The Mechanical Life A Journey in Search of Meaning
Life has become a race.
We wake up in the morning.
Brush our teeth.
Drink our coffee.
Go to the office.
Return in the evening.
Sleep.
And the next day, the same cycle repeats.
In the middle of this routine, one day, someone among us suddenly pauses and wonders:
“Am I truly living, or merely functioning?”
When this question arises, it means we are standing at an important crossroads.
But unfortunately, many people do not search for the answer.
They simply slip back into the same cycle.
Today’s world values only speed.
Who earns more?
Who climbs faster?
Who displays a glamorous life on social media?
These have become the measures of success.
In this environment, humans have forgotten the basic joys of life
the smell of a rainy day,
a quiet evening spent with a loved one,
the satisfaction of a small victory.
Another person’s life has become our mirror.
Humans have always compared themselves with others.
But today, comparison has become a disease.
The neighbour buys a new car.
A friend moves abroad.
A sister builds a big house.
Each of these triggers a question within us
“Where am I in life?”
In the rush to answer that question, we abandon our natural path and start running in the direction someone else points to.
Social media has intensified this condition.
Everyone posts only the best moments of their lives.
No one shows their failures, loneliness, or tears.
But we, who see these posts, mistake them for their whole life and begin to undervalue our own real life.
This is an illusion.
Yet we drown in that illusion and lose ourselves.
Money, fame, and luxury all three are illusionary goals.
Society has handed us three goals:
Earn money.
Gain fame.
Live luxuriously.
It is implied that if we achieve these three, we will be happy.
But the truth is this.
Even those who have achieved all three often feel an emptiness.
Because these goals are imposed from the outside, not born from within.
Money is necessary yes.
For security, for family needs, for freedom of choice.
But money is only a tool.
When money becomes the goal,
a human being turns himself into a tool.
Fame is the same.
Being remembered by others gives temporary joy.
But when that fame fades, or someone else becomes more famous,
we fall back into emptiness.
Luxury is merely decoration that hides pain.
So what are natural goals?
Look at children.
No one needs to teach them how to be happy.
They run excitedly even at the sight of a tiny insect.
They dance in the rain.
They lose themselves in a story.
Their only goal is to be fully present in the moment.
We lose this natural quality as we grow.
A natural goal is the calling that rises from within not something someone else told us to pursue, not something we chase because others are chasing it.
For one person, that calling may be music.
For another, farming.
For someone else, teaching children.
When we listen to this inner calling and live accordingly, even without external success, a deep joy arises.
A meaningful life is a redefinition.
It is time to redefine success.
Success is not just a high salary.
Finding meaning in the work we do is also success.
Success is not just a big house.
A home filled with loving relationships is also success.
Success is not thousands celebrating us.
Touching even one life meaningfully is success.
A meaningful life is not a life without difficulties.
It is a life that faces difficulties with purpose.
A tree needs water, sunlight, and good soil to grow.
We put effort into caring for it but that effort doesn’t feel like a burden
because there is a loving intention behind it.
How do we live now?
First, we must cultivate the habit of pausing and thinking.
Why are we running?
Where are we going?
Whose goal are we chasing?
The answers are not outside they are within.
Second, we must reduce comparison.
Another person’s life is theirs.
Our life is ours.
Comparing a mango to an apple and saying,
“This isn’t red, this isn’t round,”
is absurd.
Comparing our life to someone else’s is just as absurd.
Third, we must learn to find joy in small moments.
Closing our eyes for a second to feel the morning sunlight,
immersing ourselves in a child’s laughter,
tasting our food with full attention
these tiny moments are the true wealth of life.
Life is an art.
Life is not a competition.
It is an art.
Each of us is painting our own canvas
with our own colours and rhythms.
Just because someone else’s painting looks a certain way,
ours does not have to look the same.
Breaking mechanical living does not require a revolution.
A small awareness is enough.
If we ask ourselves once a day,
“Am I truly living right now?”
life will slowly begin to gain meaning.
Because we came here to live not to pass through life empty.
With love,
Sakthi Sakthithasan
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