Monday, November 12, 2007

Dude, Where's Your Engine?

I have always been intrigued by tales of people who have an absolute disregard for the disconcerting prospect of death, how much ever short lived their disrespect for death is. Mind you, this doesn’t in any way refer to those sick souls with suicidal tendencies, who are driven by fear. Rather this post is about that rare breed of people who have an exactly opposite mindset. While the first lot is those being chased to death by life, the latter is those who chase after life.

When you are able to give a nasty look at death and have a good laugh at its inevitability, it just bloats up your ego so much big that you feel like God. In his final moments on the cross, Jesus was just a man when he asked “Father, why me?” But, the moment he realized “Sorry Father. You can’t be wrong”, he was one with Him.

This is all about those who have consciously tried to delete the very word “safety” from their dictionaries. I would rather say it is a deeper exploration of the theme of my previous post – travel. The most intriguing part of the story is the reason(s), if at all there is any, that drives such thirsty travelers to take the road less traveled or rather the one never traveled. If there is any such reason(s), is it worthwhile to think about it, leave alone follow it? Is it wise enough to leave the known confines of family/society for that apparent foolishness? What sets an adventurer apart from a madman? Or is it just that absolute adventure is misconstrued as mere madness? While I can’t say for sure that theirs is the best way to be/live, I certainly feel they who seek the unknown “live” more than those who settle for the comfort of the known.

What drives such souls? What makes them go after life, the search which ends not till the last breath, unlike the others who morbidly wait for Mr Yamadharmaraja to visit them? Are they pulled by the lure of the unknown rather than driven by the boredom of the known? A passable answer would be that they have got so much energy inside them that they find “the known” severely lacking to provide them with satisfying ways to expend it here and now. So the search for the alternative channels becomes inevitable for them. The hardships of the search make the explorer realize the unexplored terrains both within himself and without. The more you explore, the more you feel stronger.

How do you find your own internal engines and kick start them? Probably a bit of madness might help to prime the engine. Once it gets started, I believe it can be made to keep running with minimum effort, for it seems to be a virtuous cycle. The more you expend the energy, the more you create it inside. Yeah, I know it goes against the conventional wisdom of the law of conservation of energy. But it seems to work that way. Probably, it is not so much about the creation of energy per se. Rather, it is all about the alternative utilization of energy that might have been wasted in other boring conventional ways. (Hopefully, more on this some time later in another such long drab post.)

But, how is this very search justified? Do we really have to start our engines, if at all we are able to find them? Well, as I had said earlier in the tailpiece of this post, what we go through is more important than where we end up.

Aside
This post was inspired by the movie "Into the wild", which I am dying to see. Hope it lives up to my expectations! Please don't forget to read the synopsis at the site!

11 comments:

kriz said...

Yet another thought provoking post buddy !

Being a ardent lover of dual theory of matter/wave, this is my taking on your post.....

"A particle is merely a source or sink for waves.A wave is anything other than a source or sink for particles.. Both particle or wave has energy...but only in the wave nature, they gain momentum..so its about the momentum we are interested in...as far as energy is concerned it remains the same...so even if you check any adventurous sports,its about the fall/ rise where our control on the inertial forces are never there we are interested in and then during the time where the system tries to move down to normal inertial mass..we seldom enjoy it.."

romba mokkai potutaeno.:P

Anonymous said...

More rambling Saravana. Thinking out loud huh?

BTW Jesus never said “Father, why me?”. He never said “Sorry Father. You can’t be wrong” either.

Unknown said...

kriz

Oru elavum puriyala da! But the wave/particle states are not good or bad by themselves. And i don't think you can apply that analogy here. Would be great if you can explain it with clarity. ;)

Unknown said...

Dugi
Though I haven't quoted Jesus word by word, I refer to the moment he doubted God.

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
(http://scriptures.lds.org/en/matt/27)

You might have several reasons for why this statement that apparently reeks of weakness and doubt was included in the first place. That too, coming from the mouth of Jesus himself. Anyway, I would not buy in to any arguments that support the "godliness" of Jesus.

Nevertheless, this particular statement is of great significance to mankind. I see it not as something that brings down Jesus from the high pedestal of "Son of God" to a mere human, which I wouldn't really care for. Rather, I see it is a hope for every man/woman to rise above to being a Jesus. It essentially indicates a possibility for every man to be a Jesus, instead of just being a disciple. It is this possibility that is really significant.

Thanks a lot for your comment and giving me reason to write this! :)

kriz said...

first , dual nature of matter/wave'a 300 years'a physics nobel laureates'alayae theliva solla mudila..naan eppadi...:P

uhmmm...to get the clarity if you see people really enjoy the roller coaster rides...btw what are all the phases involved...

a) your nervous anticipation about travel before start ..
b) your catching up with fear (just before peeking up to your max)
c)your fall(you have no control on yourself..in a travel whether you loose yourself to the travel or company...)
d)your calming down..(reached the place you loved to reach and enjoying the place/company.. btw we are more happier in phase 3 than this phase )

bro ! ivalo thaan enaku theriyum..;)

Anonymous said...

Intellectual bullshit. btw Kriz,

Particle being sink or source of waves. Fair enough. But the analogy uses physics for some lazy intellectual analysis.

kriz said...

Duggi

//Intellectual bullshit.
~ Any Intellectual stuff is a bull shit !

// But the analogy uses physics for some lazy intellectual analysis.

~ physics itself is a result of some lazy intellect's analyssis..:P

Anonymous said...

yeah lazy, but smart. I should have used the word 'sloppy' for your analogy.

Priya said...

Good post sk! Unakkulle ivlo thoughts olinju kidakkuthunnu nenachu kooda paakale.. Haha. Some ppl are ready to pounce on you and you are ready to give them back! Haha. Ithu chumma vetti comment, just to show you that i've read your post! Cool blog layout! Btw, why do guys like grey so much??!

Unknown said...

Dei en da ippadi psycho va maarite..Cant u write simpler stuff that even a layman like me can understand...Ithuku thaan solradu, seekram kalyaanam senjukko nu..Kekuriya nee !!

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

I concur the above comment :)) Especially //psycho va maarite// :D