THE MEANING OF LIFE

__________

Submitted by
Nishita Gupta
BBA-LLB (2019-2024)
Division A
19010224152

Of

Symbiosis Law School Noida

Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune

In

September, 2019

Submitted to
Dr. Garima Yadav
Member Of Faculty
Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA
“I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life
its deepest significance.”
-Pablo Casals
Life is beautiful but not always easy, it has problems, too, and the
challenges lies in facing them with courage, letting the beauty of life act
like a balm, which makes pain bearable, by providing hope. Happiness,
sorrow, victory, defeat, day night are the two sides of coin. Similarly life
is full of moments of joy pleasure, success and comfort punctuated by
misery, defeat, failures and problems. There is no human being on earth,
strong, powerful, wise, rich, who has not experienced, struggle, suffering
or failure.

No doubt No doubt, life is beautiful and every moment – a celebration of

being alive, but one should be always ready to face adversity and
challenges. A person who has not encountered difficulties in life can never
achieve success.

Difficulties test the courage, patience, perseverance and true character of

a human being. Adversity and hardships make a person strong and ready
to face the challenges of life with equanimity. There is no doubt that there
can be no gain without pain. It is only when one toils and sweats it out
that success is nourished and sustained.

Thus, life is and should not be just a bed of roses; thorns are also a part
of it and should be accepted by us just as we accept the beautiful side of
life.

The thorns remind one of how success and happiness can be evasive and
thus not to feel disappointed and disheartened rather remember that the
pain of thorns is short-lived, and the beauty of life would soon overcome
the prick of thorns.

Those, who are under the impression that life is a bed of roses are
disillusioned soon and become victims of depression and frustration. One
who faces difficulties with courage and accepts success without letting it
go to its head is the one who experience real happiness, contentment and
peace in life.
Those, who think, that good times last forever, easily succumb to
pressure during difficulties. They do not put in required hard work and
efforts because they break down easily.

You can take the example of a student, who burns the mid night oil,
makes sacrifices and resists temptations so that he can perform well.
Similarly, a successful executive has to face the ups and downs of life, not
forgetting that life is a mix of success and failure, joy and sorrow.

If he loses hope during difficult times, he would not achieve success and
would be replaced by others. Even the strongest Kings and Emperors
have had their cup of woes.

Life has not been a bed of roses for them. The adage ‘Uneasy lays the
head that wears the crown’ has been rightly used for people, who are
successful and are enjoying power and authority.

For Aristotle the meaning of life is eudaimonia. I believe that Aristotle

discovered something really fundamental about human beings when he
thought about what makes them happy, what they want out of life and
how they wish to organise society to achieve it.

Aristotle finds that people pursue many different activities. For example,
some want to get married and have children, others want to do business
or play sports, or travel to distant lands, or read books, or they like to sit
in parliament, or they want to be professional soldiers.

Aristotle asked, is there something in these many activities which they

have in common?

Let’s look at a few examples and ask, why does a person do this?

a. Jack likes a game of golf. Of course he likes to win, but that’s not the
end of it. In the main his interest is just in a good game.

b. Jacqueline like lots of money in the bank. But it isn’t the money for
itself, but because she can buy what she wants with it.

d. Mary likes romantic novels. But for her, the interest is not in the novels
as such, but because she likes to fantasise about love and foreign
countries.
And so we can go through a long list of activities people do. They are
entertained, challenged, moved, satisfied, interested — in a word, they do
these things with some particular end in view. What is this end they are
seeking?

Aristotle says that all these activities are designed to achieve something
other than the apparent purpose for which we do them. I might build a
house, but the house is for living in. So the house again has another
purpose behind it. I might go to war and my purpose is victory, but the
victory points to another end beyond it.

In other words, when we finish one activity, we look to another. Therefore

it is the activity in itself that is common to all these many pursuits. And
why activity? Because it makes us happy to pursue something which we
think is good for us:

Therefore if there is an end for all that we do, this will be the good
achievable by action, and if there are more than one, this will be the
goods achievable by action.

Therefore the end we strive to achieve is feeling good, feeling happy:

‘Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of
action.’ And when we do these things, we always try to do the best we
can. This trying the best we can he calls arete = excellence.

In sum, what’s common to the activities of all human beings is this: We

look for the good in what we do, and we pursue this good for the
happiness (eudaimonia) it brings. And in pursuit of these things, we tend
to find the greatest satisfaction in doing them really well. So: the good life
is the pursuit of happiness. And happiness is not in the things done and
the end achieved, but in the doing it; and furthermore, happiness is the
‘end product’ so to speak.

To sum up, life is beautiful just as roses but it has challenges which are
like thorns and have to be faced and overcome by all. Those, who accept
these, challenges and succeed, are the ones, who know how to live life in
its true sense. Thus, enjoy life but also be prepared to bear the pricks of
pain.