Essay No. 276:
Life Is Real: Life Is Earnest And The Grace Is Not Its Goal: The above said verse mean that life is purposeful and has a great meaning. Life is not fake or artificial. It is real which throws open problems to man to face. Realism is the keynote of life. There is thus no room to adopt escapism in life.
Those who show an ostrich’s attitude towards life’s problems, fall a prey to escapism and cannot face the problems of life. People of this type are rejected by life. Life demands hectic struggle on the part of man to face the stark realities.
Alfred Tennyson has written a poem ‘Lotus Eaters’ theme of which is that people living in a lotus-growing valley, consume lotus, that bring them sleep, numbness and they are segregated form the problem of struggle for human existence. They feel happy because they are cut off from the struggle.
But, in fact, their mode of living is akin to dead species. They are like dead living vessels. Tennyson brings home to the reader that one should not live like lot us eaters, as that is not the style acceptable to life. Life demands effort, endeavor to survive the grueling realities of life.
Hence those who shun making struggle are dust-binned to inactivity and suffer the agonies of life. Life is real and expects of man to make relentless struggle to face this problems.
Death should not be regarded as the final end of life. This alludes to the idea of the world hereafter. Man should earn a good name in life by doing good deeds in the form of fulfilling his rights and obligations that he owes to his fellow-beings. He should, as for as possible, look after the poor, the destitute to earn the blessings of God.
They should refrain from usurping the rights of others through force, and avoid committing tyranny and cruelty on his fellow species. If man follows the path of righteousness in life, he will have a favorable balance sheet in the world hereafter. Hence men should endeavor to do good deeds in life and avoid the vices relating to human conduct.
While summing up, we may say that life is real and not imaginary, and its problems demand a pragmatic approach to resolve them. Man despite being in the think of complex problems, enjoy life if he has to grit and initiative to deal with the problems of life. If he acts on the philosophy “life is to give and not to take” he adequately justifies his existence in the world.