The final refuge

We are where we are, not because of our present, but because of our past. The lines that connect the dots are apparent only in retrospect. If it were for man to predict future, he probably would do it- very erroneously though. He wants to connect the dots in a certain way, but depending on how time moves in its mysterious mechanisms, he changes the dots as and when he sees fit. If he were to look back, all his dots and all his lines would make sense to him, both individually and communally.

I would like to dedicate this to Manasa, who suggested this line of thought. Steve Jobs talks about the same in an obscure yet personally esoteric way in his speech at Stanford.

It made me think about the past that is me today and the future that my past is going to make. The fact that I write in terms of personal opinions are shaped by my past and the present adds to it in terms of retrospective thought. If given a choice, would I go back and change it? Yes! Maybe!- but only in certain aspects. The richness of my experiences have gained a physical form in me and a mental form in my thoughts.

What would it take to shape a person and shape the world. Well, that is again a speculation of the action to be made and I bet I would be wrong at it. The safest way out will be to say, the past shall design my present, and my present shall determine my future. In fact, destiny is one thing we do not have power over, in spite of so many non-believers. We are partially if not totally powerless in the hands of destiny. We shape our fate in certain ways and the inherent complexity in the environment will affect our destiny in ways indeterminable.

In all cases of determining the future, we look into our own past or into others' past and decide our course of action. The results shall be what they will be and we will not be able to control them. The most profound and concise thing that I have learnt and read is "Only the effort is yours; The result is not". The effort to make something happen comes from our analysis of what we have done about the same in the past. The result belongs to the future- though we can reasonably predict the way things will go by comparing it to our past, its not absolutely right. Our past is our comfort; It is our proof; It is what we turn to, when we cannot explain what is happening to us now.

The memories that run through our minds every single day and our thoughts and observations of all things around us have all been shaped by our past. Every single word that makes sense comes from our past. Every single word that does not make sense to others comes from our past. Every single second that we spend alone is spent in our past with thoughts of what we have done. The past is so important to us, that forgetting it is impossible. To ignore our past and to ignore the lessons of the past would be the one folly that can never be redeemed.

True that our life progresses beyond the present. True also that future shall be succeeded by futures. At every point, the past is our stepping stone. We find safety in our past. We find creaking stairs, broken steps and steady steps in the staircase to our future, destiny and life. It is the only refuge that we use at every step of our way. At the day we reckon our own lives, the past is our final refuge- the one refuge that justifies our existence on this earth.