I have seen people debating about the purpose of life. Plenty of discussions followed by plethora of suggestions. But seldom has anyone been able to give me one satisfactory answer that settles the quest for finding the purpose of life. The reason does not lie in the lack of knowledge of the participants. We have been unable to find a meaningful answer because we often fail to address the actual problem. And the actual problem is our wrong interpretation of the word itself: ‘life’. What life are we talking about? Is this the life that we are supposed to spend as social human beings or is it the biological life given to us by nature. Former is a subjective topic and latter an objective one. You can have as many opinions as you like for something that means and matters differently to different people. Social life is one such topic of discussion. I may wish to spend my life sitting in the serenity of my small village and you may wish to explore the limits of your human senses. It all depends upon your upbringing, your education, your family, friends, peer groups, the sociopolitical environment that you were born in or even your natural environment. The purpose of life that you might decide for your social life may suit you but it may not be fine for me and rather be a cause of anxiety and depression.
What we generally ignore and fail to argue about is the purpose of the biological life, a life that has been bestowed upon us by mother nature (for an atheist) or by the Almighty (for a theist). Have you ever given it a thought? You might have, and I am sure you must have, at least, once in your life because this is one question that any living being with the intellectual capacity of a human cannot ignore to ponder upon. Many of you must have brushed it aside, focusing on the social life, but there are definitely some of you who would have given it a serious thought. And those are the ones whom you will always find in the quest of one single answer, “Who am I?” That’s because, you cannot find the purpose of life unless you know what life is, the life that is effervescent in your mortal human form! If I am a materialistic guy who wants to accumulate the pleasures of the worldly senses, I may choose my purpose as accumulation of wealth. If I am of a more spiritual bent of mind, I may choose to follow the path of a seeker. I choose my purpose because I know who I am as a social individual. I know my social identity, my intellectual capacity, my likes and dislikes and so on. If I am aware of ‘Who I socially Am’, I may be able to choose my social purpose of life with ease and perfection. If I am even confused about that, I may end up what we define as average struggling human being. Unfortunately, majority of us don’t even have the basic knowledge of their true social self and end up choosing wrong careers and professions for us.
Finding the purpose of my biological life, finding the answer to why I was even born as a human being is far more complicated and to some extent an unachievable goal unless I know the answer to this question ‘Who Am I?’
And believe me, I am saying this with my life’s own experience, the answer to this question is not a mystery. You have not been able to crack the code so far because you were doing it the wrong way. You already know who you are but you have overshadowed it and clouded it under the false knowledge of who you are not. To find your true self, you don’t need to find anything, you just need to forget what you are not. This may appear bookish to some of you who have read the Upanishads or other books of knowledge but believe me, I am not telling you this because I have myself only read it somewhere. I am saying it with utmost conviction and responsibility because I have practically applied it in my life. For the first time when this question stared at me, I was a mere kid, may be 8 to 10 years old, a primary class student as far as I remember. At that time, I did not even know that texts of wisdom like Upanishads existed. For me their were Ramayana and Mahabharata, one narrates the story of Lord Rama and the other contains the words of Lord Krishna as Holy Srimad Bhagwad Geeta. That was it! I did not pick up a holy book to find my answers but I started asking myself, “Who am I if I am not Dimple as this is the name given to me by my parents? Who would I be if I was not born to these parents or in this household?” And the lack of answers shook my identity. The quest for my true self began. Then slowly with the passage of time, as I grew up, I came to know ‘Who I am Not’ if not ‘Who I am?’ And today, I can say it with conviction that I have shed the entirety of my acquired knowledge of self and the identity of my true Self has just revealed itself to me, truly like the famous analogy of muddy waters settling down to give you a clear vision of the base of lake. Today, I do not only know it, but I have also realized it that I am a miniscule mortal manifestation of the ‘Sat-Chid-Ananda’, the Absolute Truth, Knowledge and Bliss. I am the Absolute who is perceivable to our senses as this mortal mind-body complex.
And know, is it difficult to answer the purpose of this biological life, this manifestation of the Absolute? If you are still confused, just look around you at other manifested forms of the Absolute, not even the living but the non living ones too. Remember, the Absolute does not manifest itself in me, you or the life around us. It has manifested in every speck of matter and the non-matter, in what is tangible or intangible, both as the atom and the space inside the atom. All that you can perceive and not perceive around is nothing but the manifestation of the Absolute. Have you ever asked yourself, “What is the purpose of the existence of this Universe?” If not, ask yourself. Keep on asking this question not only about the purpose of the universe but also the purpose of every manifested form and every unmanifested form of the universe. Slowly and gradually, the purpose of the existence of you in this human form will become clear. Your purpose as a human being is to exist and live as a human being, not only for the fellow human beings but for the entire Universe. It does not matter how important the role of a biological human is. Even if it is for a fraction of second but you fit very well in the life span of the Universe.
The universe is not around you, neither are you in the Universe. You are the Universe. The thing that you are unable to understand it is because of duality and your belief in the duality of existence. Stop seeing your self as a separate identity and you will start seeing everything clearly. It is also very simple to understand. What you see as an organism is actually what your eyes see but have you ever said to yourself that I don’t see but only my eyes see? No, because you have realized that your eyes are not separate from you, there is no duality. Your eyes don’t see but you see through your eyes. And this understanding does not come from reading or listening or learning. It comes from realization, by practically experiencing the things.
For me, it is very easy to state the purpose here in one line. But, I chose to elaborate it, though precisely, because you won’t get enlightened by reading my article. You will get enlightenment by realization. The fact is that you are already enlightened. All you need to do is be aware of your enlightenment. You will surely find the purpose of your life.
Tatsat (That is true)
Truly said. The goal is not Enlightenment but to become aware of one’s Enlightenment.