Who are the Greatest Philosophers? Thoughtful Life Reflections

Humans are always on an eternal quest, seeking meaning in life. Many eminent thinkers have attempted to find this very meaning over the ages. Socrates, Plato, Russel, Kant or closer home Jiddu, Shankaracharya, Nazrul; all have tried to give us purpose. I’ve always wondered what these thinkers did for a living though. Just imagine asking Aristotle – “what do you do for a living?”. Would his response be “I think”?!?  Who would not mind such a life, eh?

Modern pop psychologists too have added their own two bits; some by getting monks to sell Ferraris, some by educating us on the seven spiritual laws, others by exhorting us to have chicken soup, or by belittling us on ‘The Mistakes We Make’. Any which way, I am sure they have all contributed their mite in enriching our souls and making us happier, fulfilled human beings. I don’t like writers, however, who theorize, pontificate or get us lost in metaphysics. Sample these sentences I picked up from the internet – ‘Acceptance and commitment therapy is based on relational frame theory (RFT),  a comprehensive theory of language and cognition that is framed as an offshoot of behavior analysis. RFT was established to integrate a wide range of psychological phenomena into a cohesive theory of language based on contextual relationships.’ Wadda hell……It is almost as if it is a different language altogether.

The ones who have made the deepest impression upon me, therefore, are the ones who make philosophy simple and write in the language of the common man. I like writers whose sentences are pithy and short, but with words that sear the very depths of the soul. I like writers who can make one change one’s entire perspective on life with just one simple slogan.  But do we have such philosophers? Well rejoice. We do – the slogan writers on our trucks.

Just sample this ditty – ‘Samay se pehle aur bhagya se zyada, kabhi kuch nahin milta – Barpat Hindustani’. Pithy? Check. Short? Check. All encompassing? Check. Sears one’s soul? Double check. Give this phrase to a ‘thinker’ however, and he would come up with – ‘Time is but a chimera. It can be a moment, or it can be infinity based on one’s cognizance of the impermanence and fluidity of the present. This illusion when conflated with fate, metamorphizes into an acceptance of what and when the universe manifests as our destiny’. Lost you? Right.

Take for example, the agony of the anti Romeo squads who, try as they might, are unable to impress upon our amorous youngsters the dangers of anti bharatiya sanskar, decadent love. If only they had consulted Tony Painter who has so very vigourously expressed:-

It saddens me no end however, that many of our truck drivers are either anti love, jilted lovers (as above)  or have been served lemons by life (without the wherewithal to make lemonade). The trucks of these unfortunate souls are lettered with deep pathos, forlorn couplets and revolutionary angst. Notwithstanding, the crispness of their observations never ceases to amaze. While they do still use the mandatory ‘maintain distanse’  or the quaint ‘Horn OK Please’, sample their gut wrenching comments below:-

• take poisin but don’t trust girls (ah well, we’ve all been through such phases)
• believe a poison sanek, but not chowmein girles (that one had me stumped. Pl call if you can educate me).
• Vishwaas vaham hai, sachhai jhoot hai (Truth is often so hard to tell that it needs fiction to make it believable – Francis Bacon).
• Mera Bharat mahaan, 100 mein se 99 beimaan (boy he seems to have come across many sticky fingered government servants).
• Ameero ki zindagi cake aur biskut par, hamari clutch aur brake par [sad commentary on the disenchantment vis-a-viz the Gini coefficient in India and the need for egalitarianism].

And who doesn’t worry about the Gini coefficient. There are tomes written by economists on what the government needs to do, mainly centered around incomprehensible terms such as import substitution, FDI and level market conditions, WPI/CPI, fiscal and current account deficits, interest rates, affirmative action, targeted subsidies etc. One can’t of course talk about egalitarianism without alluding to price rise? While economists as a breed never agree with one another, they do agree that the price of oil is important and a key contributor towards inflation. No wonder Raju Banna laments to his trusted Haseena ‘kum piyo meri Rani, bahut mehenga hai Saudi ka paani’.

Humans have aspirations of course. We want every successive year to be better than the previous one. We need better clothes, houses, vehicles. Better schools for our kids. In fact human aspirations I feel like telling Darwin, are what drove evolution. Just imagine if we had no aspirations. We would still have been living in caves! And who can explain it better that one small rickety tempo which has emblazoned across its rear – ‘Main bhi bada hokar truck banoonga’.  Endearingly, he adds “Maa Ka Aashirwaad’. That he dilutes his conviction a bit by also advising us to ‘use diaper at night’ is neither here nor there. Still better than ‘put deeper at night’ on Amritsar di gaddi I guess.

Talk about patriotism and the first thing that comes to mind are trucks with ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ all over them. I saw one also state proudly that ‘India is great’, but then perhaps aware that he transits via a particularly antsy political party’s fiefdom, also added ‘Jai Maharashtra’ as insurance. Patriotism does of course rouse soul searing emotions, but none more so than the one by Yadav Golden Roadways:-

Tell me if your eyes didn’t get moist on reading that one. I am quite sure Javed Akhtar sat up in awe on reading this one. Our trucks aid government publicity (beti padao beti bachao, hum doh hamare doh), teach us piety (in Trust We God – a bit mixed up, but you get it), teach us to man up (No air bag, we die like real man), help us spread brotherhood (Buri nazar waale, nasbandi kara le – somewhat mysterious this one), sweet romance (Has mat pagli pyaar ho jaayega) and emphasise road safety  (Dheere chalo to gharbaar milega, Tej chaloge to Haridwar).

Can any philosopher, writer, thinker or even the Honourable Mr Sashi Tharoor, convey what he has to, more succintly? I doubt it…….