Overview

MEANING OF LIFE IN OLD AGE Most people occasionally ask themselves questions such as the following: Is there any purpose in life ? Is there anything really worthwhile ? Ordinary people ask themselves questions of this sort either in moods of despair - after a bereavement, the failure of long term plans, a betrayal, the suffering of injustice or indifference and so on - or in occasioned moods of reflection on their own lives or on the world about them. Doctors frequently encounter death and not simply the death of the old, but of those who still had much to give when they were struck down; and they can see the misery which death brings to relatives and friends. Social workers encounter the wretchedness of those who are lonely, whose lives are being wasted because of some disadvantage of birth, physical, mental or social. Constant exposure to such situations inevitably generates in the reflective person questions about the meaning of life. 1 Humans are by nature meaning seeking and meaning making creatures. We always search for something that makes life worth living in the midst of suffering. Old age has been termed as a period of losses. The losses are chiefly psychological, social and economic in nature. Poor health, economic dependence and non-working status tend to create amongst the aged a feeling of meaninglessness. 2 Elderly people who have retired face meaninglessness. They suddenly feel like their lives have no meaning, they have become unnecessary in the eyes of the society to which they have given their blood, sweat and tears over the course of their lives. 3 In the traditional Indian society, the aged persons were given deference and they enjoyed the position of authority. 4 The traditional structure of mainly the Hindu society in India was a patriarchal system based on the institution of the joint-

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