Nobody’s World

He started walking without turning and stopping for a single moment. He had left everything behind him forever and just moved forward.

It was an aimless walk, as he carried in him no desire to reach anywhere. He did not actually want this walk to end anywhere. He had longed for such a time when he could free himself from all chains and could wander on his own and get lost never to be found by anyone who claimed to own him.

He wanted to walk, with no one accompanying him, not even the self who had been his in the past. Everything of the past was left and he moved empty-handed and empty minded on this anonymous, never ending path.

Thinkers and philosophers have always tried to sketch a design, a pattern of human life, which man seem to be following. They have proposed theories regarding human existence and the purpose of life. One school of thought believes that every human being, no matter who he is, whatever he does, wherever he belongs to – is always searching for his identity, his place in the universe, the higher purpose of his existence, and his own distinguished role in this universe.

No matter what these thinkers say, for him it was not a quest for his own identity, or a wish to crave his own individuality on the canvas of the universe, nor a longing to discover his real task, which took him to this aimless excursion. He did not care to know anything. All thoughts of such profound nature were discarded; all reasons and justifications were shunned. They have burdened his mind for a long time and now he wanted to get rid of them permanently.

His had been a fulfilling life: except for some odds here and there, everything had been next to perfect with him. He belonged to a well-to-do family, lived in a peaceful secure environment of a lovely home, and had had a quality education. His life partner came in his life as a college sweetheart, whom he finally married. She had always been the sole object of his soft, as well as passionate emotions. Within seven years of married life, she gave him the gift of two adorable daughters on whom he showered his fatherly affections.

In the world outside his home he was considered a successful man. After completing his education he had found a satisfactory job. His excellent professional skills earned him promotions every year and within a short span he became the CEO of a reputed multinational firm. He enjoyed a happening social life because of his long list of friends and acquaintances. They knew him as a charming, amiable man whose company was a treasure cherished by many. Thus, wherever he went, whatever he did, he was always welcomed, appreciated and loved.

On one of his routine days, while returning from his office, he encountered through the window of his car a middle-aged man sitting on the footpath near a busy roundabout. There was heavy traffic and the signal was taking too long to switch. He just glanced at the man and something in his demeanor caught his attention and his eyes remained fixed on him.

That man with his shabby clothes, messy hair, bare feet, empty hands, had something in him that struck him. It was a single moment but it took him somewhere. He got completely lost in him, unaware of his surroundings and oblivious to his own state. Then the green light suddenly glimmered, he came back to the world and moved with the traffic towards his home.

But from that day onwards there was no comfort for him anywhere. There was a strange unrest within him, an anxiety that made everything unbearable. He was unable to involve himself in anything, he disliked being at home, detested going to office and to be in the company of friends.

He lost his appetite, his sleep became less and disturbed and his body lost all its energy. Peace was not to be found anywhere. Something kept suffocating him. It was all getting too much. He searched for an answer, a way to end everything. Finally after many sleepless nights he found a key to everything.

It was the burden of his own self, the load of his own identity, the weight of his individuality that was agonizing him. The responsibility that lay on him of his own self, his family, his world, his whole life was getting too heavy for his breath to hold. That man on that footpath had presented to him a picture of a completely different life. A life where he would have no identity, no individuality, no feel of the world around him, no feel of life itself.

It opened to him a world where there would be nothing - a completely empty world. A world where there are no people, no things, no time, but just endless space. For some mysterious reason that life attracted him, that world seemed to be calling him. There was a deep urge in him to end the life that he was living and get hold of that lifelessness, get immersed in that infinite space. So he abandoned this world, dumped this life and started walking towards that which was calling him.

His family, office, friends, all became nonexistent. He threw the garb of his past self, the self that owned that family, the self that belonged to that world, and the self that was always aware of its place, and of its own existence, to wear the garb of selflessness.

That night he got up and left his home and took that road where his own house was situated and started walking. He walked, that night went, next morning came, darkness again fell, and another sun dawned. Days and night came and went but he kept on walking. Then he completely lost all sense of time, place and his own self but he kept walking.

He was walking and someone came in his way suddenly. It stood in front of him and gave him no place to move. It asked him,
“Who are you?”
He replied, “Nobody.”
It again questioned, “Where are you going?”
He replied, “Nowhere.”
It again inquired, “Whom do you belong to?”
He again answered, “No one.”
It did not ask any more questions. It just said, “Those who are nobody are mine”

It was death that has come to claim him and after saying its last words, it took him. Took him from one state of selflessness, lifelessness and from that infinite space from where he was, towards another higher state of selflessness, lifelessness and eternal space.

Before death claimed him, he had finally become a nobody, a nobody who was owned by no one and who belonged nowhere. This feel of a nobody that he had seen on the face of that man on that footpath had given him his peace.

It was the body of this nobody that another nobody like him found lying on an unknown, road. He was buried in a graveyard that carried the remains of numerous nobodies. Eventually he mingled with all the nobodies of the world and got lost in a nobody’s, yet everybody’s, eternal world.