Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Solitude of Perfection

What is perfection? Is it idealism? Is it the way our religion preaches us to live? Is it some kind of a sociological responsibility or a way to follow the law? Is it the retaliation of the behavior the society expects from us? All these and many more questions storm my mind when I start wondering what exactly perfection is. The dictionary defines perfection as something flawless, without aberrations, something pure, something without defect or omission and so on. But can it be achieved?

Believe it or not, to strive for perfection is the primary purpose of all human beings. Whether conscientiously or not every sole on this planet is trying to achieve perfection. This is how our brains are designed to work. This is how we are designing the artificial intelligent units. They say, “To err is human”, very true. The very essence of humanity is error and the ever learning process of rectifying errors. So can we absolutely do away with the errors and embrace perfection in its literal sense? Here I believe that we can segregate perfection into two categories, namely, divine perfection and perfection for human beings. Literal perfection or divine perfection is meant for Gods or may be for a few enlightened souls. For humans, perfection is to reduce errors to such tolerable limits that one can find that quantum of solace which is the actual chicken soup for the soul. Sounds easy? Here are some more questions, can we reduce the errors to such permissible levels (a threshold value) that we can enter the domain of perfection? If yes, then who will set the threshold of errors for us?

I believe that perfection is a relative term, the only difference between idealism and perfection. What might be perfect for me might not be perfect for others and vice versa. So the answer to the threshold question is clear now. It is us who set our individual thresholds. It is when we become satisfied to a level where we think that this is the best we can give. Absolute satisfaction or literal perfection if I can say so is again unachievable because again we are designed to be never satisfied. The best way is to give it your best shot and just stand and admire the effort but again it must be your best shot. To quote from Bhagvat Gita, “One is only responsible for his Karma and nothing else, so he must just perform his Karma and should not bother for the results or the ramifications of his actions”. The problem arises when we start analyzing others on our threshold limits. We often forget the individuality of other person. There is nothing wrong in assessing someone on the parameters or values we believe in because that is the only touch stone we have. But in the same stride, we must not forget the individuality of the other person. We must learn to respect the perfection of others.

Some say that practice makes perfect. I beg to differ on this, practice does not make perfect, on the contrary practice makes permanent. A bad practice leads to something that is not certainly perfect. We do not relate malpractices to perfection. Perfection is something chaste, a divine pursuit of happiness.

The quest for perfection is the actual eventuality of each individual. The utilitarian school of thought proposes, “Maximum happiness for maximum number of people”. According to Jeremy Bentham (an individualist and a utilitarian), if we give each individual absolute freedom, he will choose the path in which there is maximum pleasure and minimum pain and thus a hedonistic society would culminate. The point I am trying to make is that perfection is something that brings pleasure or happiness and diminishes pain or grievance from the society. It is something that propagates us to a better life and above all subtends a better motive to life. The road might not be smooth but the goal is worth a lifetime.

Perfection though a universal truth, is different for each individual. It presents a unique hue when viewed from the kaleidoscope of experience called life. Though on the same quest but still on a different ship heading towards a unique horizon. We are so much together but still alone. A food for thought, ever thought of the reason for the occasional loneliness despite having company? This I believe is ‘The Solitude of Perfection’.

8 comments:

  1. nice work buddy... but to be honest though, i dont buy the concept that perfection can be different for different people..after all if perfection means "flawless" n "error-free", then how can it have variance so to say!!?? i think fundamentally if u look at anything, we have opinions about it (good, bad..ok-ok..etc).
    but for a perfect thing (whatever it might be...person, object, experience), all people have the same opinion, that it is perfect and complete in all respects. That precisely is hard to happen, thus explaining the reason why nothing in this world is perfect!!

    great thought process initiated man... kudos!!

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  2. @vineet: Thanks dude for the appreciation... its just a point of view, not here to sell the concept but still will urge you to give it a thought... Compare your best friend's view with that of yours and m sure that you will realize that there will be differences on the very subject matter of perfection... for instance, i consider Aishwarya Rai as a perfect beauty and m sure many individuals would be having a different view.. u said that nothing in this world is perfect, i beg to differ, nothing is more perfect than the world itself. Each individual having a different identity, a unique thought process, all living together in a society, can there be anything more flawless than this? again as i have mentioned in the article as well, it depends, where you draw your line (set your threshold), that would be perfection for you :)Thanks mate!!

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  3. not surprised dat ur 1st blog is abt perfection. must hv drawn a lot frm ur personal experiences. wht's awsm is dat ur perspective makes perfection accesibl to all. true, evry1 defines perfection in his own way n its his stretch of imagination n limits set by him dat define perfection. i too don't believe in absolute definition of perfection coz den d concept of perfection is renderd abstract n it remains in d realm of our imagination. nw at least i hv a means to gt evr close to it through my own threshold. but again error margin hs to be low enough to make it universally acceptable.

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  4. WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! i like it alot :). i agree with you to a lot of extent.... Perfection is heaven.A rich man's heaven would be a mobile free, tension free, luxury free happiness filled life n a poor man would want all the luxuries in his heaven!!!

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  5. great work manas...i really liked the line "practice makes permanent"...it makes you think in a different manner.

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  6. My opinion says that perfection is neither absolute nor measurable. Instead it is relative and depends on the things that are being compared and the person who tries to judge them.

    So it is very important for something to be imperfect so that the thing that is perfect has enough reason for it to be called perfect. At the same time the same thing may be perfect to ones eyes, while being imperfect to someone else.

    And thus when I read this line "We must learn to respect the perfection of others.", I think we should also respect the imperfections of others as the existence of such imperfections forms the basis of regarding something else as perfect. At the same time there may be someone who respects the same features, for he finds them to be perfect from his point of view.

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  7. Let me begin by a comment on a comment.
    @Jyotirmoy - you are an idiot. Please stop fooling innocent people. You didn't even bother to read the blog, but made sure you commented.

    Now coming to the blog. A very well written and interesting piece of article. You have brought out a thought where everyone can be perfect even with their personal flaws.

    The best part of the article is your research behind it. I really liked how you quoted dictonaries and the Gita. It was really a good way to convey your message. Try to keep that up in your future writings.

    Now perfection. I'd really agree, that perfection is so fickle a concept and how each has a different way of looking at it.

    Enjoy writing. Have fun.

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