Mystery
envelops the origin of life on earth. Science has done much to unravel the
mysteries of nature, but the grand riddle of life still remains unsolved. But
if the origin of life is shrouded in darkness, not so is its character.Its
essential feature is struggle. If there is any common element among all forms of
life, high or low, it is continuous struggle. Pain and suffering born of this struggle permeate life, and
rightly has Francis Thomson said,
We are
born in other' s pain
And perish
in our own
Perhaps this bitterness, this
struggle is an echo of God’s judgement on the erring man that he is to earn his
bread with the sweat of his face. But the curse has alighted not only on man but on the entire animate and
inanimate creation. The slender stream let struggle with thousand impediments on
its forward course. The planets roll round fighting with innumerable
attractions and the mountain erects its stony height by piercing hard crust.
What unseen fight goes on behind human eyes between a tiny seed and the hard
soil which it is to pierce. When the sapling comes out there begins another
phase of the struggle, with the fury of the elements, the ravages of animals
and the thought lessens of man. The same cruel struggle goes on in the animal
world, and so fierce it is there that some times a whole species becomes
extinct. The insects that crawl on the ground, the bees that build the hive,
the birds that chirp, has each their woeful tale of struggle to tell, if there
are men to listen. So struggle goes on not only
on this earth, but in the sky above and in the oceans below. This world
is a grand arena where fights go on without end.
In the life of man is seen the same
struggle from the cradle to the grave. Even a foetus in the mother’s womb
wages war by sucking the life-blood of
the mother. The cry of the new-born Bab
announces the coming fight of life. The child’s fretting, crying, crawling, and
stumbling are but manoevres in a long campaign. When it grows to a man there
begins another phase of its fight.
Man has diverse enemies to struggle
with. first begins his lifelong struggle with the forces of nature. They are
either favorable or unfavorable. Man must be wise and strong enough to fight
with the adverse influences and turn the
benign aspect of nature to his use. Food and poison are held before man, it is
for him to choose the one and reject the other. When we speak of life as a tale
of the survival of the fittest, we but lay our stress on this aspect, on man’s
continual struggle with natural environments.
As he grows up then comes his struggle
with himself, with his own passions and prejudices. There are sometimes the
most dangerous enemies of man and the most difficult to conquer. Just as
self-knowledge the most difficult of all kinds of knowledge, so self-conquest
is the most arduous of all conquests. We may conquer the whole world and yet remain a slave to ourselves, to lust, greed avarice, anger and jealousy.
The first and foremost duty of a man, therefore, is to fight and conquer these
internal foes. Those who become victorious in this fight are alone entitled to
the dignity of man.
But man is also a social being,
living in society and drawing
nourishment from it. To live peacefully in society requires conscious effort, to
adjust ourselves to the social environment and derive benefit from its benign
aspects demand struggle. Sometimes that social environment is not healthy and
therefore inimical to our growth and development. In such causes we have got to
fight with society, its prejudices,meaningless and harmful rites and customs. If we are strong we triumph,dragging
the society tied to our triumphal chariot. But if we are weak we succumb and are
crushed by our social environment. How bitter can this struggle be, will be
evident from the life history of any great social reformer.
If man is a social being , he also has a
political existence. He lives in a state and is either a citizen or a subject. He
struggles for political status, power and privileges.Those who are independent and those who are
dependent fight alike, only in different ways and perhaps with different weapons,
but fight there is. In the modern world there is going on a continuous warfare
against autocratic power, against vested interests, against the innate
selfishness and avarice of the rich and the powerful The cry for democracy is
rending the air and thrones and sceptres are being thrown down.
But the present day man has come to
realise that political power alone will not bring him comfort. So he fights for economic salvation. This economic
problem has, of late, begun to usurp men’ s whole attention. The struggle is
keenest in this field. Here ruthless competition is driving the poor and the
weak to the wall. Men all over the world
are puzzled by the anomaly of modern economic life.There is undoubtedly
more food in the world today than there was half a century ago, yet more people are
starving and dying of cold and hunger! Who will solve this problem? Men are
struggling to stop this mad struggle, this cut-throat competition, for as Mr.
Ramsay Macdonald says,”competition is not the law of life, but of death”; but
the end is not in sight.
All through life, in the high and low
spheres, there is present this struggle. This struggle arises in man from his
desire to improve his condition. There is in him an element of Divine discontent which is
never satisfied and which drives him from sphere to sphere. His greatness as
well as his misery are alike born of this discontent. So long as this will remain in man, the
essence of life will be struggle. As the whole creation is trying to realise
itself.This struggle present in all spheres and permeates life from the highest
to the lowest;
Striving to be man,the worm
Mounts through all the spires
of form.
good essay
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