Man's search for Meaning

The idea is to buy the books at large and stock them or hoard them, whatever or however you wish to call the process. Because, I firmly believe that there will be a time for everything. The universe shall keep sending you signals throughout. Its up to us to receive them and decipher them and make proper use of them.

Here’s a book, I bought back in 2011, when my habit was to buy books with catchy titles rather than the review and research process which I have embodied into me, at least in some occasions now.

Man’s search for meaning.

Anyone who is inclined into a bit of philosophy in his/her troubled transitional teenage, would definitely find it extremely difficult to walk across this book, without adding it to the cart. So that’s how I got acquainted with Dr. Viktor E. Frankl, the author of this inspirational book. 

But reading it completely, especially a non-fiction, is a different ball game, altogether. Your curiosity alone wouldn't be sufficient to finish reading some books. It also would necessitate you to be on the same page, metaphorically. You should have at least started to taste some harsh realities of life, mandatorily. You should have started to spell the word, “suffering”, again metaphorically. Only these can act as an impetus to keep moving the pages, because at some point, you integrate yourself into the book and relate to the author’s painful experiences and you start to hope for a horizon at the end.

I presume, at some point of life, everyone would be faced with this quintessential question, 

“what is the meaning of life?”

So we try to seek this elusive answer through various modes and routes. Some refer to the historical pages. Some read into the best philosophical minds. Some prefer the religious path while others turn spiritually. Some hunt for the same answers, in a ‘spirit’ual way, literally! While the rest end the discussion, meaningfully, saying, “life is after all, meaningless”.

“….no instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him, what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know, what he wishes to do. Instead he wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism). 

….now we can understand Schopenhauer when he said that mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom….”

How do you convince yourself to live through a reign of terror in the nazi concentration camps, where absolutely everything is stripped off from you and you and your glorious legacy is reduced into just a number.

How do you make up your mind to wake up everyday, when you know the truth that most of your friends or inmates won’t survive to see the night.

How do you even formulate an idea of living, when you have no idea about the whereabouts of your loved ones, your wife, your children, your parents or even if they are alive or not.

Faced with an inevitable struggle for life’s basic requirements - food, clothing, shelter - the author reflects upon some of the simple but powerful coping mechanisms in times of suffering and also sculpts a path to find a meaning in life amidst the constant suffering. 

Filled with moving and heart wrenching experiences and instances inside a concentration camp, this book has so many “stare into the ceiling/wall” moments to transfix your gaze into an illusion.

This is one of the best book, one can get in their hands in times of despair and darkness.

This is a powerful book about Hope, in the time of holocaust.

This is a log of wood, you can cling on to, in a sea of suffering.

This is a helping hand, you need to clasp on to, to prevent yourself drowning in your own misery.

I will end with Nietzsche’s quote which resonates throughout the book, 

“he, who has a why to live can bear with almost any how”.