OPTIMISM, PESSIMISM AND DIVINE REALISM

OPTIMISM, PESSIMISM AND DIVINE REALISM

In youth we are idealistic and, fresh in body and mind, we are optimistic quite naturally. But as life rolls on and disappointments set in, we are embittered by our experiences and lapse into a sterile pessimism, cynicism and a negative view of life where hope lingers on but with no more the invigorating freshness and force of youth. Man in old age becomes as Swamiji has said, 'A lying mask of a man,' and whiles away his withering days in an inconsequential manner, contributing scarcely anything positive to society. But there is another class of men who struggle in their fertile days of youth to realise God and who come face to face with the deepest reality of life and existence. Having plumbed the depths of this phenomenal world, they see Reality as it is and are neither deluded into surface optimism or pessimism but ever keep beholding the real nature of things, otherwise transitory and perishing. These are the divine realists. Unto such a class belong the Rishis (seers of transcendental truth) of India. One such was, my ideal in life and death, Swami Vivekananda.

Written by Sugata Bose