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Vijay Hashia discusses 'Surrender to the Absurd' in The Times of India of 26 August 2026:
Live Sisyphus And Not Abyss Of Absurd
He begins by referring to the recent tragedy involving 18 year old Kunal Murlidhar Chandvade, triggered by his stubborn demand for an Apple phone. His father could not reportedly afford it, It led to the fatal fall from the cliff where the whole family lost their lives. They were attempting to save one another.
According to Crime records Bureau, annual suicide rate in India is 12.2 to 12.3 per 100000 with young adults aged 15-30 at high risk. The reasons include academic stress, a traumatic and negative familial environment, conflicts, depression and anxiety disorders among others.
This is the abyss of the 'absurd.' In his philosophical essay, 'The Myth of Sisyphus,' Albert Camus calls suicide a surrender to the 'absurd.' It occurs when the mind develops the notion i that life is not worth living. The surrender then is meek.. He asserts why we must continue struggling like Sisyphus pushing his boulder endlessly uphill, without promise that the struggle will ever reward or resolve anything and without losing life's hope.
The boulder remains unmovable for Sisyphus and his pushing it is a resolute act against the absurdity of existence.
Retreating and withdrawing from pushing the boulder, he says, is succumbing. And there is one act of dignity left, and that is to continue struggling resolutely even beyond limits of endurance.
Allowing an 'absurd' moment to dictate life's value and meaning is yielding, he says.
A targedy of misfortune ought to have an explanation. A devastating loss ought to contain some rationale. We instinctively search for justification, responsibility, fate or circumstance and we ask why that happened and where the fault lies.
But the world is not irrational nor is the human being incapable of reason. The 'absurd' emerges from the collision between our insatiable desire to understand and the world that does not respond to it. We demand absolute meaning. Existence gives us only contingency, uncertainty and death.
For Camus, faith is consolation disguised as a deep philosohical choice, giving up on reason. He admires boldness to face life honestly without building philosophical theories around it. For Soren Kierkeggaard and Lev Shestov, when logic fails to explain suffering, one turns to faith rather than explanation. Nietzche accepts life's cruely but advocates embracing it fully
No faith, theory or doctrine of fate can make any such tragedy suddenly occur.
Gita, Chapter 2, says, from contemplation on sensory objects arises attachment, from attachment arises desire, from desire arises anger, from anger arises delusion, from delusion arises loss of memory and destruction of intellect and finally the ruin. Upanishads counsel us to enjoy life and the world through detachment and renunciation without greed.
Today thought patterns have shifted towards acquiring material possessions, social media, brand consciousness, self centredness, manufactured personality traits for approval and a craving for social acceptance has engulfed young minds.
The remedy begins at home, where children are allowed to speak early and vent small frustrations. The role of the elders is not to enforce order through writs. The development of the psyche of the children become wholesome when they consent to accept advice when in need and without compulsion.
Nothing is worth losing a life.
It must be lived on, endured through any eventuality and carried forward with resilience and courage.
