Are We Thinking Enough Or Just Following The Herd?

The intention of this post isn’t to be radical of any sort or showcase any form of resentment towards people that refrain from walking in the herd or follow suit. Probably this could be defined as more of a curiosity. 

Just the other day I was reading the Upanishads where it was mentioned that most of us do not have the capacity or the tenacity to understand things. We don’t have the zeal to go through it in depth and usually choose to follow suit with the status quo, or how things have been showcased before us. 

Now, the thing is where does the problem lay? If at all it’s true that the world is nothing but an appearance, then why bother about it at all, right? On the other hand, why would there be any philosophers in the first place if the world functioned on an autopilot mode? Do we question any of its existence? 

Do we even question our own existence, and what is likely to happen to us when we leave this body? For most of our lives we are busy accumulating wealth, building houses, travelling, but all of it vanishes in a jiffy. 

Who is to be responsible for that? Can we say that our lives are any different from that of an ape? Possibly not. As we’d just wake up, go to work, lead a conjugal life and then expire. Dan Brown in his book “The Lost Symbol” says “To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world, is like walking into a library full of books and not touching them.”

And I couldn’t agree more. Now, when we talk about knowing the meaning of the world, it seems like it varies from person to person. As I mentioned before, most of us are concerned about becoming mercenaries, without any concern about our mental state of affairs… 

Now, what do we do about all of this? Do we just plainly listen to everything, or treat it as a bitter pill to swallow, and just move on? Personally, I’d prefer neither of those options. Instead, I’d strive to seek refuge in one of my favourite songs of all time by one of my most favourite persons, Rabindranath Tagore. 

Here, he seeks agony from the Lord, in order to have some sense, and proper knowledge...

Image courtesy: Qijin Xu