What is good life? Shouldn’t pleasure in life be the only driving force behind all the activities undertake? Why is seeking pleasure in life almost a taboo in the society? Can we live life by doing activities purely based on pleasure?
I looked up wiping the sweat of my eyebrows. The summit was no where in sight. I looked down at my feet which by this time were shaking and paining. There were bruises on the side of my legs. My knees as well as my back were hurting. I looked up at my fellow hikers and almost felt a sense of relief when I saw them to be roughly in the same sort of condition as me. But onwards we marched and with each step that I took I was ever so close to the place where we all were going to sit down and have some lunch! Oh the Lunch!!! When I was packing it that morning, I had no idea that it was going to taste like heaven, infact, the very thought of having it at some point was practically the only thing that was still keeping me up on my legs. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, this happens to me almost everytime I go on a hike. I suffer, I endure the pain and I make promises to myself that I will never ever put my body on the line again and yet week after week I find myself with the same bunch of people up a mountain. The chain of thoughts was broken by the declaration by the group leader that we were at our destination and that it was time to rest! Its only then that I realised that this was such a nice day, a rarity in this part of the world. The sun was shining and the birds were chirpy and the view…. Well what a view! Pure bliss J I am posting a picture of it. Hope you all enjoy it just as much as I did. Though I must say the lens hasn’t done justice to the actual view that was on offer.
We settled down and in about 15 min with enough food and hot coffee in me, I was up on my feet and ready to enjoy the nature around me. All the thoughts of being out of breath, extremely tired etc. were a distant memory. I took a deep breath and as I was letting it out slowly, my friend said to me that I looked so happy. My face had lit up and that he couldn’t believe that I was the same guy who was huffing and puffing all the way up about 15-20 minutes back! And indeed he was right! The only feeling I had at that time was the one of pleasure. I settled down again to finish my lunch but couldn’t help thinking about the chain of events and how this happens to me almost every time I hike! Why is it that something that is so hard on my body and causes so much pain eventually ends up giving me a lot of pleasure? Why is it so important that everytime I promise myself to not do it and yet something draws me towards it?
I think the important question that I want to ask my readers through the medium of this blog is that most of us know what gives us pleasure and yet why is it that we end up doing things that annoy us? Most of us don’t like a 9-5 job and yet we spend years getting an ‘education’ that essentially is prepping us for that ( I have already written on this topic in my blog Monday http://socyberty.com/issues/monday-a-love-hate-mostly-hate-affair/ ). This is just one phase of life, but if we look at life as whole, if feels almost every aspect of our lives has been predefinedpain ( by whom? Did they ask us? Does it please us? ). If you are a pre-teen: go to school, teen: go to high school, 20 something: get a job, build a career, support your parents, get married, get a house ( more like get a mortgage! ), 30 something: save for the kids, think about the future etc. I can go on and on but I think you get the point. So the question is if we didn’t set this routine ( for life!! ) and we do not get any pleasure following it, then why do we do it? More importantly should we do it?? And if we are how to change it? Also, shouldn’t any activity of ours be driven by the possibility of gaining pleasure?
I think a simplistic view would be to list down the activities that give us pleasure and try and follow the list! Easier said then done? Not really! The problem is not that you cant follow the list but that you have to undo all the other activities that you are doing. Yes this might even result in a ‘drop in lifestyle’ but sooner rather than later, you will welcome the change as being happy on the inside trumps any material outwardly happiness any day of the year. Remember you don’t live your parents life, your neighbours life, your bosses life or for that matter your dogs life and if its your life then it has to be your rules and the pleasure will be all your to have! ( I have written about Rules in life in one of my earlier blogs http://hbkhrushikesh.quazen.com/arts/rules-are-they-made-just-so-that-they-can-be-broken/ so will not expand on it here )
).
No comments:
Post a Comment