Introduction
Do we live in anthropocentric world? Who\what is considered as the center and summit of central focus? Human no more remains crown and compendium of creation. The religions, cultures, civilizations, arts, scientific discoveries and inventions which primarily meant to elevate human welfare, have made him\ her mere slave. Suffering has enveloped the entire global village. “Peace, justice, harmony” just remain black and bold letters on the placards and banners in march or rally.
Now the big question arises, what is human search? it remains a mystery.
From birth to death, human is in search, though he\she searches for many things, the ultimate search centers on ‘salvation’ as a Christian, ‘moksha’ as a Hindu, and ‘nirvana’ as a Buddhist. “We are made or you, o god, and oh, how weary we are till we rest in you!” St. Augustine
Search for safety and peace
The world is set ablaze with terrorism, wars, dire poverty, consumeristic and utilitarian values. Where are we marching towards?
In this unsafe and violation stemming world, what human looks for is peace and safety.
We are living in a land of poor. Of the 1 billion inhabitants of India
20th centaury is a hallmark in human history for producing great leaders, and creating human holocausts with two great world wars. Even today it has continued in different forms, terrorism, communal violence economic recession etc, has left human baffled and confused, worried and tensed. The inevitable uncertainty makes human perennially wretched and miserable. In these circumstances the desire for meaning almost dies away. What human needs as his primary need is peace and safety, assurance and security that tomorrow will be bright for him, he\she will be able to move around and able to earn the basic necessities of life. When the basic necessities are being fulfilled then human can think of the meaning of life, the ultimate search or goal of human life on this earth. Beside all these what human needs is the desire for meaning.
THE DESIRE FOR MEANING
Pounding in the breast of every man is an intense desire to lead a significant life. A man's most innate need is to find meaning and purpose. It is the underlying motivator of our behavior. It is what brings us joy, pleasure, peace, and contentment. How many times have you said or felt…
I want my life to count -- to make a difference!
I want to make a contribution in the lives of people around me.
I want to be useful, to do something with my life.
We each have an inbred, intuitive sense that we are created to make a difference. We are not frustrated because we think significance cannot be found. Rather, we are sure it can be found, and our frustration is that we have not yet taken hold of it.
Meaning gives the will the power to survive. As self determining beings, man is able to change the situation, at best himself; even he has the highest potentialities. Whether his potentialities are actualized or not, depends on his determination, decision and involvement. Existing is meaningless unless it is “existing for others”, because, as we said earlier, man’s existing is always pro-existence. Therefore, by meaning of life one has to take up responsibilities by doing something useful and meaningful for others.
What is required is a sense of mission. And for this, only a change of attitude is required. We can be optimistic. We can succeed; it is never too late. We can be another. We may not be able to change a particular situation. But we can change ourselves our attitude. To have meaning in life a sense of mission is demanded, which means involvement in something worth doing, somebody worth living for (family, wife, children). Remember Nietzsche’s dictum: “he who has a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’ in life.
Man is basically oriented to meaning, i.e., to be what he should be. Man finds a constant tension between what he is and what he should be. To find a meaning in a particular situation is a capacity which is distinctively human. He who has that capacity can transcend any predicament. Only he has to be helped to discover the meaning of existence. Meaning of existence can not be given by one person to another. It is up to each one to find out the purpose of his life and to discover the meaning of his own life.
Meaning of life[2] (purpose)
What constitutes this “inner hold”[3]? A man who could not see the end of his provisional existence is not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life. He ceases to live for the future in contrast to a man without an aim in moral life. The unemployed worker is in similar situation. He does not have future or aim. He suffers from a peculiar sort of time. –Inner time- which is the result of their unemployed state. Prisoner suffers from this strange ‘time experience’ paradoxical is time experience. Larger time seems passing very quickly and smaller time passes very slowly. Time has to do with one’s time of purpose at any given moment. Purpose or intention is something that is alive. It therefore exists in the present and can be experienced only by being presently active, like hunger and thirst. Otherwise it is not intention but only memory of one or memories or perhaps the dream of having one later. “There are no memories or dreams without present intention,” Sartre. Purposeful time is therefore present time oriented toward the future. I can only intend toward the future. Only by knowing myself as presently tending to go forward in time, can I have ay purpose whatever. Time without purpose is boredom. Boredom makes a prisoner loose his ‘hold on life. Everything becomes pointless. Such a person forgets that often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation, which gives hi the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.
Hope precedes meaning
We must always give others inner strength by pointing out them a future goal to which they could look forward. It is a peculiarity of man that he only can live by looking to the future. If we loose our faith in future, we are doomed. We loose then the spiritual world. Sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. Never give up hope. Hope is a rare gift. By hope man draws the future into this present and lives already by it. In hope man opens himself to the future. Hope alters man; draws him out of the cocoon of his life, because it shows him new possibilities. This hope makes him ready to come out of himself and to place himself in love beside the other person. No one can foretell the impossible can happen. Probably may never happen above all, that new up hope. Even the most desperate situation, health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position, in society- all these are things that could be achieved again or restored. Future, no man knows. What the future would bring no man knows. Chances can open up quite suddenly. Therefore always hope. The striving to find meaning is alive. Man is able to live and even die for his ideals and values. Man needs something for the sake of which to live. Will to meaning is a fact. What is implicitly referred to, is the fact that there is always freedom to make his choice between accepting or rejecting an offer, i.e.., to fulfill a meaning or potentiality or else to forfeit it.
Supra meaning
Man’s world is not over here. There is a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human would find an answer. His ultimate meaning necessarily exceeds and surpasses the finite, intellectual capacity of man. This is supra meaning[4] to life especially when suffering afflicts our lives. Human being is not freedom from conditions. Man is not fully determined but determines himself. Whether he gives in to condition or stand up to them depends on his freedom. Man is self transcendent. In concentration camp some behaved like swine, while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself, which one he realizes, depends on decisions; not on conditions. Man is the being who has invented the gas chambers those of Auschwitz , but he is also the being who entered those gas chambers upright with “lord’s prayers” on his lips.
Love the ultimate goal.
"Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire....The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved." [5]
Love[6] is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By the spiritual act of love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him; which is not yet actualised but yet ought to be actualised. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualise these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.
In logo therapy[7], love is not interpreted as a mere epiphenomenon of sexual drives and instincts in these of a so –called sublimation. Love is s primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex but a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love. Human finds his meaning of life in love.[8] Love becomes the ultimate source of will and power to lead life for others. Among faith, hope and love, love is the superior of all.
CONCLUSION
Frankl concludes that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. Every human will find meaning in his own way. It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
§ Desbruslais, Cyril S.J. The Philosophy Of The Human Person. Ed - Kuruvilla Pandikattu S.J. Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, 1997.
§ Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search For Meaning. St. Paul Publication, Bombay
§ Solovyv, Vladimir. The Meaning Of Love. Geoffry Bles: The Centenary Press, London
§ Therukattil, George. Becoming Human, ‘A Study In Philosophical Anthropology’. JIP Publication, Jeevalaya Institute of Philosophy, Bangalore
ARTICLE
§ O’Brien, Dermont, “Love.” The Month, Vol – 25, june, 1992, P.211.
§ Santani , Saurabh, Meaning Of Life And Happiness In Wittgenstein. Journal of the Indian Academy
[1] Cyril Desbruslais s.j., The Philosophy Of the Human Person, ed - kuruvilla pandikattu s.j. jnana deepa vidyapeeth, Pune, 1997, p.9.
[2] Saurabh Santani, Meaning Of Life And Happiness In Wittgenstein, Journal Of The Indian Academy
[3] George Therukattil, Becoming Human, ‘A study in philosophical Anthropology’, JIP Publication, Jeevalaya Institute of Philosophy, Bangalore
[5] Viktor E. Frankl, Op.Cit, P. 101
