Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Imperfections

The land of perfection – A thought that I’ve pondered over for more than a year now.

I try and imagine what it might be like to be in such a place. Everything would be as it should be – glittering, flawless and untouchable. The natives of this land would also be perfect. Everything they want would land on their laps, negativity would be nonexistent. They would all live lives of success, beauty and wealth. Around every corner there would perfection would just be lying free– for anybody to take. In fact, the residents of this land would be so perfect that they would have nothing to yearn for – no desires no hopes for a better tomorrow, no ambitions or journeys.

In this land, everyone would sleep an undisturbed, peaceful night. Nothing would hamper their calm, nor give them the sweet pleasure of being somewhere else, albeit for a span of 8 hours. They would have no dreams. They would have nowhere to go to be anybody or anything they want unhindered by the laws of nature. The people there would just exist, day in and day out, for the sake of living absolutely devoid of any drive or motivation whatsoever.


Is that really perfection?

So often, when we, mere mortals, lust for perfection in every form, we fail to realize what emptiness that object of our desire would bring us. A life of empty fulfillment, a life where we no longer dream! The very thought is inconceivable. How can something be perfect if it is flawed in such an essential aspect of its being? Dreams and hopes are what make us human. They are the basic ground for existence and all of humanity thrives on them. Without ambition, life would be at the pinnacle of ennui and just not worth living.


If we, from the ordinary, flawed earth went to this land of perfection, we would inevitably be bored and tired of its monotony and ordinary nature. We would then be yearning to return to the very place we wanted to leave. Indeed the grass is greener on the other side, or maybe its greener on our side! It’s something we’ve heard all our lives but it doesn’t really strike any chords unless we experience it ourselves or realize it for ourselves.

The day I pondered over these thoughts was the day I realized that all my late-night fantasies about being in a utopia where all my problems vaporize before they are born were quite misplaced. I had been yearning for something that I didn’t need to attain. Life was good the way it was now. However, the biggest realization that struck me was that in all our flaws we are all perfect in our own way. Despite everything that we do wrong, despite the times we hurt other people or cause problems to ourselves, there is something in all of us that is still perfect. It’s up to us to shirk it or embrace it.

2 comments:

Ankit Ashok said...

Very true.

Humans are driven by desire. A person is dead when he has no desire, nothing to look forward to.

Perfection is being in a state where one constantly achieves one's goals and sets new ones.

VG said...

Excuse me, I beg to differ.

Let me put it this way.... "desirelessness" doesn't mean absence of desires/motives/intentions but absence of "attachment" with the desires, absence of "identification" with the result.

& I think its attainable.
... as in the case of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus... n countless other enlightened people!!