the need to achieve

This is a corollary of my previous post. That was accidental, this could be called one too but this isn't as instinctive. Anyway, I was snoozing in the car today, having eaten garam garam Rawa Dosa and I don't know what exactly was happening in my head but the thought process seems to have been related to Godel, Escher, Bach's Formal systems and around this beautiful concept of Autological words, the fallacy of formal languages and stuff.

Before, I proceed check this out. An autological sentence is something like, "This sentence has five words". Or, words like 'unhyphenated', 'descriptive' etc. An autological word or a sentence is something which is self referential, it talks about itself as well. And words which do not define themselves are known as heterological words, like, 'tasty', or 'incomplete'. Now, the loose bolt, or rather the inconsistency of it has been exploited by the Grelling's Paradox which says, "Is heterological heterological?" And as to why this has been stuck in my head is the reason that yesterday I thought about something and as is my habit, tried to explain all that in one sentence. So, in the end, I got this- I don't have to state because the right to state stems from the need to prove. What the sentence basically intends to say is that I don't want to be stating stuff because if I'm sure of what I'm about to say, then I don't to say it. But then since I'm stating that, does that mean I'm not confident of what I'm saying? I can't catch what exactly the connection is but it's been stuck in my head. Another example of such a sentence would be the classic, catchy "Change is permanent". What I believe this means is that in this system of the world we live in, just because something is popular or proclaimed, does not mean it is right. The whole system is centrally flawed in case all this is right. We've taken a sentence like Chance is Permanent, which is basically paradoxical and all wrong, and have turned it into a modern Zen saying for mortal insight.

Ok, this isn't why I started off this piece. I'm pretty messed up right now, so let me state it out and leave for the time being. We've all heard about the fickleness of life, it's unpredictability, జీవితం బుద్బుద్ధప్రాయము, about the need to get away from all these shackles because life is a spell cast over us, it's just a dream and you'll see the reality when you die. And I believe a lot of us believe that. So, don't earn like you're crazy, don't expect a lot from your kids, do Yoga and all that are basically the derivatives of those sayings. But then, if life's a dream and you'll get to see the reality anyway after you die, why the hurry in uncovering all that. What people are basically saying is, you're sleeping right now, this is all a dream, when you wake up (aka die), you'll get to see the reality. Then , why are we trying to achieve something? To have our name sculpted in stone, to achieve so much to live as immortal legends in the folklore, or sometimes philanthropically, to make the world a better place for the future generations. WTF! I don't know if there's a God and all but as long as I cannot trace the reason for my birth and this world's, I'll accept him. When there's a God and you're going to end up with him after you die anyway, where nothing, not how rich you are, not how many films you've made, not how many people came to your funeral and all that bullshit does not matter anyway, what is stopping us from having a good time. Is it because we are too scared to accept the frivolousness of our lives. Because if all this is a dream, then maybe I don't have to forgo my beer or cigarette to lead a "happier, longer life to the fullest" because even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat. What that sleep-dream-realize theory evidently tells us is that all we're doing now is wiling away time. How I do it is my call. And I don't have a reason to achieve anymore because it's all going to be same anyway, atleast for me, which funnily enough is all that I care for anymore.

If you think I'm being pessimistic here, for one, I don't believe in the whole concept of the word, think again. I'm not encouraging people here to dope their asses off and pee on streets. All I'm saying is, don't do something because something else has to be achieved. Because all that you're thinking you've achieved is crappy enough anyway, in the eyes of the great creator, so it wouldn't make much of a difference. And if you're planning to leave a legacy or a fortune, honestly, do you give a shit about your grandsons who aren't born yet and who might as well not.

I know every action has a consequence but the consequence should not motivate the action. Funnily enough, we live in such a capricious world where somebody, that's very sad though, has done the action and when he's waiting for the result, dies. Where does all that toiling crap go to? All I'm saying is, this moment, ask yourself what you want to do. If the answer is go to sleep, shut the computer down, close the gigantic book you've been reading, throwing the due project out of your head, grab a blanket, plug in Kandisa and go to sleep. If you die in your sleep, you'll atleast die a happy one.

Boy, I love that line in Khajuraho, "अनहद के आँगन में नाचे चंदा सितारे" .

The boundaries of infinity. Genius.

There is a continuation to this post. Check it out.