Today happens to be the day I was born twenty four years back. And as I pondered, over the last twenty and four years of my life, a very pertinent question crossed my head. What does it take to make ones life truly fulfilling?
In his classic work Julius Caesar, Shakespeare talking about Brutus as distinct from all the conspirators conspiring to kill Caesar, attributes these lines to Brutus:
"His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man!' "
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man!' "
Well Shakespeare was not the first one to use the Expression “This was a Man” to describe a virtuous life.
Drayton must have been in an emphatic mood when he wrote the following lines which appeared in his 1598 Book “The Baron’s War”:
“He was a Man (then boldly dare to say),
In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit,
In whom so mix’d the elements all lay,
That none to one could sovereignty impute,
As all did govern, so did all obey,
He of a temper was so absolute,
As that it seem’d, when nature him began,
She meant to show all that might be in a Man”
These great qualities of head and heart, of valor and gentleness all in one seem to have been lost. These great qualities which have always seen the ascent of man. Jacob Bronowski in the last chapter of his masterly book “The Ascent of Man”, brings out a beautiful message when he says,
“The personal commitment of man to his skill,
the intellectual commitment, and
the emotional commitment,
working together as one,
has made the Ascent of Man”
A good life is very difficult to measure. Even the most famous, the richest, the most successful artistes, musicians, painters, the statesmen, authors, all who have earned recognition in their respective fields do not find themselves immune from the ordinary frailties of human life. Perfection eludes us and keeps doing so consistently. Perfection is always a mirage, which can only be chased but can never be captured.
Or is a life most fulfilled if it conforms to what Milton
“Unmoved, unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His promises he kept, his love, his zeal,
Nor number nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind.”
Is such a life so chaste and austere, so balanced and sober is a life truly fulfilled. The search for an answer, I believe, will always remain a pursuit. As Lord Cranworth once remarked, “There is no possibility of mistaking midnight for noon, but at what precise moment twilight becomes darkness is difficult to determine”
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