After Birth

After Birth. Our life after birth is manifestly clear. We are given a name. We go to school, and college. We work. We earn. Marriage and children. Saga repeats for a new generation. Endless generations of humanity endured this cyclical process. Endless generations are destined to endure in the future. Why should the process of birth, death, and birth repeat unabated? We are not enjoying the benefits of our life’s journey because we leave everything behind when we depart. We are not provided with information on our departure date. Our arrival into the world is unknown to us as well. Does our journey end upon our departure? Who is the beneficiary of this process? How strange is our existence? Endless iterations of human life; endless outcomes for humanity. Searching history will not yield a historical figure who is comparable to our existential truths. An ocean of unknowns surrounds our existential journey. Yet none of us abandon the pursuit of bodily functions. Why don’t we stop the process of giving birth to children? The poorest of the poor have children. Wealthy have children. And everyone in the middle of the range has children. It never dawned on us to avoid giving birth to avoid a drab and uninteresting life for an unsuspecting soul. Once again, who is the controller behind the scenes watching the mega opus of life? 

Where did we exist before this birth? We are not made of heretofore unseen matter. Our journey in this Universe did not begin when we emerged from a mother’s womb. We existed in countless bodies in an unending string of births and deaths of bodies unknown to us. Bodies come and go. Yet, we exist. The joy of our existence evaporates within our short life span. Rich and powerful, poor and meek, and everyone in between endures a joyless existence. Accumulation of wealth does not satisfy our thirst. We seek more, and more. Yet, when we acquire more, we seek more of the more. Why do we not find satisfaction? Are we searching for the definition of who we are in our accumulations? We climb the peaks enduring a punishing experience, we do not find the definitive solution for our identity as human race. We reach outer planets, and send probes across the vastness of space, the human race still hungers for our identifying qualities. We swim across the oceans, sky dive, walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, and do various other activities to challenge ourselves in order to define, and sculpt a masterpiece for our existential identity. Our identity remains distant from our existence. Great discoveries were made in the last half a millennium, and those discoveries and innovations have not brought us closer to defining our existence as humans. Isolation is growing amongst us. We live in a connected world unconnected with humanity. Are we connected, or disconnected? Why should our existential reality remain out of reach of our grasp? 

We wax poetic about times of yore. We like nostalgic times. The present moment never offers any substantive strength to our existence. The present moment from a nostalgia standpoint might provide an iota of solace about times gone by. Existing moments are drudgery. We live it because we are incapacitated to end it. Joyless is our journey in life. Joy must give joy eternally. It cannot be joy one moment, drudgery the next. Changing the quality of our definition of joy is not joy. We have assigned the quality of joy to an uninspiring activity. For without joy, humans cannot rise to perform any task. We can conclusively, definitively, and commandingly conclude that the human race is in search of joy. Joy of life. Joy of our existence. Joy of discovering ourselves. We are desirous of joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Every pursuit must end with joy. 

Where did we exist before birth? We existed in the desire of our parents. Our parents’ desire to find joy in physical bonding led to our birth. We are a product of joy for our parents. Our parents are a product of joy for our grandparents. Grandparents are a product of joy for our great grandparents. We journeyed seven generations in the bodies of our ancestors. We existed in another form before reaching the human body. Our existence throughout the formation of galactic space is unquestionable. We are not manufactured, anew, like the products available in a store. Manifestation of someone’s joy is our birth.

Desire continuously transforms from one form to another. The same desire that exists for humans exists in plants and animals, in soil, in water, in fire, in air, in sky, in our Sun, in Milky Way, and beyond. Desire is the governing force controlling the abundance of existence. When the desire is pure, it shines as bright as the Sun. Humans can express and experience desire. Other bodies, alas, cannot discover the desire of the mind. Every atom desires to take birth as a human. How splendid is our birth? Are we even capable of assessing the wealth of our existence externally oriented? External orientation is not providing us with joy. We conquered Everest, we landed on the Moon, we have satellites, we have space stations, we are continuously exploring externally to return with emptiness. Assuming that one day in the future we colonize Mars, reach outer galaxies, discover aliens, and cover the vastness of space with human imprints would still not bring us joy. Conquering externally is an individual pursuit. It is not a collective pursuit. Many contributed to Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon. However, the credit of landing on the Moon is exclusive to Neil Armstrong. Humanity might have rejoiced when he landed. However, that joy was momentary. It is not transferable across generations. It fades. External conquests fade. It is an impermanent achievement. The quality of the external environment is impermanent. It is incapable of providing permanence. 

An impure desire produces the most undesirable specimens for humanity. A criminal, murderer, conman, deceivers, and the many undesirable elements in society are the manifestations of impure desires in our world. Gaandhaari was the mother of Kauravas in Mahabharata time. Her anger and jealousy of not bearing children ahead of her sister-in-law led to the birth of a child who destroyed the Kaurava dynasty. Examples plenty from historical times, which depict the outcome of pure and impure desire. Can we imagine the strength of desires? What can it do in our lives? What is it doing at the present time? What will unravel for us in the future?

Where is joy for humanity? In our desire. Where is desire? In our mind. Where is our mind? Internally. Where is joy? Internally. Where are we searching for joy? Externally! How could external sources unlock internal vaults of joy? As vast is external terrain, internal terrain is vaster, deeper, and richer. Locked wealth. Do we know we possess the keys? Where are our keys? Keys for joy! It is with us. Every one of us has the keys. We lack the intelligence to see it. Intelligence to discover ourselves is the key that unlocks joy for us. We lack the ability to ascend in our lives. Desire alone will not lead us to discovering joy. 

After Desire.

After Post-Modernity.