The mysterious driving force behind life

The life we live is mysterious to us although we do not admit it to ourselves more often than not. Why should the life that is 'me' remains a strange and unfamiliar existence to me? It should not have been the case. When it is my life, not a bit of it were to be unknown and unreadable. But little does one know even about the shades of colour mind continues to reel in and reel out with the fleeting moments depending on internal and external conditions. Any presumption or prediction about the life's journey is beyond question.
Then some people boast they are the maker of their own fate. It is often preached that hard works and perseverance earn what is desired most in this world. In this case, it is the material success that is meant in no uncertain terms. But some people who by dint of their extraordinary talent, commitment and indomitable will force reached the pinnacle of success made open admission of frustration with their lives. Had they another chance, they would have preferred a simpler life to the one in limelight.
It would be a mistake to think that life can go on without own volition. There is an instinctively driving force that sustains life --- in fact all lives. Anyone who has seen the intensity of making known the burning hunger, avid eagerness and stiff competition among the chicks in a nest, can have an inkling of it. When their mother or father brings insects or other foods to feed them, the young ones keep their mouths open all at a time showing their limitless demand. This is an inborn urge, a driving force behind their survival. The urge is instinctively engineered for them to grow fast --- as fast as they can --- and leave the nest.
While most animals spend their active time in search of food and eating the same, humans have multifarious dimensions to their lives. The most rational animals have developed an aesthetic sense, engaged in creative activities which hardly have any practical value but can be shared with fellow human beings who appreciate those or even participate in some of those with magical outcome. At the highest level of such modes of entertainment money proves its unworthiness. When a painting by Van Gogh is auctioned at $83 million (1990) which in today's value, with inflation taken into account, would be $180 million, it would seem absurd for the uninitiated mind to part with such a whooping amount for a work of art.
While some of the world's top billionaires get steeped into material comfort simply because they have amassed too much to find a better use of their wealth. Their lavish living is more elaborate than the kings and emperors of the past centuries. One of them was Apple's Steven Paul Jobs better known as Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple computer. It is this engineering and computing genius who fondly bore in his bosom a hermit. No wonder, before reuniting with his classmate in high school Stephen Wozniak to deliver the first personal computer, he came on a pilgrimage to India to have experience of Buddhism.
In his later years, he could see the futility of the wealth he earned and even the Olympian stature he scaled as an inventor and businessperson. He lamented he did not look at life from a different perspective and was busy single-mindedly to pursue a hectic life. He now valued friendship, love and relaxation that build a bridge between and among souls. Bill Gates who had a happy marriage with Belinda French before their divorce in May 2021, knew his mission, only more so by coming in contact with Warren Buffett. He has been donating big chunks of his huge wealth ever since he topped the list of the world's superrich.
Ordinary people do not bother about the nuances of life but the sensitive and hermitic souls feel an irresistible attraction for a life away from the madding crowd. To them this mundane world has no appeal and their spiritual quest take them to a path of renunciation of physical and material pleasures. Do they achieve 'nirvana' as Siddhartha did by becoming Goutama Buddha? On the one side, opulence and material comfort at their most extreme and on the other renunciation of all material comforts! In between there are people struggling to survive and others are following in the traditional ways of life without questioning its merit. Who knows what gives meaning to life --- living one's own life or living for others.