time when I was strongly attached to any belief system. It was a new learning experience.

And then there was a time, I wanted to classify myself, chose a philosophy, a theist or an atheist or something else. With no proof, I couldn’t choose. So, I had to be agnostic. But, I was not satisfied. I wanted to have an opinion,a strong one. I wanted to stick to something. And then, I watched ‘The Big Lebowski‘  and ‘The Fight Club‘ .  A new word got into my vocabulary: ‘Nihilism‘.

That was the time, I needed a pillar, to cling. And looking at people and events around me, Nihilism was the way to go. “Screw the world!”, I said without giving it a deep thought.

But then, I thought a little. Nihilism sounded cool but that wasn’t the practical way to live. I chucked it out. I wanted to go back to my old ways of carefree living.

There is so much to learn about life  that one life isn’t enough. There have been thousands of philosophers, scientists who have dedicated their lives to find answers to mystery of life. And I don’t think anybody has found an answer yet.

So, now… Do I stick to one belief system and criticize every other?  May be I won’t. I will try to accept things as they come. I will try to be open to other people’s belief.   There will be times when real life experiences will force me to think one belief system is much closer to truth than the other. Life’s going to be a nice learning experience. I will choose good things, things that suit me and make my own philosophy, my own belief system, one that will grow with me.

Anyway,I like this dialogue very much…

Mere man ko bhaya, mein kuththa kaat ke khaya.

So, what do you believe in?

We humans live in a causal world. Every action of ours is an effect of a cause. When we have no control over the cause, eventually the effect too will be one over which we don’t have much control. In short ‘We lack Free Will’.

Coming to the topic about which I wanted to express my personal views, We meet different kind of people all along our life, we try to understand them,judge them, make a mental image. All this is causal, we observe their appearances,actions & words, we analyze & judge…But almost every time we interact with people, we get to see only a part of an individual & the mental image we build is incomplete.

We learn not only from our experiences but also from experiences of people around us. These experiences will have a huge say in the way we will act or react. Most of the times we tend to generalize these experiences and use this knowledge to evaluate people. The chances of mis-evaluation are less but once in a while we will be wrong.

I don’t believe in love at first sight. How could you love someone just because one is looking more fairer. That is just attraction at first sight. Then again even if we spend a little time together how can you be sure that it is in fact love, it may be nothing more than infatuation.

When I say ‘I don’t believe in love at first sight’ may be I can also extend it a bit further to ‘I don’t believe in hate at first sight’. How many times I interact with people for just a few seconds and develop hate at first sight. Shouldn’t I give them a second chance ?

Knowing that I am a causal being living in a much larger causal system, may be I can give a little thought on not only the effects but also the causes.