I heard about Marcus Aurelius a while ago. He was a ‘Roman Emperor’, a very noble man, a follower, and a preacher of stoic philosophy. His book ‘Meditations’, which is supposedly filled with timeless life lessons on life and its multiple aspects, has been on my to-read list for some time now. But today something else happened. I came across this quote by him and it has been stuck in my head like a leech since the first time I read it.

“In the life of man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors; life a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion. Where, then, can man find the power to guide and guard his steps? In one thing and one alone: the love of knowledge.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Tell me if you have not at times wondered ‘What is the point of all this?’, What is it that makes us keep going?

Well, I tend to think about these questions more often than I should and usually get pushed around explanations, theories, and philosophers trying to impart answers. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I do not and sometimes I don’t know what to feel.

So, when I happened to come across this quote by Aurelius, it felt like Marcus woke me up, hit on my head, and handed me a note with that quote on it. It felt like I had finally found my answers. The more I think about it, the more it aligns with my school of thought.

“Aren’t we all here just for a speck of a moment in comparison to all that has happened and all that is to happen in the universe?” he asks. Our senses, bodies, soul (if there is one), everything we possess or think we own, has a minuscule existence and a tiny significance. We are born, we struggle, we try to make sense of this obscure world around us, and then, just like that, we are gone, disappearing into oblivion. Marcus, however, does not necessarily insist that everyone should feel that way. What he deeply wants to convey is, even with all those conditions in a man’s life, there is something that is so profound and emerges above everything. And that is the ‘love of knowledge’. The desire to know something, the never-ending aspiration to learn. This exact quality in a man inspires him to wake up, and go through whatever he goes through in his day and his life. The beauty of existence is only flowered when there is an inclination towards absorbing knowledge, about himself, his true nature, and about everything around. Only the love of knowledge makes him live a life of contentment and meaning. Come to think of it, human’s affinity towards learning and mustering knowledge throughout history has one of the most eminent roles in bringing human life into the present state. Everything we did, we have or we had to overcome is a result of our love of knowledge.

I think that quote by Marcus Aurelius perfectly explains the purpose of life as well as the way to attain it. We must straighten out our priorities if we wish to live a life filled with purpose. We should always remain hungry for knowledge, learning, unlearning, and relearning if required. The love of knowledge should always exist deep inside us because the rest of it all is just an ‘incessant flux’.