Aspirations: A Dream Destination
or an Endless Quest
Hazaaron khwahishen aisi
ke har khwahish pe dam nikle
Bahot niklay mere armaan, lekin
phir bhi kam nikle!
- Mirza Asadullah Baig
Khan (Ghalib)
Human
beings are the only animals who live with aspirations. A man's identity is
shaped by his aspirations. A man in his conscious state is always preoccupied
with thoughts and plans how to realize his goals. Majority of time is spent
working towards his goals. Hence his life gets carved out according to what his
ambitions are. Every man lives with certain ambitions, smaller or bigger,
social or financial. Achieving of goals leads to satisfaction and hence gives a
feeling of living a fulfilling life.
People
always think that once they achieve their dream/s they will experience complete
peace at heart. Now this term peace is perceived differently by different
people. People can be classified in two ways accordingly, peace-lovers: one who
wants peaceful (literal sense) life and no sooner they achieve their primary
goal in life they live a life of complacency; others runners: who won’t be able
to bear the fruits of peace (as by the first kind) because the kind of peace
they aim for is actually amidst chaos. They get fascinated for a thing, aim for
it and once they achieve it they no longer remain interested in the same. Then
again they start searching for an aim to chase after and hunt down. And the
same cycle repeats itself.
For
peace-lovers peace comes through stability. Whole of their life they strive to
achieve a level of stability which would give them a sense of security they
want and once they get to that level they spend rest of the life protecting and
maintaining the same. Runners also start with same intention unaware of what
these terms mean to them. Once they achieve the goal they try to realize the
joy that they perceived they would be feeling once they would reach the target.
With the nature they have they won’t be able to enjoy that phase and so they
will start thinking as to that perhaps it was not the goal of their life they
were looking for and again start running after their revived goal. Again after
achieving the goal they won’t be able to enjoy that phase long enough and the
cycle repeats. Without caring to maintain the secured state they move out of
the safe zone to again start a journey towards a higher goal.
Something should be realized here that
stability doesn't attract the runners. Monotony of stability is
devoid of the challenges they dreamt to conquer. They are happy and hence
satisfied with life more when they are burning with a desire to achieve
something. These creatures constantly need a reason to run after something in
life. Challenging goals are the biggest enthusiasm to runners. To them the
thrill while overcoming the challenges outweighs the sense of security
associated with the stable life. There is nothing right or wrong to be either a
peace-lover or a runner, what is more important is that either of these
personalities under any circumstances should not force oneself to go against
their nature. To a peace-lover happiness lies in feeling stable and secured;
while for a runner happiness is a suspended state amidst instability that
provides him with inspiration to constantly run and strive for his goal.
To live a fulfilling life one must identify his nature. The secret
behind an accomplished life not lies in merely achieving things/goals but in
having the courage in steering life as one wants it to. The rewards of success
are momentary, what remains during the whole the life is the journey; it is all
about choosing how one wants his journey to be...
PS: Interpretation of the
couplet:
There are thousands of ambitions that
each such wish could consume my life.
My desires, and I experience them all
intensely, aren’t enough for this one lifetime.
