Navjeevan express !!

A good break indeed !! We all travel through different journeys of life. We are all that kind of passengers, that every journey teaches us something in our lives... ! :) 

I have enjoyed so many journeys whether it was my journey to delhi,agra, amritsar or my journey towards calcutta !! I enjoyed every bit in tamilnadu express as well as howrah express. It was so enjoyable to eat bread omlette thrice a day in  those journeys ! Making friends, being friendly with the ones sitting next to us, those journeys were indeed life enriching i could say !!

My journey with this navjeevan express was one life transforming journey ! It helped me in developing new interests in life !! Increased my philosophical hunger !! We always check the name/age chart before boarding into the train. I didnt bother to see much as i was interested in knowing it as a surprise after getting in ! After the train started moving slowly, there came a person who looked like a nerd! Not very friendly not stuck up either. After getting seated , we all got ready to show our tickets to the TTR ! After the usual ticket verification, the TTR moved on to the next compartment.

I would like to call the stranger MR.G.  He sat quietly for sometime and took out a book from his bag and started reading ! I peeped at the book cover to see what he was reading !! He gave me a cold stare. I saw the name and just turned fast . The book was "Thus Spoke Zarathustra "  by friedrich nietzsche. 

While he was wondering what i did, i felt it was better to be clear than letting him assume what i was doing. I told him, "Hi, I just wanted to see the name of the book." " Thus spoke Zarathustra", he replied. I said ok ok . He asked me if i knew who he was! I replied, " I know he is a philosopher and i have come across few of his quotes." He said, " OK!" and turned his face to continue reading!  

"Oh what a snob" I thought. I think he must have heard my mind voice and smiled at me after seeing my expression!!

Then slowly we started conversing ! I was inquisitive and hence he started questioning me. I replied normally for a few questions and gave a confused reply for some because i couldn't understand in what context he asked me those questions! It was a very nice train journey learning a lot of new things from Mr.G. I should admit it does make a huge difference when talking to an intellectual with philosophical interests !! It refreshes our brains! 

I reached home after a brain scintillating journey and I sat down and started researching more on 
friedrich nietzsche, Albert Camus and many such things which Mr.G discussed about in he train.
When i started reading, i understood his questions so well and in what context he asked those.

Before sharing my understanding, i would like to share the questions he asked. When he asked something,i replied if people are nice to me,ill be nice to them,For which he asked me back so if people listen to you they are nice and if they dont listen to you, they are not nice uh ?!

He said, according to him nothing is right/wrong. He said he had communist beliefs. He said if there are two kinds of people in the world, he belonged to the 3rd category. He said he was an existentialist. He told me he doesnt give money to a begger and asked me why when i said i also dont give money to the beggers.He said he believed in karma.He asked me about my beliefs in past birth and next birth . He told me he doesn't believe in god, but he doesn't call himself an atheist because he has his own  set of values.

Now before being judgemental about the above questions, i would like to put down my understanding of his questions due to my research and how it actually impressed me more!

Friedrich Nietzsche is one well known philosopher. He was against the value system created during his time period. He described values were created due to the concepts of master morality and slave morality. He told it was those aristocratic rulers who created values based on how they(masters) treated their slaves. So according to Nietzsche, the values might be right from master perspective but wrong from slave perspective. What is good according to the master might be evil/bad according to the slave and vice versa. So he said those values created by keeping in mind the different  class of people is no true moral value at all.  Here I understood about why he said he has this communist attitude. 

In friedrich's books like gay science or thus spoke Zarathustra, he had mentioned about death of God. It was not about atheism. It was his discussion about the rise of non believers or atheists that would destroy the universally set moral values based in the name of God not by God himself. He felt those set values did more harm than good.so every value should be created by the individual for himself. I here understood about what he meant by his non belief in God and his own set of values.

Nietzsche spoke about the concept of eternal recurrence. It meant life is continuously recurring infinite times across infinite space due to a physical concept and not because of superstitious reincarnation. This made me realize on what context he asked me about past/next birth.

There was this concept called Ubermensch (meaning overman or Superhuman) . According to Nietzsche superhumans are people who do not follow the morality of common man because it favours mediocrity but rises above good/evil and above the masses by creating his own set of values and not following the masses. Here I understood why he told he belonged to 3rd category.

Albert Camus , a french philosopher, is known for his absurd concept. Mr.G  mentioned about Camus while talking. When I researched about what is absurd concept, I understood according to that concept, there is no good/ bad. The world is an absurd place which has no meaning, it is us,the human beings who give meaning to our absurd life/world. Basically it says human beings are not born with a purpose/meaning in life. We create them in a meaningless world.

Nietzsche felt religion thrived on pity which according to him was unnecessary. Suppose if we give money to that beggar due to pity, that is never gonna help in eradicating this system of begging. I understood why he doesn't give money to the beggars.

Finally about the existentialism concept he mentioned to me. What it meant was, an individual should be conscious of his morality and he should take his life's own decisions.

Sigh !! such a big post na ! But yes every line made so much sense to what all i heard from him after my research! Definitely inspiring and interesting !

During the end of our train journey,i wanted to ask him his name, While getting down his station, he replied, You can call me Mr.G and gave me the most pleasant and friendly smile before leaving.

After one whole day of research,i felt oh i should have asked his number so that i could have actually told him about my understanding of his questions! But yes sometimes, some people come into our lives just to give us something unexpected which leads to a self discovery of oneself, here in my case, the self discovery of my philosophical interest! 

Mr.G wherever you are, you have given me this wonderful opportunity to improve the philosophical side of my life ! Thank you for your wonderful temporary presence in my navjeevan express ! :)