The two points of views are drastically different……so different are they that a mere inception (a deep conscious and subconscious acceptance as the truth, the obvious reality) of the second organic view point has the capacity to drastically alter the life perceptions instantaneously.
It is quite (the second organic view point) contrary to our routine belief which is mostly agnostic (inability to interpret sensations and hence to recognize things) and somnolent (sleep of intelligible mind) in regards to clearly identifying “Us”.
The quintessential “who am I?”, “what is the purpose and nature of this universe?” are viewed plainly as futile psychological abstractions in the face of more pressing realities of earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill.
But for what? if only one may pause for a moment and ask himself.
For what am I earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill?
To continue doing the same for another month, year or a lifetime (till death comes and presses the stop button of this mundane drag that we call life) ?
The infinitely brilliant orchestration of unimaginable number of events that took place from the big bang (13.8 billion years ago) forwards till this date to bring this Me into being in this here and now was for this?? (earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill)???
It seems like a crazy universe that after so much deliberation in creation has ended up creating a creature that spends his early years preparing, for earning a bread (so called schooling and higher education), then is spent during his most productive years running from pillar to post actually earning the bread only to be finally awaiting his turn to part from this planet still worrying about the bread as long as he is alive.
(The bread here signifies not just food or basic necessities but also the insatiable list of desires that continuously haunt our being)
Or is it that the creature has got it all mixed up and wrong??
Could it be that the human being is missing the obvious amidst the deafening clamor of the so called necessity??
Could it be that the obvious is hidden from the plain site because of its being so blatantly obvious??
There is nothing wrong with driving a Ferrari at 20 kmph in busy traffic conditions but it certainly is madness to believe that the Ferrari can do only 20kmph because you have been driving it at that speed only (maybe because of the traffic conditions you are subjecting it to)
Similarly there is nothing wrong with earning the daily bread and paying the monthly bill but it is nothing short of insanity to believe that it is the finality of life.
So what exactly is the finality of life??
Though a good question it does not have a singular answer.
And Abraham Maslow explains it quite well as to why is it so
Maslow stratifies human beings depending upon their principal needs and desires i.e. from plain physiological and biological to more moral and spiritual. A persons chief or most pressing or most important need or desire puts him in a certain strata of Maslow's pyramid as follows.
1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, freedom from fear.
3. Social Needs - belongingness, affection and love, - from work group, family, friends, romantic relationships.
4. Esteem needs - achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others.
5. Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
So the answer to this question (of the finality of life) varies from person to person depending upon where exactly is he located in the Maslow’s pyramid.
To each according to his own capacity, moving into the next strata of the pyramid seems like the finality.
Maslow states “One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization.”
And he defines self actualization as “realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.”
And this is where we begin, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
Our questioning of the finality in (of) life arises from the pinnacle of Maslow’s pyramid and takes us beyond. Metaphorically it frees us from the geometric confines of name and form identities of the limited mind (like the confines of the Maslow’s pyramid) and expands us in the domain of nameless and formless infinity.
