When man is distracted from his daily pursuits of survival, the mind goes on an exercise , a thought experiment of What-ifs. It Hardly matters if the man is a realised being or an unrealised being; the brain is a mysterious 'thing'. One of these fantasies and mental exercises that great men have pursued is the desire to live forever. May it be good men such as Bhisma Pitama of Bhagwat Gita, or mass murderers such as Adolf Hitler. When great expectations to fulfil a certain vision arises, man naturally wishes to see it come to fruition, even if it takes centuries. From all over different cultures, and religions, countless men have tried and died in the pursuit of eternal life, call it amrita of Samudra Manthana in the hindu folklore, to the Holy Grail in Christianity. The gist of all is the same, a physical relic of the divine, that brings about immortality and health.
And just like other men, I too think of such things when my mind is unoccupied. After careful thought, and search of literature regarding the same, having come to an unconventional, but refreshing opine, that the Holy Grail is not a real Grail, the amrita is not an elixir but a metaphor for something beautiful and easily achievable by all of us.
The obvious thought when it comes to all things what will perish first is the body. Its physically impossible to live forever. When your knees and joints give up after a while, your cortexes deteriorate and shrink, your cataracts cover your vision, your heart gives up to finally rest after working 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 100 years?!
So, your body, that aint it. what lives longer than that? well in the words of Kendrick Lamar, "Everybody gon' respect the shooter, But the one in front of the gun lives forever".
So then that's it. A thought, an idea lives forever as long as the people resonate to it, or heck even don't resonate to it, all it matters that the thought of you passes their minds, and that's enough to make you live forever. like parts of ones soul in horcruxes, what makes you "You" is what different different people remember you for. Hate this, but lets take Hitler for example. He was remembered for the craziest things, his great skill in watercolours and architecture for example, or the fact that his Aryan supremacy and pure blood agenda, which brought on the genocide, or a crazy fact that he had only one testicle, why would I know that? I have no idea. (sigh, I'm already called a Eccentric, this blog doesn't do much to refute that opinion) fact being, he obviously did much harm than good, but the fact that we remember him is proof that his self far exceeds his life, through our thoughts and the history we have preserved regarding him.
Your Soul, the invisible and everlasting part is built up of all the experiences, thoughts and deeds in your life, and its that one thing that you will be judged on long after this body decays into oblivion, and your skeleton is all but dust.
I think the thoughts people have regarding us lives longer than our own lives, and I can safely assume that if someone remembers you for anything, its due to something about you impacting them that they'd keep you in their mind. It can also be assumed that a normal sane being would want to be remembered for something good that they did, said, or showed that would make the other person save "you" in their mind, so in a sense, its a part of your soul that's lodged in their mind that lives on forever as long as your history is long passed on either through verbal mediums from person to person, written mediums such as orbituaries, on headstones describing you, or heck, even a brief discription of you in a 7th grade history textbook does fine (you see where im going with that reference, don't you? ;)
In conclusion, The purpose of life is to make this a better place to be in for your children. What better life but to drain yourself fulfilling this goal; for immortality is achieved not through your body; but your soul, what you will be remembered forever.
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