Curiosity, the desire and eagerness to know things and that is done primarily by asking questions and trying to find out the answers. The more curious a person is, the more questions that person posses and the more chances are there that the person may turn out to be successful eventually. As Einstein has rightly said, “the important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.” So curiosity has its own reason for its existence.
Usually majority of the people dislike being questioned, there is a minority which likes to be asked questioned and there is still a smaller minority which likes to be asked tougher question. The first kind of people try to avoid all questions, the second type do so in respect of the tougher questions but the third kind tries to find answers to the questions and once they are convinced they communicate the answers to the questioner. The latter is the best attitude to deal with questions and curiosity. The attitudes of the first two kinds of people on the other hand should be avoided.
As such the right attitude is to try to find out answers to the questions that come to our minds and that are posed to us by others. Usually when we fail to find the answers on our own, we stop finding the answers, we do not ask those who know the answers or who can help us to uncover the answers. Our inability to find answers later on make us irritated when the same questions are put forth before us by the other people and we are unable to deal with them as previously. At times we end up giving wrong answers, incomplete answers and unsatisfactory answers. The questioners eventually realize our inability and our inefficiency in answering the questions and so they give up asking them to us. The same way we do when we fail to get satisfactory answers from others.
The purpose of life is not only to live like any other animal or living being that lives on the earth. The purpose rather is to live an honorable, sustainable and everlasting life. This can be achieved by being curious by asking question, finding their answers and if they are not found from one source or man other sources and men should be consulted. All the successful men and men who have contributed greatly for the betterment of the human species stand out from others in their higher quotient of curiosity.
Man has to find answers to the biggest questions and the simple ones also. The answers to the simple ones are related to our day to day activities, necessities, requirements and challenges of life and they can be easily known from other men, circumstances or experience of the self or that of the other men. About the bigger questions man has been trying since the very outset to reply those questions but hardly a few men are able to know some of the answers and there are only few who perhaps knew the answers to many of the great questions.
The examples of the great questions include the real purpose of human existence, in fact the real purpose of the existence of the universe. What is outside the universe, if there is anything outside? Is the universe real or mere illusion? When I am writing this what is the proof that I am not in a dream and what is the proof that I am not in illusion? And all the other great questions of philosophy which all the great philosophers and scholars have tried to answer.
Giving up is not an option when a negative answer is gained or no answer is achieved. Man has to try, try always, persistently and consistency, to find out the answers to these questions and all the rest. Once a breakthrough comes and once an answer is known after verification and authentication it can be communicated to the others and it will remain their till the posterity as your legacy for our best and foremost responsibility is to leave a legacy for coming generations. We have received great legacies from the generations before us and we have to add to that and leave that, including the legacy received from the parents and the predecessor generations, as our legacy for the next generations.
While trying to find the answers we may fail more often than not but even that act of trying can be a legacy. The other researchers and discoverers would pick up the bits and pieces from our efforts which could be of great help towards finding the answers. At times, the real answers to great questions take generations to uncover and generations of work. If we get dejected when we fail to get a satisfactory answer at the first go, we cannot achieve anything in life.
Material wealth is not everything; man needs more and better things alongwith the material welfare. Man has to live with other fellow men and the collective work of these men would only help us to find the answers, otherwise nothing of that sort could ever be achieved. Somewhere in the answers to the questions lies the better material well being and sustainability of that being.
We should never let the curiosity of a child to die. The children ask questions which are genuine and our inability to satisfy their curiosity should not come in the way of answering them. We must refer these children and their questions to the people who know the answers. There is no inferiority if one knows not the answers; there is greatness in acknowledging that and trying to learn from the questions of the children.
By encouraging the children to ask questions we do a great service towards the progression of their careers which could go a long way in making them self sufficient and capable men to deal with the challenges and uncomfortable situations of life. They could become successful citizens of a country, and the world at large by being curious and staying curious. Our responsibility is to add fuel to that curiosity and never let it to die.
Most of the parents, teachers, and guardians do the greatest of the disservice towards their children and students by killing the capacity of the children to ask questions and by discouraging them from being curious. This is equivalent to killing the personality of the child, making things hostile for their minds for growth and development. The right attitude is to see the genuinely try to see what are the needs and necessities of the mind of the children at that stage of their life and provide that as far as possible.
Life of the children and even that of the grownups, this way could become much more enjoyable to live and understand. Otherwise the difficult life gets more difficult by the attitude that most of the people have which should be avoided and given up. Children, it is reiterated, ask genuine questions at most of the times, they deserved to be answered in a kind and intelligible manner.
Curiosity, they say, is key to success and by not being curious, not respecting the curiosity of others, we keep the doors, leading to success, closed and always closed. It is imperative upon us to keep the key always available and always in sight. No deformity and rust in the keys should be allowed to set in; they should be able to unlock the doors to success and sustainability of human life.
If we see the attitude that we have towards our own curiosity and that of the other it can be safely uttered that our keys are already rusted, they need to be oiled and their rust needs to be removed. We have to prepare ourselves to deal with the emerging challenges of life and in the similar manner we have to equip the coming generations with the wherewithal and paraphernalia to deal with their challenges. Respecting the curiosity and trying to satisfy that curiosity is the sure way to achieve all that not otherwise.
In the contemporary age new challenges associated with the existence of the human race have emerged, there are new threats and promising areas side by side. Curiosity can go a long way to decide which road to tread and which to avoid. Curiosity can also help in mitigating the threats and eliminating the hardships. Curiosity can aid in knowing the impacts and adverse consequences alongwith the merits of modern technology and social relations. And curiosity can ease out the barriers that have divided the people in compartments and closed groups, different and apart from the rest.
Hence the role curiosity can play should duly be acknowledged. Adequate emphasis should be laid on culture and cultivation of curiosity. Once cultivated the fruits are bound to come and they will come in plenty as is the case with all those who were curious, their contributions for humanity are immense. It is their contribution that the human race is where it is today. Curiosity really is one of the wonderful human traits which has done great wonders and is capable of doing even greater wonders.
Fayaz Ganaie can be reached at fayaz.greatstep@gmail.com
