Purpose Of Life

 

What Are We Doing And Why ?

" I am going to buy a house next year and then a few years later ,a car. I have also to help my son get a  successful career . I have yet to take out some time for my hobbies…" I was thinking. My thoughts didn't stop there. They never stop .There were innumerable desires which kept gripping my mind for some time then. It was not the first time that it was happening with me. Such thoughts generally keep me , like others, busy day and night. The pathetic reality ,however, is that knowingly or unknowingly ,we are all drifting  towards the other end of the life sailing on the boat of these thoughts . It is these thoughts that cause all our actions and unending busyness. In that helter-skelter ,we forget ourselves and our purpose of life. Purpose! Yes , the meaning of life ! The meaning of our existence! Of course the end reminds us of the duty we should have done . Death marks the physical end of our life .And it also serves many as an alarm bell  reminding them of their sense of purpose in life which is coming to a close. It alarms us to rethink about life and work and reorganize them lest something should get missed. Just a thought of death fills the mind with various fundamental and existential questions about life we have been generally ignoring and postponing.

Know Your Life

 We are always busy doing this and that in our day to day life and in this way our whole life is spent . Thoughts and actions driven by each other consume our life. Busy with our needs and desires ,we never pause to see ourselves, our thoughts and our actions . We never care to ask ourselves if we are doing the right thing. We never ask what is the meaning of all that we are doing. We dare not ask if we are treating our life as it should be treated and in this unconscious and automatic way arrives the imminent end . 

The period between our birth and death is the most valuable and important thing for us. Generally we do not start a work until we get to know it and its purpose. Nobody can make us do a task whose meaning and purpose we are not sure of .Even when we are to do some small and unimportant work , we know or try to know what and why of that. For example when we are eating we know we do it to sustain our life. We exercise to make our body healthy. We laugh to express fun and pleasure and so on. But do we really know what life is? Do we ever bother to know why we are living and what is the meaning or purpose of life? Do we really care to know how to live it best?

We can do our best and accomplish the work in hand in the best way possible if we know it well and are clear about how to do it.  Life ,being the most valuable thing we have ,deserves our best attention and efforts. Let's try to understand it lest it should go in vain.

What Is Life ?

Literally life means living. It is opposed to death. It begins with birth and ends with death. Its simple meaning is that we are living if we are not dying. Apparently it is a time period during which something shows the signs of life like movement, growth, reproduction, consciousness etc. These signs are present in different  degrees in different kinds of life forms. The degree of the presence of these signs decides the level of evolution of an animal .The greater the signs are , the greater the evolution is. In short, life means the duration in which one is active, growing, reproducing, moving, happy and energetic . Life is time and energy, consciousness and growth.

The Purpose of Life 

But the question of its meaning and purpose is not a simple one.  How do we know the purpose of something? To know the purpose of something one needs to know who created it , as the purpose is assigned by the creator himself . For example a gramophone is meant for listening to audio. A toothbrush is meant for brushing our teeth ,pen for writing and book for reading . Their investors made them for these purpose.

Sometimes the purpose is assigned by the users also in addition to or apart from the creator's purpose .For example, food is used for eating ,water for drinking, baking and washing, trees for wood, shade and oxygen and land for farming etc. In both these cases the purposes are not bound to be singular  and absolute, for there may be more than one purpose of an article. Whether the creator or the user gives a purpose to a particular thing, it cannot be final and absolute.

There Is No Single Purpose

 A writer with a pen can say that the pen is serving its purpose but does it mean anything to the pen itself. If water is used for the purpose of irrigation and not for drinking, can we say that it has not served its purpose? If a flower has blossomed and fallen in the obscurity of a deserted place and has not been used by anyone, has it lost its purpose and its life in vain ? These examples indicate that the purpose or meaning is an artificial and psychological notion and it is not fixed . We also feel that it is a perspective based understanding which may vary from person to person.

Purpose Is Psychological

 What is the purpose of an earthworm, a fish or a bird ? What is the purpose of rivers, seas, mountains and forests? What do the sun, the moon and the stars stand for? Whatever good or bad, intelligent or stupid, religious or secular meaning or purpose is given to these things, will appear to be the result of a human centric thinking. But the universe is not human centric in reality. Thus the question of finding a purpose or meaning of anything seems to be a human psychological problem ,not a real problem in itself.

Therefore let us consider the real limitation of our ability in dealing with this question. We become satisfied to get a clear cut purpose for something.Our mind becomes restless when it doesn't get a definable meaning of something. But is it necessary that there should be a purpose for everything? Should all our actions have purpose? With the limited information we have , can our intelligence and intellect know the purpose of something completely? Though, looking at the practical limitations of our intellectual capacity, we are aware that our knowledge of purpose cannot be final , we cannot help dwelling upon this question due to the same intellectual urge. 

Purpose Of Life Is The Life Itself

       Since we do not know for sure who created this life and why , we are free to give it any purpose because we are ourselves the life and it's user . Having no purpose also seems equally good. It looks as good  as any other purpose suggested by religion, politics or society . As a life myself, it occurs to me that the purpose of life is to live it fully with all its possible experiences. It is to have the experience of life in all its profoundness as its opposite, death, is characterized by pain inaction, stagnation, stoppage and a sense of finality. Life should have happiness, action, movement and hopefulness. The lesson is to fill our life with the characteristics of life.

How To Attain The Purpose

However it is easier said than done. How to live life, deserves a careful study. We all want it to be perfect, in both quantity as well as quality. Quantity here means duration. It should be long enough to achieve full realisation.  Quality means positive experience ,full of ultimate happiness of a permanent kind. Quality also implies the state of consciousness. We know that anything good or bad in life is of any importance only when we can perceive and experience it and that is possible only when we are conscious. Raising our level of awareness is helpful in realising this purpose. Quality is also composed of a sense of timeless security which means life needs to be true and real devoid of any fear of loss.

This is the intrinsic desire of all creatures to experience a life which is eternally long,  happy and conscious. This universal longing gives a clue to the universal purpose which lies in obtaining it. But how to obtain it, is also an equally misunderstood problem . When we talk about achieving a purpose , it is assumed that it is distant from us.  That makes it a purpose in the worldly sense. This problem is based on the wrong idea of self and its real nature.

Wrong Identity Leads To A Wrong Purpose

 We can never obtain the cherished purpose of living a happy and conscious life as long as we identify ourselves wrongly with the physical body which is temporary, unconscious and afflicted with pains. It has a beginning and an end. It is also not right to identify with the mind which is rooted heavily in the physical body and its experiences and memories. Our identity as a mind-body complex is at the root of all our problems. It is a wrong perception . On close observation we can view this complex as something different in the same way as we see our car, house and garden.

True Identity Shows True Purpose

 Our identity as a detached  and pure observer sets us free from all miseries.  As an awareness and consciousness ,different from this mind-body complex, we are already free.  With this realisation comes the feeling of eternity, limitlessness and permanence. 

Therefore  the purpose of living a conscious and happy life can be fulfilled ,not by making any external attempts but by making a transformation within. Such life cannot be achieved by money, luxuries, fame or power ,as they are all short lived and  just small means to give the desired experience. They bring with them many concerns, fears and engagements which may involve us in a series of unending hopes and despairs.

Rather than covering all the roads under carpets why can we not put on a pair of shoes . Rather than working on the branches, let us fix the root. Rather than subduing the stink of the body with deodorant let us clean it with a fresh shower.

Conclusion

 We need not pursue a purpose. We are the purpose. We are the meaning. The solution is just a will away. The moment we realise our true nature we shall have all that we appear to want.