Not all who wander are lost

"Not all who wander are lost" The woods are lovely, dark & deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go, before I sleep And miles to go, before I sleep. - Robert Frost There was this young British-Nepali man. Fresh out of serving the British Army for more than 6 years, he had gained a fair bit of physical fitness. Yet he always found something missing in him. One day while meeting new friends in England, he introduced himself as someone ethnically from Nepal.

Haven't heard about the name of the country, they inquired about it. The young man quickly gave them the clue, "Have you heard of Mt. Everest?" The country of Mt. Everest -> Nepal. The question that followed, made the man lookout for the thing that was missing in him. ["Have you ever climbed Mt. Everest?"] The man had never climbed a hill - but something there struck him, and struck him hard and soon in less than a decade he climbed not only Mt. Everest but all 14 8000+m peaks in the world. That is the renowned mountaineer & motivation speaker Nimal Purja, famously known as Nimsdai - who recently lost his life during an expedition in Pakistan. This is not the story of wandering without aim.

In fact he was very sure of him aim - to climb peaks, risking his life, meeting fellow mountaineers, finding answers to his deep question. A quest for keeping his fire of curiosity burning. He is not the first wanderer, history is filled up with very great names. Alexander the Great, to feed his fire of curiosity, went out to become the ruler of the world. He was a wanderer, he wanted to see new places, meet new people & leave behind his footsteps in the sand of time. Even though he died young he well understood that being a wanderer doesn't mean to be lost and visit places randomly - it meant looking for that though or "Idea in Plato's word that not everyone find in the mundane world - the quest of the transcendental. This was clearly shown in his funeral ceremony which he himself demanded. No extravaganza, all his wealth to laid on his path of final journey [to signify that wealth is just limited to this mundane world], his hand lying out of his coffin [signifying we don't take anything in the other world] & finally the most prominent doctors of his time to be his coffin bearer [to signify no one can cheat death] what a philosophical way to leave! Talking of not taking anything to the other world, we can still enjoy the World we live in - the real world & yet yes wandering here too can have a solid deep impact in one's life. Many experienced scholars often give youngsters advice to travel & travel without plans and yes this is the best advice one can get. Travelling, especially alone & without plans, can help you inculcate a lot of skill & attitude towards life. You meet new people, new minds, appreciate new culture food, experience hardships of travel, experience solitude & all the aspects. Maybe this was the reason that in Hinduism & Islam & all other prominent religions in the world great emphasis is given to travelling to the place of pilgrimage, especially on foot like the Char Dham Yatra & the Umrah/ Hajj. Unfortunately humans have evolved and they now focus more on destination than the journey. What is the destination of Life? Death? Spirituality or Liberation? Is there any proof of Post mortem experience? Does reality stops existing once we die? The above list of questions are just a drop in the ocean of questions that one faces in this journey of Life. This is the only journey, except one, that doesn't have a destination or maybe it has - no can return to explain it.

Also you guessed it right, the only exception is "Wandering in life" without a fixed determined destination -> not because you are lost but because wandering feels more close to nature, the true mimic of life which has no destination. This understanding gives a wanderer a sigh of relief. That's too much philosophical. Let's talk scientific. As all the western philosophers are either great Mathematicians or as near the contemporary world - the great scientist. Quantum Mechanics is the new branch of science that talks about the unknown trying to explain the unanswered question of philosophy which breaks the clear distinction between philosophy & science. Please do not guillotine me yet, I will try to explain the relation with the best of my limited understanding of philosophy & science. Quantum Mechanics talks about superposition - a situation in which two contrasting reality exist at the same time and at the same place. The famous Schrodinger Cat experiment where the cat is alive & dead at the same time before we open the box is the famous example. Famous astrophysics have used them to explain the existence of alternative universe or alternate reality. Where 2 different realities can exist in different universes. As we talk about our wanderer who seems lost to us might not be lost at all, he might be in an alternate universe - maybe he has found his path to it. I agree that these sounds a bit strange at first and can be easily digressed into psychological phenomenon but with recent 2025 Nobel Prize for Physics which was awarded for quantum tunnelling where the physicist proved that movement of matter can be made across another matter using this technology, I became a strong believer of this branch of science. So according to science, our debate would surely end here as the wanderer can be of 2 types - the first who is actually lost and want to find a way to his destination and another that is having a time of his life in alternate universe and not at all lost or looking for a destination. But there is a catch. What is the wanderer is not in another reality like a philosopher or monk but completely present in this world with an aim to view the world. Will our analysis call him lost or whether is is that wanderer who is not lost? Surely society will label him to be a lost person who has lost the direction of his path of life. But who is this society? This is just a human construct. God didn't create society, humans did. God created nature and the aimless wandering around nature gives us that relaxation & satisfaction that no norms of society can give. Same thing happened with our legendary mountaineer Nimdai. At 30 he was considered too old by the society to be that lost wanderer but he decided to think otherwise. He found his way. He knew there is danger. But when a wandered is troubled by death [which is destination in the mundane world]. He eventually died last month and people will remember him as a fighter while some would label him as a maniac or a psycho. As far as I am concerned, as I told earlier as a new fan of Quantum Mechanics, I was would just say that he is enjoying his life to the fullest in the alternate reality of the "Alternate Universe". THE END

The famous Schrodinger Cat experiment where the cat is alive & dead at the same time before we open the box is the famous example. Famous astrophysics have used them to explain the existence of alternative universe or alternate reality. Where 2 different realities can exist in different universes. As we talk about our wanderer who seems lost to us might not be lost at all, he might be in an alternate universe - maybe he has found his path to it. I agree that these sounds a bit strange at first and can be easily digressed into psychological phenomenon but with recent 2025 Nobel Prize for Physics which was awarded for quantum tunnelling where the physicist proved that movement of matter can be made across another matter using this technology, I became a strong believer of this branch of science. So according to science, our debate would surely end here as the wanderer can be of 2 types - the first who is actually lost and want to find a way to his destination and another that is having a time of his life in alternate universe and not at all lost or looking for a destination.