There is one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.
– Albert Camus
My friend and I had a philosophical debate recently about the existence of an omnipotent being that watches over us. He says, the existence of such an entity give lives purpose, and without God, life is meaningless. The most logical thing to do in a Godless world, in his perspective, is to commit suicide.
In Greek mythology, there was a king called Sisyphus. He was punished because he tried to fool Death. The punishment was to roll an immense boulder up a hill again and again, only to watch it roll back down again, for all of eternity. Parallels can be drawn about the myth to our very own Naaranathu Bhraandhan. That is a discussion for some other time.
If you compare the predicament of Sisyphus to our everyday life, we can draw lot of similarities. In a universe without a purpose, why do we get up everyday, go to work, earn money, spend it on things and repeat the cycle again and again? In a universe without purpose, everything is absurd. It is better to end our life right now. Only the existence of a God or a Destiny or a Universe that cares about you, gives life meaning. This is the argument used by my friend.
I have a different take on things. I am happy that the Universe doesn’t care about anyone and the fact that everything is random and meaningless. This means that the bad and painful things that have happened in my life, because of things that were not in my control, were due to the randomness of the Universe and not because a conscious vengeful entity was out to get me or I was bad in a previous life (Karma). I can turn things around at any time, even when the planets don’t align. My life is mine to shape according to my own hardwork and free will. And that is beautiful.