It is true that experiences teach us, whether it is good or bad. Being a wealthy adult, it is common chasing women, gabling, drink, etc. However, learning from the mistakes and confess later need a winning heart. Thus, when life strike at Leo Tolstoy (8 Sep 1828-20 Nov 1910) Tolstoy understood from his self learning tool that “the meaning of life” and is soul purpose in one's life.
Leo, the great Russian novelist who wrote a short novel, “A Confession” in 1879 at the age of 50. It is based on his own realistic biographical piece of non-fiction. Leo narrated the mid-life crisis of his life including religious views, his belief, problems, and philosophical thoughts through the questions and answers. In the novel, Tolstoy discussed all about “if God does not exist, since death is inevitable, what is the meaning of life” the life becomes impossible when these questions arise in any person, especially when no answers to this. Tolstoy experienced the same and, in his book, also stated that “god is life”.
Leo Tolstoy on Christianity
Every religion at the end says one thing, and almost common. However, there are miss-interpretation of the religious texts. In this holy world, more than four thousand religions are existing, but some of them have wrongly interpreted by intentionally or without intentionally by our communities. Xuanzang’s travel of 17 years on horse searching for Buddhism is widely famous. Xuanzang came to know that there were missing text of Religious belief, and thus he had decided to travel to ancient India to gain complete knowledge about the real Chinese culture. The spiritual crisis of Leo Tolstoy, recounted in the “A Confession”. Therefore, not only Leo but others and still, today people have few questions in minds keep zigzag without answers to it. In the book, Tolstoy said,
Judging by certain memories, I never seriously believed, but I had merely relied on what I was taught and on what was professed by the grown up people around me; and that my reliance was very unstable.
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, raised in Russian church of orthodox spiritual community. Therefore, one quickly understands the real life struggles to fly and reaches to own conclusion about “the meaning of life” than it taught at the young age.
Standing: Alexandra (Tolstoy's daughter), Mikhail (Tolstoy's son), Mikhail Sukhotin (Tatyana Tolstoy's husband), Andrei (Tolstoy's son);Source: Tatyana Tolstoy: Tolstoy remembered, Michael Joseph London | i'mBiking credit to Wikipedia commons
The well-grown experiences in brain
Leo quickly realized that his own real experiences are heavier and must put on paper to give an ease to his philosophical nerves. His first novel “War and Peace” is the first creation of his, fighting in the Crimean War. Tolstoy had continuously nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1909. However, he does not win a single prize, and it was the most controversial part of the world’s literature. Leo was not only a writer but one of the few influential personalities to the great leaders and victorious minds of 20th century. His thoughts and the great sayings still inspires the young generations. Furthermore, Mahatma Gandhi was one of them. He was inspired by Tolstoy’s two great things, one was choosing non-violence and non-violence resistance and other was “bread labour”.
What is “bread Labour”?
Every person should do all his work himself according to his strength, ability and as far as possible. Gandhi wrote a series of articles in 1930 on the theory of Tolstoy,
Man must earn his bread by manual labour, never by mental work.
Leo Tolstoy
Gandhi, devoted to the thoughts of Tolstoy and greatly influenced by his novel “The Kingdom of God is Within You”
Therefore, god is within us, we don’t need to find somewhere else. Moreover, serving others is humanity and that is the sole meaning of life.
