Saturday, March 17, 2007

Satisfaction guaranteed

Every now and then (Mostly when I am depressed) I start wondering the purpose of life... To the illiterate, un-enlightened person (me in short), a good answer comes in one word : satisfaction. Satisfaction in what you do, satisfaction from the results of your action. A complexity I am not considering is the satisfaction derived from things totally out of your control like the satisfaction derived when India wins a cricket match.
It sounds very simple, but this theory can explain everyone's actions...


I heard this tsunami story about a man who lost all his children in Nagapattinam and buried them in the same beach which had claimed them, with his own hands. Now he has adopted so many children orphaned by the same disaster, creating for them a home away from orphanages. His lost children will never come back to him, but bringing up these children will give him some solace. He derived lots of happiness from adopting those children. In this context happiness and satisfaction become indistinguishable.



For a politician, defeating his opponent gives him satisfaction. Power gives him satisfaction. For actors, fame gives satisfaction. When they sleep after seeing a resounding opening of their film, they sleep with a great satisfaction. I can go on like this giving numerous examples.

Decisions and circumstances are pivots around which revolves satisfaction. Sometimes you decide to do something or become something. Then after that decision, whatever satisfaction you derive is mostly due to yourself. It is like what I want I will get. More important is when circumstances land you in a position which you never thought of (or worse against your decision an aspirations) This is exemplified in the case of the tsunami incident. The great guy would have never thought that he would lose all his kids the next day. The circumstances presented themselves, but he managed to somehow find some happiness in the midst of so much gloom.

It calls for intelligence. It calls for perspective too. In the end it boils down to whether you are intelligent enough to find some satisfaction whatever the situation presents.

To end it, there are of course the extremes. Some never find satisfaction in whatever they do. Some set their satisfaction levels so low that they hardly do anything.

1 comment:

amshuman.r said...

de how does this explain actions which you know are hopeless or you detest and you still do??