Perceptions About Life
Perceptions About Life
What is life? Life, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary is the property that distinguishes living from the dead; the physical, mental and spiritual experiences that constitute to one's living; or the happiness and sadness that a person feels for the good and bad situations he faces. However my perceptions about life go beyond these issues.
During my childhood, I had many naïve perceptions about life. I thought that a person is never born and never dies. Thus I believed that an infant is hidden somewhere in this world before entering his family. Similarly, when he grows old he again goes somewhere far from his loved ones, hides, and never comes back. Another perception I had was that there were two spirits in a person: One compels the person to do well, and the other compels the person to do badly. When a person is doing a good deed, his bad spirit is dead; and, conversely, when he is doing a bad deed, his good spirit is dead. But gradually my perceptions about life changed, they modified as I grew up.
As time passed by and I matured, I realized that reality was much deeper than my earlier perceptions. I came to know that life was a true friend of mine. Even when circumstances around me were not so favorable, it prepared me for the bigger challenges that were ahead of me. When it made me happy, it was giving me relief.
Life has taught me some of the most astounding lessons for example it enlightened me with happiness, made me courageous, helped build my confidence, and above all love for all the creations.
As I was passing through my boyhood, I learnt about other religions, their norms, customs and standards. I learnt about the values of life they had according to their faith. I gathered knowledge about the ethical and moral standards described in their belief and compared those with what I had seen in my motherland.
All these values of life were quite different from what I saw in my own country. The values of life in my homeland were quite different from those described in any faith. In my country I saw people running after and climbing on buses and risking their lives...