OVERHAUL LIFE

Roy T James

What makes human life, a difficult one for humans

themselves? I feel, all the elements that are
unique for us plays its part, the most significant
being the contribution from the mystic elements,
much of which, not easily recognizable. I admit,
being an intelligent form of life, we are seized
of this matter. Also, we are always in the search
for a remedy, the only delay is of clearly
identifying those elements. Now, how to shorten
this delay?
Think of a machine. We attempt a repair, if we
face identifiable errors of defects. If those are
too many or are not clearly recognizable, we
normally resort to an overhaul. Thus, like a
machine, which we overhaul at specified intervals
to get rid of the unnecessary that get collected
while in use, we can think of restructuring our
social life also, routinely. Then, the mystic
elements that get attached to our life, unlike
now, will not be holding the center stage
anywhere.
But, all the mystic elements constitute the part
of life that is unique for us. And, except for the
occasions of disharmony, these elements lead us to
unbridled celebrations. So, we have never had an
impassionate, critical look at these. Let me try
to fill that gap.
I think, such components originate as a byproduct
of knowledge, which we hold at high esteem.
Therefore, we need to visit the origins of
knowledge. What is knowledge, but an aggregate of
all that we appreciate? The more we appreciate,
the faster it gets appropriated and established as
our lifestyle. What will overhaul our life is
nothing but an overhaul of our lifestyle.
Effectively, we end up overhauling nothing else
but our knowledge.

CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Life - A Simplified Guide
Chapter 2 Way forward?
Chapter 3 Overhauling our Life - A Simplified
Guide
Chapter 1

Life - A Simplified Guide

What is life? It is much easier to say, what is

living. Life, in fact is nothing but an aggregate
of all that takes place as a part of living.
Especially for all other than humans, this
definition can make things very clear. You see,
now, one can immediately link all that happens to
any aspect of life to something understandable,
and readily apportion-able.

But that is not that easy, as far as humans go.

Much of what happens remains rather unclear, even
if one is to give due allowance for personal
priorities of each. For example, why should
graduation cause a celebration?

It looks like, humans are perpetually looking for

a reason to celebrate, or despise, or do something
that can lead to a big impact. Why should they?
It’s a part of their life.

Then, what is life, for a human?

For all variety of living things other than
ourselves, I think, life does not seem to be an
issue that is of any trouble. For, all are
following the same style and extent, more or less
all the while. Whereas, human race is nothing but
the changes, mostly called improvements, that
constantly happen to it. Also, unlike in the case
of humans, there is no lingering commotion other
than what is absolutely necessary for the fail-
safe propagation of species.
But, for humans, I think, life is something
totally different. However, being a human, I, as
well as all those who take to pontificating on
this, will not be able to get a good look at it,
more so, from different, distinct viewpoints. Or,
I am unable to view human life from a viewpoint
other than that of human life. Since I am not able
to meet an essential need for studying this any
further, let me now take life as an aggregate of
all that we do in the name of living.

Now, what is living?

As far as human is concerned, living, in fact is

more than one activity. At least two, one can say.
For the sake of my understanding, let me simplify
those as:
One, living, with transactions that are more or
less real in nature, taking recourse to those
imaginary, only when one is free from meeting all
that is essential for living. Like working with a
commitment, earning, supporting oneself and
others, and also adapting to whatever is the
social structure. The social structure being one
which facilitate both real and imaginary
transactions. In fact, this is the only style, all
people will adopt, if things are to follow its
natural course. Because, in this way of living,
all that we do shall be producing visible and
reckon-able results or benefits. And one need not
take efforts to learn that what one did is in fact
good for oneself.
Two, living, with transactions that are more or
less imaginary in nature, but for meeting the
essential needs of living, and other unavoidable
circumstances. Like thinking in abstract terms and
deriving and collating a social structure for all,
and also monitoring dynamically, the performance
of both styles of living. Here, for all that we
do, more than the end product of the activity, the
activity itself is the one delivering the most
returns. Hence, the more one engages with it, the
more, the feelings of contentment and bliss.
Now, how do we actually do living?

The vast majority of the populace for the most

part of their life follow living style number one.
Which is also the style adopted by a minority of
the populace, if and when essentially needed for
staying alive. This minority, for most part of
their life, and the majority of the populace for
some part of their life, follow style number two.
That is, in almost all cases, whenever we make a
mention of, discuss, plan, or specify, living, the
latter sense, and when we actually do living, the
former meaning, assumes significance.
Consequentially, the ones who do not resort to the
latter style, though would have been charting a
very successful path in all that they do, may not
be able to get the feeling of accomplishment. One
can easily see that this leads to instances of
discontentment, rather, a big gap between what we
do, and what we think we are doing.

What results from living?

In fact, this discontentment, as well as the

resulting gap, is neither felt directly, nor as
one that can be understood as one. However, this
remains as a lingering unease that prompts one to
take refuge in whatever is one’s chosen path, and
at one’s will and comfort. Some of us vent it in
appeasement of divinities, some others may take to
certain habits like drugs, and many of us select a
path of total dedication to one’s sphere of
interest, like one’s profession or service.

Drugs, we despise, and divinities, we extol. But,

the unease hiding in the path of dedication, we
miss. More so, when we name human society as one
naturally violent. Also, each of us take to both
the styles of living. In one style, this
discontentment is of help, and is cherished by
all, by increasing one’s productivity, for
example. In the other style of living, we do not
get to register this at all, as an issue needing
attention, since it is drowned, in merrymaking, or
in the flutter of rituals, for example. Whatever
does not get drowned fully, reappear as enhanced
attributes or ability, like poetic, literary,
artistic, or intellectual, all of which, we gladly
welcome.

What do the results of living lead to?

Thus, we have accepted two main modes of living,

which could be termed as, the real, and the
imaginary. These two modes are part of the natural
character of life, the human race has. Of which,
the real mode refers to the life we live, and the
imaginary mode, to the life, we think, we live.
But, since none of the modes account for the
lingering discontentment, it reappears as some
form of violence that permeates the human society
in full.
That makes human life, a bag of unease. And our
societies, pots of boil.

Yes, the whole mankind knows it, and are always

working on it. Many devote their full attention,
and a stream of measures constantly come out, be
it from the religious angle, or from the political
bosses. The large multitude that is waiting for a
new remedy, instantly grabs every cure.
Unfortunately, all these cures fail. Since, only
the symptom, that is violence, is addressed, and
the malady, the discontentment, is never taken
into account.

What results from those results?

As we saw in the beginning of this paper, the

discontentment rays out of the relative
significance we accord to the real and the
imaginary styles of living. We can also say, we
are very clear as to what we do, as far as the
real plane of living go. But, when it comes to the
imaginary plane of transactions, since we use the
same terminology as the real one, not only that
things are not clear, but also lead to errors in
perception. This routinely leads to unpleasant and
violent situations, which presently calls for
constant monitoring, rather context-sensitive
redefining of words and phrases. More so, since we
do not restrict our life to only one plane of
transactions. At any time, one may resort to real
entities, or abstract ones, at one’s will and
pleasure.

A real look at life

Effectively living happens in two planes. And

these can be put as:
One, the real plane, where, we predominantly act,
and think, if action says so, and,
Two, the Imaginary plane, where we predominantly
think, and act, if thought says so.

And, clearly, the word think, and the word act,

should be pointing to the activities, as conducive
or appropriate to the plane, each refers to. Else,
there will be disparity between a transaction and
the ensuing expectations. Over time, the disparity
may give rise to feelings of discontentment, more
so, if most of the transactions happen to be of
the same genre.

I therefore feel, as an answer to the ‘violent

human society’, we need to address this disparity
as its root cause.

What exactly is the cause of this disparity? A

word, when used in the real sense, and in the
imaginary sense, do not explicitly evoke the
meanings appropriate to the plane of transaction.
For example, ‘killing’ in real plane is a
horrendous crime, but in the imaginary one, its
criminal content is open to definition.

Or, take the word ‘thinking’. In one plane,

thinking is an end, and an activity that is
pleasurable in itself. In the other plane, we
resort to thinking to meet an end, like making
some activity more pleasurable. For example, take
daydreaming and computing. What we do here while
we think and dream is qualitatively much different
from what we do when we think and search for a
solution to a problem. By using the same word
‘thinking’ in both the cases, we tend to accord a
similar response too, to both the outcomes. In one
case, if ‘thinking’ results in certain aims or
expectations, it should be put into practice only
after confirming that everything else is
conducive. And in the other, the results of
‘thinking’ needs to be put into reality as early
as possible. Else, something unexpected or
inconvenient could occur. In short, unless one is
quite careful to link instantly, the word
‘thinking’ and the whole context, there will be
unsavory results, that too, for no reason. This
will not happen, if we are using entirely
different words to denote each such event of
thinking, plane-wise.

Incendiary nature of human society, I think, is a

direct result of this.
Chapter 2

Way forward?

In such a case, one can easily come up with a

solution too. Bifurcate our vocabulary into three.
One, words that can be used in connection with
transactions of the real plane only. Two, words
that can be used in connection with transactions
of the imaginary plane only. And three, words that
can be used in connection with transactions of
both the planes.

But how?

Language, I think, is naturally formed from the

social exchanges that thrive in a society. An
examination of the oldest tongues that are in
existence can throw more light. My experience with
my local language is that there is hardly a word
that point specifically or only to an abstract
meaning. For filling that gap, and for aiding such
transactions, many are the words borrowed from
other languages that happen to get added to its
vocabulary. Also, this is true for almost all
languages that are in use now. In fact, such words
are popular only among those engaged in abstract
or literary transactions, and in such a case, the
beauty or desirability of a language becomes
proportional to its ‘foreign’ content.

And, if we leave those words aside, a language

consists of words with unique meanings that are
not conducive to an exchange of the abstract
sense, transactions that cannot point to a real
need. Exactly for filling this void, we have a
large collection of borrowed words and phrases
that are highly valued, especially by the learned
ones. In fact, each and every language has a rich
vocabulary of such nature, where the words do not
take part in usual exchanges or communication, or
other common use of a language. And there is no
misunderstanding or strife of any nature, where
people do not resort to using such 'borrowed
words'. So, historically, there would have been
some sort of separation among the words and the
planes of the transaction.

If so, what made the change? How come today we

have all our languages hiding towers of babel, as
far the possible variety of expressions go? And
never ending streams of abstractions that do not
show any real connection with life, except perhaps
in the musings of those people who are already fed
up with the style of living that is in vogue?

This perhaps is a major non-linearity in the flow

of life, the human race faced. Perhaps the direct
result of a major upheaval, a global one. What was
it? I think, nothing but the collapse of the
geocentric world.

Remember, geocentric world is an intuitive idea,

and it would have been fitting well with
everything else. And, naturally occurring thoughts
and other logical elements would have been enough
to manipulate or predict whatever was of interest.
But, after its collapse, when the heliocentric
systems took the center stage, things would have
gone for a toss. People used to seeing something
circling them would have had a tough time to
believe that it isn’t so and they are the ones
circling.

The intuitive became instantly meaningless and

unreliable, and nobody would have known the
reason, why. That would have made a couple of big
impacts. One, it effectively alienated a large
multitude of the common folk, lion’s share of the
populace, from taking part in the formation of
languages and other elements of social life. Two,
it started to pave the way for the altruistic to
rule over the realistic on all facets of life,
especially, the social one. All the popular mystic
elements of the sphere of knowledge, like abstract
calculations, hidden variables, and unseen
elements, seem to have originated from here. And
that changed the way we appreciate things and
approach issues.

We can think of restructuring our social life such

that the above-mentioned mystic elements do not
hold the center stage anywhere.
But those are the dear components of human life,
and we hold those also in high esteem. And, since
we are not able to cite a specific reason for it
to be so, we call ourselves the unfathomable human
with a lingering discontentment.

In fact, here we can take a cue from the material

world. Normally, an overhaul of a system or
equipment is necessary at predetermined intervals.
Or, if and when the performance of the system
falls below the design standards, or it
malfunctions for no specific reason. In our case,
the unfathomable nature or discontentment that
defeats every remedy also calls for the same. Let
us now think of overhauling our life. One can say,
during an overhaul, all those troublesome issues
that are sticking to our life will get addressed.
Chapter 3

Overhauling our Life – A Simplified Handbook

From what we have discussed so far, for all forms

of life other than ourselves, lifestyle is a means
to support their life. But, for us, life is mainly
a means to support the chosen lifestyle. (Of
course, rather than calling it simply as one's
chosen lifestyle, we always use abstractions,
like, chosen path, ultimate aim, or eternal bliss)
And, again, unlike all, nothing comes to us,
unless we take efforts to learn. And we are yet to
make efforts to learn of the appropriate living
style for ourselves. Why did it happen like that?
How to make a beginning?

It happened so, as it was the easiest way to be.

Just copy whatever you see. Perhaps they were
quite impressed by the large variety of life
around them. Each surpassing all the others in
both style and content, no other thought would
have occurred.

One thing is clear now. It seems humankind was not

endowed with the ideal mental faculties for
understanding the world. Or, the mankind have
decided not to use their faculties appropriately,
to that end. Else, since mankind was in existence
for millions of years, they would have been
appreciating things uniquely, rather than aping
all other varieties of life, at least wherever
they can. And would have started to master human
specific activities, say read and write, much
earlier. In fact, we would have been having a
seamless flow of life, where, all that we explore,
appreciate, learn, and imbibe, would be in sync
with everything else, just as it is with all other
forms of life. And also, a thorough grasp about
the matters that are specific to human, like real
and imaginary planes of life.

Further, for everything we notice, we in fact come

up with quite a few conclusions and explanations.
Each of this, even if are confusing and damaging,
look grave enough for at least a few. Hence,
someone is there to espouse an inference, however
useless, vague or inconvenient, it turns out to
be. Human race, perhaps is not one designed for
appreciating the world, as well as reacting
appropriately in the natural turn itself, to all
events and circumstances?
This calls for a visit to the origins of
knowledge, an aggregate of all that we appreciate.
Which is also a much celebrated one, as one that
separates us from the rest of life.

It seems, when people started to wonder, ‘why

things are as they are’, or, ‘why things behaved
as they did', and when someone mostly answered as
to, 'how', they all chose to be happy and jumped
to the next question. Thus, the earliest of
exponents, the path, or conclusions, of whom all
would have been of great use or influence to
subsequent generations, left the 'why's
unanswered. And knowledge is nothing but the
accumulated product of all those partial answers.

As a result, knowledge dwells a lot on ‘how’, and

as a result of it, one tends be full of answers to
questions that may not arise at all. ‘What’ could
be a question of every inquisitive mind, whereas,
‘how’, only of those who would like to go further
than that. Like gaining from it, or preventing
others from gain.

So, we effectively remain ignorant with a lot of

answers, since those answers leave out most of
what we wonder as wonder itself. (Rather, I think
all the abstract answers should be seen as a stop
gap arrangement till they were able to come up
with techniques for demystifying or quantifying
the wonders. This, we have been achieving
progressively, thanks to the strides we make in
science and technology. However, we do not let go
of those abstract entities. We continue to
redefine it to gel with rest, even when it leads
to large scale unrest!) And, at any time, each of
us feel encouraged to align with the facet of the
wonder that grabs our interest the most.

That leaves a wide gap between the actual reality

and our perception of it. That is why, all the
natural philosophers, whether of Ancient Greece,
India, or elsewhere, chose to dedicate much of
their time in looking for the essence of reality.
Their answer was always abstract, since it enabled
them to keep those gaps filled without the need of
anything real and substantive. Some of them found
the answer in 'stability', and some others
specifying it as nothing but a state of constant
change.

Times changed. All those who followed the

ancients, kept themselves busy in trying to
redefine those abstract concepts, and to make it
gel with the current appreciation of reality.
Every definition opening up some more such ideas,
fresh insight into the essence of reality is
constantly on the make. Thus, a new unfilled gap
comes to life, whenever an existing one gets
filled by whatever was signified by the current
level of abstraction.

I feel we need to revisit knowledge. In fact the

existing notions of our society do not seem to be
a good fit, as far as arriving at a living style
for ourselves. Else, there wouldn't have been a
need, both for aping other forms of life, and
reviewing constantly, things without life. In such
a case, there is room for re-defining theology as
well as materialism, and make those less
imagination intensive. Also for replacing all the
abstractions with something real. Perhaps, that
will trigger the true lifestyle and better
notions, we should have been having all the while.

For example, can't one say, knowledge, which is

nothing but a faithful reflection of reality, and
perhaps reality itself, effectively originate when
the simultaneous imagination of all people
coincide? In which case, won't time travel become
one such imagination about the future? Doesn't
this point to the possibility of rewriting our
fundamental notions, say, of matter, space, and
all? Aren’t these notions that are of geocentric
universe vintage, overdue for a re-examination?
(Had we done some sort of re-examination, long
back when the geocentric world collapsed, we would
have been living in a different world now? And
that also, a better one?)

This will overhaul our lifestyle, and that will

overhaul our life.
Now, neither shall hunger, shorten one’s temper,
Or graduation, cause celebration.

About the Author

He has taken to writing on retirement from Indian

Navy in 2013 after a lengthy career. Where, he had
the good luck to come across as colleagues,
subordinates and superiors, a real, wide cross-
section of India, and quite a few from the rest of
the world. Every second person thus belonged to
entirely different backgrounds that offered a
kaleidoscopic view of society. And he couldn't but
reflect on humans, human transactions, and the
encompassing society, in many colors, each of
those leading to a horde of imponderables, human
or non-human, living and non-living.

Other books by this author

Please visit www.obooko.com to discover other
books by Roy T James

The Unsure Male: A bold, new-look at the enigma of

life that explains everything one needs to know.
Caste-the Unexplored Territories: A fresh look at
the most perennial social problem in India.
Glimpses of Autobiography: A bunch of people,
their impressions, and thoughts that would have
found a place in his autobiography, had he wrote
one.
Hubs that Provoke: An oblique view of all that we
consider as the most cherished values in life.
More Hubs that Provoke: Little more of, oblique
views about our life.

Homo-posterus: A science fiction novel.

Easy Route to Peace: A collection of essays
proposing a few quick and easy ways to simplify
the complex life, we have made for ourselves.

Life of Style: A peep into the human society to

see why it is always into violence.