Life! or Life?

Life? Or Life!

English, the universal language of communication. Forget the 5 vowels and 21 consonants, the punctuation marks themselves can confuse a person. The best example would be the large above words: “Life?” Or “Life!”. A very simple yet highly confusing statement: is life a question, or an exclamation. Should one continuously question life or rather enjoy it? A question whose answer we have been trying to find ever since genesis itself. Why are we here?

Well, speaking of a particular individual, say me myself. I came into existence, not when I came out of my mother’s womb, but maybe the day my mother met my father for the 1st time. Maybe it goes even further; maybe it was when my grandfathers met my grandmothers. We can take it even further; perhaps it was the day universe was born itself.

I would like to take a long period over here. I logically proved that mine, yours and every living thing’s existence on earth is because of the Big Bang! We are here because something came out of nothing. So the question has been to a small extent been answered: How are we here!

Now if we are because of the Big Bang, and well, with due respect to both religious and scientific communities, God or Science selected a very specific moment for time zero, for the creation. It all started once, didn’t it? But why that moment? Why not 100 billion years before or after? Why a very particular moment was chosen to get something out of nothing! God or Science, why?

You might think this is just another author trying to philosophise a very complex thing, but the only way to solve a problem, which I as a science student discovered, is to go by the simplest approach of logically and practically interpreting things. Still confused? Its normal. Consider a very simple problem : 2 + 2 = ? Now we now that 2 + 2 = 4. But if someone asks you to prove it, you can be in a dilemma. In fact you “will” be in a dilemma; this person is asking me to prove 2 + 2 = 4! He’s got to be mad!
We should now come back to the topic of discussion: Life? Or Life!
Let’s take a slight mathematical approach of understanding life. Consider life as a very very complex mathematical equation consisting of algebra, trigonometry, calculus, geometry, in fact all possible mathematics! Now, we all, living as well as non living, make up to be the constants and variables. The equation is guided by some very specific and constantly changing guiding rules: Physics or God depends on your belief. Now if life is a mathematical equation, it has to have a solution, contradict me if I am wrong. Now the thing is, life is not like x=1; it is more like x=1 or x=2 or x=3 ...... . The equation of life has infinite solutions, and you are a part of it. You, me, everything in the universe, forget earth, the universe! We all are continuously changing variables, in accordance with the guiding rules.

Now if life is an equation, it should definitely be “life?”. But the thing is, no one has actually found a single answer! Not a single solution, contradict me again if I am wrong, and enlighten me if I am ignorant. Life IS a question mark.

Now I had previously proved that I am here because the Big Bang took place. But what am I here for? The answer to the question of the present and the future lies in past itself: Why were my parents here? They gave birth to me. It may not necessarily be their prime cause of existence, but it is one of them. In fact the Big Bang took place to give birth to me someday. Now why am I here for, to give birth to someone new, and so on. It doesn’t end with you or me, it is a process continuing till eternity.

Infinity: A word that has seriously confused millions. What is it? Does it even exist? Will it ever be proved?

I had previously discussed about time zero. The moment the clock started ticking. Something came out of nothing. Life started when time changed from zero to some constantly increasing value. Now if it started once, it will, and has to end one day. Infinity is the moment when it all ends. Something will turn into nothing. Everything that has a beginning has an end. It is no Dooms Day like concept, but a very very bitter truth. But hopefully no one knows when Infinity will arrive!

If the reader might race his mind a little bit, a just gave a hint to the existence of life: We are here because it will end one day. “When” is out of the question. The mere existence of life, the only reason which is universal to all of is that we are born to die someday. There may hundreds of things we can do during our life, but the ultimate reason of existence is the End itself! Life then becomes “Life.”(A full stop). A very contradicting statement! But worth thinking over.

You are here because it all started once, it will be because of you that it will end. Everything that one does, every breath, every step you take is taking us one step closer to the end, an end which will take eternity to come.

Now the term “Life!” comes. Life is not only about questions. Some questions are not worth answering! When I declared that it all started because it has to end someday, it has a deeper truth in it. What life is it if it is not “Life!” Now comes a bigger dilemma, is life really all about enjoying?

Life is not the amounts of breaths you take; it is about the moments that take your breath away.

Life? Has an answer, every question has an answer. But you should know the right way to look for it. The end is, as I had previously said, just one of the reasons of existence, the common one. The answer to life, are the other reasons of existence. Love, friendship, brotherhood, dreams, goals, desires. The list is endless.

Let us list some few examples of some great people who changed our lives. Excuse my use of recent examples, for my history is weak. George Washington was just another normal “New World” guy till he realized his existence was to create the “United States of America”. Mahatma Gandhi discovered so when he took up the fight for India’s Freedom. Albert Einstein perhaps realized it when he discovered E=MC2 . Or perhaps when he came to know the nuclear bomb was invented because of it!

One common mistake I have made in the above observations. I have taken it without giving any thoughts that “they” have realized one of the causes of their existence. It is “us” who have realized their cause of existence. A very complicated misunderstanding, isn’t it? They were just living their normal lives, working for a living or an aim or a goal, not to find an answer to “Life?”, They were just living their “Life!”.

It is seriously very complicated. The answer to “Life?” is perhaps “Life!” itself.

Life is thus, the most confusing, complicated, mysterious single word in English. Life is not only about asking questions and finding their answers, it is about living it. We don’t know what lies in the future and perhaps we should exercise our thoughts so much either.

“Life!” doesn’t only mean enjoyment. To some, life is a journey; to some it is a stage(Try to remember the words of Shakespeare on this one). For some it is just another four lettered word, for some, their loved ones. For some their ambitions, for some, Hope.

So, it is up to us, whether we question “Life?” or live a “Life!”. Simple choice yet complicated decision.


Parth Mistry
3rd year mechanical engineering,
S.V.N.I.T. Surat