The world we live in has laws we are supposed to follow. It is
said that one of them is that we should compete in order to survive. It takes us many
years, or our whole lives to realise whether it is really true or not, whether we should
look upon the people around us as rivals.
In fact, from the very beginning and during our lives we try to prove something to somebody. At school we try to get an excellent mark to make our parents and teachers glad; then we enter a university, or some other educational institution where we “are waited for” and where again we should prove our intelligence and skills. We have to withstand teachers’ disrespect because there is no way out – we must get a good education to get a brilliant job in the future. And then at work we should prove that we are worthy of the money we get and be able to achieve much more in our profession, if we are interested in it of course. So we do our best to get as much as possible from our life because we know that people judge us by what we have achieved.
If a person doesn’t have much education, a good job and a family, people call him a failure. They will be right, on the one hand, because purposefulness is a remarkable feature of any character; but, on the other hand, everything depends on the aim which is pursued. Only a person himself can realize and decide what he or she wants to get from life.
People are different and they have different aims. What is very important for one person means nothing to another.
Most people strive desperately for a place under the sun; but they often forget about spirituality. They only try to satisfy their ambitions, to prove their superiority to the people around them. It leads to immorality and callousness. Nowadays, when we have an absolute degradation of spiritual, ethical and cultural values, people worry only about material wealth. They compete in buying a new car, a flat, a mistress, or anything they can afford. For such people life really is an eternal competition.
The law of the jungle in the reign under which we live makes us selfish and heartless. Everybody is worried only about themselves because they all know that only the strongest can survive in terrible conditions of existence. We desperately try to prove that we are strong enough, and can get, and stand, everything. The only thing we want is to be the best.
We are proud of being the first in any kind of competition life offers us and we are angry and upset if we can’t achieve success. We envy people whose living wage and family budget allow them to buy almost everything, people whose business is prosperous, who earn a lot of money, or just can do something better than we can.
Unfortunately, this is our reality. We forget our traditions, our history, and, what is worse, our religion – from which we should take examples. According to the Bible pride, envy, aspiration to honours and riches, are among the greatest sins. The Ten Commandments tell people to love, to help each other, to perfect our inner world, our souls, but not to make a fortune or a great profit like most people try to do. It is awful that people stop listening to their inner voice, their conscience; that is the voice of God. Unfortunately, a cold mind and acquisitiveness come first.
It seems to me that all this material well-being and comfort is of no value. Certainly I can’t say that I am against it, but I am sure it isn’t worthy of competition. We should think about the original values, such as our culture, history, spirituality, ethical and moral principles; but above all we must keep our religion, which should be the foundation of our lives.
And we should always remember that the main, and the only, aim of our existence here, is to achieve the perfection of our souls – not to take part in the many competitions which the world offers us.
By Julia Pykhtina