The choice between being in a museum with an audio guide or a forest with a torch symbolises two distinct philosophies or approaches to life.

The Museum aligns with the belief that understanding comes from others’ wisdom. It reflects the mindset of someone with emphatic traditional values.

Being in the Forest is not just an experience; it’s a thrilling adventure, an expedition into the unknown. The torch symbolises personal insight and intellect, guiding you through the ambiguity of the mysterious. It’s a quest for freedom, adventure, and the uncertain, a journey that promises excitement and discovery.

This choice between the Museum and the Forest reflects a more profound question: Do you prefer the comfort and simplicity of conventional knowledge, where everything is known and predictable, or the thrill and potential for growth that comes from exploring the unknown?

Life’s philosophy says — Is human existence merely for staying alive – or is it the quest to find something to live for?

Knowledge has two facets –

*Knowing about something that already exists or has existed – Like visiting a museum and seeing the displays in the curio boxes or picture frames.

* Seeking something virtual that needs to be discovered, deciphered or socially revealed – Like finding a way through a dense night forest with a torch.

Life is less about FINDING and more about SEEKING. You find it with your eyes and seek it with your mind and intellect. Seeking is about discovering new things and constantly questioning and challenging what we think we know.

While on a stormy trip to the Musee du Louvre in Paris, I suffered from the audio guide’s poor connectivity and tried to comprehend the massive creations in a bingo in half-French and half-English lingo. In the corner of a gigantic hall sat a young gentleman with canvases and colours vis-a-vis a massive Italian Renaissance painting he had researched for over a month.

To this day, I am perplexed—who was better? Me, running around with an audio guide merely filling slots visiting the cult museum, or that gentleman seeking something of a sixteenth-century relic?

Captain Cook, Columbus, Vasco de Gama – Robert Peary, Sir Edmund Hillary, Neil Armstrong, etc., were explorers and fanatic travellers who ventured into the dark and dense wilderness with the torch of hope and commitment to discovering the unknown. At the same time, we comforted ourselves in woollen quilts adulating and clapping to our heroes. Today, we read about the North Pole, Mt. Everest and the Moon and pat our backs for aspiring to learn about the unknown world. We owe this knowledge to a bunch of people who questioned the murky existence of the known world and introduced the ‘UNKNOWN’.

Imagine life as a museum. All events from childhood to adulthood occur as facts and physical realities as the museum exhibits. What can exhilarate you when you already know what is displayed in the ensuing curios, and your mentors act as an audio guide, helping you to sail through the waters? You eventually work like a programmed robot—

* Happy to earn money,

* Happy to be fed, and,

* Happy to raise a family – Is this the culmination of a rational life?

The big question is: Are you happy at the end of the day? Well, you may be physically satisfied, but are you soulfully contented?

Visualise life as a dense jungle surrounded by wild Flora and Fauna. Everything is obscure and mentally ambiguous. It would be best to burn the oil lamp of your mental capacity and pave the way for a better life. Eradicate the hanging poisonous ivy, confront the pervasive wild creatures and fill your belly with whatever is edible.

Such a life may be adverse and challenging but offers a unique sense of contentment and mental serenity. One holds a torch and toils to perfect life through solo efforts and energy. The ultimate joy of self-discovery is matchless and exquisite.

The quest is not just about searching but about finding meaning in everything. The hard work may only sometimes yield immediate results, but the journey matters. You may see nothing beneath the surface, or maybe there was nothing down there, but you did justice to your existence. You continue your quest until the hidden treasure is discovered somewhere.

“Each moment spent searching is also a moment spent finding.” PAULO COELHO.

Studying History and Geography about things that happened or exist is authentic only if you draw lessons about the occurrence of worthy or immoral acts and search for ways to improve the world’s present and future. It is worthless wasting time ogling at the 3000BC embalmed Mummy or straining neck at the restored Michelangelo’s roof paintings at the Sistine Chapel. It would be best to embalm today’s sagging Humanity and restore the wilting Societal Morals.

“Maybe you are searching among the branches for what only appears in the roots.” RUMI.

Yet, there is another aspect to human search and quest —

Holding the torch of supreme knowledge and finding yourself amongst the myriads of heads.

“Am I happy and sad looking at the other person, or do I need to dive into the abyss of my soul and seek out myself in the whirlpool?”

Searching for yourself is a lifelong journey of discovery. The horizons keep shifting, and the quest continues unabated. It is evolving by Design.

You lose all your misery once you find yourself. The irony is that we spend our entire lives searching for something that was always with us—something that just needed acknowledgement. “Whatever you are looking for is looking for you, too.”

The fragrance doesn’t come from the dried flowers in the Herbarium files – it exudes from the seasonal flora that grows after your toil and research.

Don’t search for meaning in life – look for meaning within your life. Seek to create your life— rather than to find yourself. Hunt for the person you have not yet become with a torch in your hand. Don’t become the formalised creepy fauna in a fancy jar in a museum. Your life is yours to create, shape, and find meaning in. Take control of your journey, and seek the person you aspire to be.

“Searching outside of you is SAMSARA (the world) – searching within you leads to NIRVANA.”

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