Why?

"Do not ask why." - a very common phrase that I hear very frequently. And my response usually is "Why shouldn't I ask why?". It is probably one of the reasons many people describe me with terms like stubborn, adamant, unbending. And to all those people, I say, at least I am not being unreasonable.

What is one thing that makes human beings what they are? What makes human beings different from every other animal? Common sense. Logical reasoning. So when I, or anybody else asks "Why?", we try to be a human being. Asking for a reason is the inherent quality of humans. It is natural for any human being to ask why. That is how we evolve. But thwarting the question curbs the imagination, creativity and ultimately the development of the human race.

Ancient humans have made some impressive discoveries. Stone age was marked by use of crude weapons to fill people's stomach. When somebody discovered fire from those crude weapons, it was put to good use to satisfy their hunger in better ways. As time elapsed, the wants of humans increased and they identified ways to satisfy those wants. They imagined. They created. They discovered. They invented. They evolved. 

There probably came a time when they evolved so much that greed clouded their supportive foundation. People wanted themselves to excel. It got contagious and everybody started feeling so. Reason was suppressed. Men failed to see that they were not moving uphill anymore. They were going down and dragging others with them, and they could not see this because their vision became restrained to their path alone. "Why" became a rude term because that meant someone wanted to take credit for their marvelous idea for fame. 

I agree this sounds ludicruous. But this is the feeling people give me when I ask a single word "why?". What is wrong in wanting to know the reason behind what I am doing? It will make me do things better, maybe come out with my own ideas if I knew what I was doing, won't it? Logic is one thing that has an extremely firm base. It can never be shaken. When such a strong base is provided, no questions will arise, maybe except "What can be built on top of this?". There is a reason for everything - from how we are able to walk to how the earth is inhabitable. Unquestionable reasons. The problem with not asking why is that reason dies with the creator and traditions are followed blindly. Traditions which became obscure with the recent technology, instead of being abandoned is continued to be practised with vigour, wasting time which can be productively used to build further strong footholds for others to climb. 

"Wait! No. Trust is important. Trust what your forefathers did and follow them blindly. Stop at the place they stopped. You cannot surpass that point, so do not try. You must stop". "Oh no! Do not move off the track! You never know what you might face there! This is an established safe path. It would be wise to follow it!".

Men or machines? Or does that make any sense?

Well, normally when anyone feels they are overworked they ask "What are we? Men or machines?". I've often wondered if that is even a meaningful comparison. Can we measure men using machines? Just because a person is stressed out, can he be compared to a machine? Don't machines get tired too? True, machines cannot protest. They cannot think for themselves and demand less laborious work. But can we use a computer continuously for 24 hours without turning it off at all? Yes, we can. But what happens then? Won't the performance reduce? Won't we feel "Oh! I need to turn this off or it'll never work as good as before!"? 

Machines wear out. Human beings get tired. Machines don't get lazy. Human beings do. So on what basis can we set men against machines? Human beings get tired easily when they are lazy. It's Parkinson's law all over - "work expands to fill the time available". When the time is more than sufficient, lethargy settles in comfortably. It finds a cozy place inside our heads and tucks in gladly. It's basically the same everywhere. Rabindranath Tagore applies this  to objects - "When material is in profusion, the mind gets lazy". 

This is the exact reason why we let many things slip. Life is a one time opportunity. Once lost, it cannot be regained. It must be enjoyed and must prove to be fruitful. There is only one way to achieve this - do what your mind says, not what others say. As it is mentioned in "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, there is a universal soul, that is linked to every individual by the Gossamer thread. A person who doesn't know the language another person speaks, will be able to understand at least the outlook when the other person is speaking. Some people are real close - their understanding of each other surpasses everything else. Just a look at the other person and their soulmate can say what exactly is going on within them. No words are needed for communication between them. Their souls speak. When a person stops in his track to listen to the views of ten billion people around him, well will he be just confused? Or abashed? What must happen to us can only be decided by us. The moment we stop listening to that small yet sweet voice within ourselves, we stop living at all. We kill that voice inside us. We lose all the material connection to this universe and only a feeble physical link keeps us down here. 

So coming back to our original topic - men or machines, well I'd like to say that we don't compare ourselves with anyone or anything and continue working along our path for our excellence. Whatever happens, that sweet littile voice in your head will stand by you.