There is no stagnancy in life. There is a continuous flow, a flowing continuity and an erupting change. Same is the case with all the aspects of human life, as human life itself is a part of the universe and universe is in a state of continuous change. Neither a human being himself, nor his individual or social life faces any stagnancy. Same can be found in human thoughts and creative life; he, with every passing moment, creates or destroys something, and this process is going on. However, it is not necessary that every creation favors human evolution and every destruction is negative for him. Sometimes, a single creation results in myriads of destructions and, at others, a single destruction gives birth to numerous constructive capabilities.
Human life is as infinite as the universe itself. We, through artificial satellites, have reached thousands of miles away from the earth; however, we are yet to discover the universe as a whole, or even partly. Nonetheless, it would be better to discover life itself before striving to discover the universe. As, in fact, life and universe are the two sides of the same picture, or the two sides of the same coin. The discovery of the universe is done through the rockets but the finite and infinite aspects of life are discovered through our thoughts, our social consciousness and our creative capabilities. As, beautifully said by Chaim Potok, “Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here.”
One of the ways of discovering life is through literature. Literature has played a tremendous role in human life and it will keep on doing so, as far as, human beings are able to treat it with care and importance.
Literature is actually a creative capability of human life. And, as human life is always changing, same is the case with literature. It can never be stagnant and has always changed forms and will keep on doing so. Literature, in fact, is not a mechanical phenomenon and does not act like machine, which after working for some time may stop working and is again brought to work by providing fuel. Literary creativity is actually the outcome of two most important human potentials – thoughts and feelings. As a matter of fact, by thinking that literature has come to a halt, one has to think that human beings have stopped thinking and feeling, which is not possible. The literary creativity can only stop when human beings stop to exist, but for the time being, human beings are immortal; they have heart and mind and both of them are always in action; therefore, their capability to create would never stop and nor would the literary creativity.
To create a qualitative literature, it is necessary to study human society and the social interactions that take place within the society, along with the philosophical study of different phenomena in life. Social interactions and systems are basically the factors that lay the foundation of a society. We, in addition to the understanding of stars, flowers, beauty, miracles and the aesthetic pleasures for the human spirit, must also understand those aspects of life which are wholly or partly materialistic as literature has to grow from the soil. Though it may grow slowly and reach to the sky but at the end it has to have its roots in the soil.
It is, as a matter of fact, possible to solve the daily problems in our lives through literature. A true literature must reflect the life of common man and at the same time it must play a role in solving the social and spiritual issues in human life and all these responsibilities go to the intellectuals, writers and poets.
If we see the contemporary social and political lives we can find myriads of issues. For example, in our social system there are myriads of injustices. The ruling elite, in order to pursue its own self-centered incentives, is trying to keep the status quo and avoid any sort of positive change. There is corruption, poverty and different types of crimes and all these problems need to be highlighted and at the same time people need to understand them and play their role in solving them. Literature can play a dominant role in identifying and highlighting those issues and let the people know about them. The intellectuals, poets and writers, through their prose, poetry and drama can show the people the difficulties they have been facing because of the injustices and problems in the social and political systems and thus can help them in playing an active role as citizens of a country and members of a society.