Fortitude for Peace

Ayushman Jamwal
A job, person or thing should never be our lives with the power to upend it. Life needs many anchors to maintain balance, but the pursuit of a strong heart is necessary to navigate its choppy waters.
‘Arm yourself because no one here will save you,
The odds will betray you, and I will replace you,
You can’t deny the prize, it may never fulfil you,
It longs to kill you, are you willing to die?
The coldest blood runs through veins,
You know my name.’
The words of the legendary rockstar Chris Cornell ring true today as we mourn the loss of the young and talented Sushant Singh Rajput. The song is made more poignant by the fact that Cornell also hung himself in May 2017 after a long battle with depression and substance abuse.
Their deaths give us a glimpse into the unforgiving nature of fortune and fame, and the worlds we wade into in search of purpose, meaning and fulfilment. From birth we are primed for the rat race – the best marks, the best profile, the best college, the best job, the best promotion – all that we are told will provide us the best life. Our social systems wire a competition in us, where the driven mould the best versions of themselves, but it also breeds cruelty and apathy. From schools to college to our work and social lives, cruelty shadows us all, emerging from the obvious and unlikeliest of places. Fuelled by immaturity, insecurity, cynicism, tribalism and down right darkness of character, it is something no one can shield themselves from.
In Japan, there is a social phenomenon known as Karoshi, or ‘Worked to Death’, where men and women are culturally bound to their companies, expected to work overtime for no pay for the ‘greater good’ of the company. They are expected by society to persevere through the corporate culture. Their office lives becomes their lives, inextricably linked to their happiness and well-being, and the root of the rising suicide rate among young Japanese professionals.
To achieve and hold a modicum of peace in an unforgiving environment, we create circles of shelter. From our family it widens to our friends and even our work environment. With time it grows and contracts, uplifting and teaching through joy and pain, yet keeping us safe, sane, arming us with a sense of purpose. But like any fort, the King’s Keep, out hearts and minds, must be defended with the utmost ferocity.
Life is malleable and so should we. A job, a person or thing should never be our lives, with the power to upend our existence. We need multiple anchors to stay stable in life’s choppy waters, but the endurance of our ships are of utmost importance. The Jedi philosophy of the Star Wars Universe advocates that, ‘In a pursuit of balance, one must left go of everything they fear to lose.’ Our mental fortitude to master the chaos of life is imperative as we try to achieve and grow in an unforgiving world. Through joy and pain, life is a great teacher, but seeking help in our darkest times should not be a sign of weakness. Seeking refuge in stillness, away from the havens of competition, cruelty and chaos is not the sign of a quitter.
The human will is the pursuit of self-peace, which in our most troubling times, overcomes the instinct of self-preservation. But to value oneself, is to value the will to live, savour the waves of joy and pain, and what happiness and fulfilment the world has the potential to deliver. To value oneself is to be at peace with nothingness, anonymity, the bare necessities and the will to rise, fall and rise again. Our inner demons are powerful, but what is to be human if not to endure to be more than who we are and what we can be.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s death should not drive us to point fingers at the toxicity of the world. That will never change. What we can change is our faith in empathy towards each other, faith in the therapy of kind words and deeds, and faith in ourselves to be vulnerable, share our burdens, seek aid in times of peril to persevere and live well. Chris Cornell may have given up on life, but inside the darkness of his words there were flickers of inspiring hope to live on which I see as his ultimate legacy when he said,
‘Like the Sun we will live to rise,
Like the Sun we will live and die,
And then, ignite again.’
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