Many philosophers and writers have grappled with the subject of human emotions and some of them have termed them as bondage in which the humans live a convoluted existence where there is nothing but just hurt, grief and unending regrets. Sometimes I wonder whether this is one part of our existence and pain is a part and parcel of our lives, but isn’t life supposed to be celebrated and lived happily. If earth was just meant to be a hell for us, where we would always be in bondage with our emotions, where our every whim and fancy would be dictated by our emotions over which we would have no control, then earth would surely be a hell for everyone inhabiting it. However, as each one of us knows, heaven and hell are both here on this earth itself and there is a lot to celebrate and thank for on this earth. The very fact that we have an invaluable gift of consciousness and we are able to determine the course of our lives (to some extent till the destiny permits) and then we celebrate and marvel our creations such as the music, arts, sciences and even the mendacity of our lives where we live normal and ordinary lives, but are happy and contented and have a good night’s sleep at the end of a hard working day.

But then there come the emotions, who like uncontrolled arrows pierce the shield of our heart and wound our mind. Each and every one of us goes through this barrage of arrows in the form of our uncontrolled emotions and then we remark that we are sad. On this, the Great Gautam Buddha, the enlightened one, said that the root cause of all the sorrows on planet earth was the trishna or desire. Desire is the root of every evil, the Buddha said. However, we as ordinary humans cannot compare ourselves to the vastness of his perspective and mind and we all have many desires. Desire to live, desire to love, desire to have, desire to possess, and above all, desire for success and prosperity. These are common traits in all humans and there is nothing wrong in them. However, when one fails in attaining any one of the desires listed above, one should not suffer from the sour grapes syndrome and instead accept gracefully that such things were never meant for them. Whenever one clings to the desires and our wants, we always get sorrow and unhappiness. In the midst of all this, we forget that life was meant as a celebration, and the position we are in, many of the fellow humans would like to be in our shoes, since their condition is far worst that ours is. However, in the grip of our so called sorrows, we forget to be thankful to the Lord Almighty who has given us so much, who has given us a life to live.

I want to pity such kind of individuals who fall in the trap of emotions and relegate their lives forever in their bondage and have nothing else to look forward for, always like to get in the shoes of others, hating their own lives. But as Ayn Rand has said repeatedly in her discourses on philosophy, pity is the most inhuman of emotions that one could have on any fellow individual, and I agree with her on this. Pity is something to be despised, something to be discarded and in its place there should be respect and love. So, let us all avoid the trap of falling into the bondage of our emotions and instead try to be positive, lit up souls that spread the light of happiness and contentment in the lives of their other fellow human beings, and this is the common purpose of one and all on this earth.

image courtesy: shasel.deviantart.com