The purpose of life
Every living being has a purpose in life, and knowing that purpose enables every soul to fulfil it.
The absence of the knowledge of the purpose of life causes one to do one thing or another, go from one thing to another, always dissatisfied, always discontented, and everything they undertake remains without result
The mission of science is to discover the purpose in objects.
The aim of mysticism is to find meaning in human life—the meaning of one’s own life and the meaning of others.
So long as a man has not found his purpose, he does not live.
Life begins from the moment a person finds the purpose of his life.
In one’s childhood, is when one finds the purpose of one’s life.
What we call right or wrong, good or bad, differs according to the purpose of one’s life.
It is not the action but the purpose that makes things right or wrong.
There are 5 inclinations of man
Love of knowledge
In life as it is today, many are placed in a situation where they never have a moment to gain that knowledge which they seek after; from morning till evening, they have their duty to perform. They are so absorbed in it that after some time, the hunger for knowledge is lost, and their mind becomes blunted.
There are thousands of people whom life has placed in a situation where they cannot help but concentrate on some particular work and never have time to think about other things that they would like to know.
We call this progress, but it is not freedom of mind. The mind is imprisoned in a limited horizon.
There are very few seekers who discover that from idea, however simple, a revelation comes when they give their mind to it and then begins to teach them more and more things which they had never known.
The difficult that so-called truth-seeking people experience is that when they have a little time to look for the truth they are restless.
One does not arrive at concentration, contemplation, or meditation, buy studying many things, nor by going from one idea to another.
Love of life
Life is dear even to little insects when one tries to touch them. Every being wants to live — the soul’s inclination is to live.
The soul keeps the physical body as its garb only until its purpose is fulfilled and it wishes to leave its garb
The soul’s happiness comes when freed from its physical burden; it can only be happy when it can be itself.
As long as man thinks he is his body, so long is he mortal, only conscious of his mortal existence.
The soul must see itself, the soul must realise itself. How? When the soul stands independently of its physical garb.
The one who has realised life and things through the senses does not know life.
Love of power
The reason a person strives through life to gain power is that the soul strives to exist against the invasion of life because life’s conditions seem to sweep away everything that lacks strength.
However much power man may have, it is limited.
The only power that exists is the hidden power, the almighty power.
The secret of all the miracles and phenomena of the ages and masters is to be seen in the power they can draw from within.
Desire for happiness
Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of happiness. The real happiness is in the heart of man.
For man to find happiness, he seeks pleasure.
Happiness is the very being of man.
Vedantists have called the human soul “ananda”, or happiness because the soul itself is happiness; that is why it seeks happiness.
Virtue is what brings real happiness. What is good is good because it gives happiness. If it doesn’t do it, it cannot be good — it cannot be virtue, it cannot be right.
Happiness is the being of man, that is truly what he craves for.
Desire for peace
One must strive for peace by practise, meditation and contemplation.
Peace is an art which must be learnt
Animals and birds all experience peace but not mankind, for mankind is the robber of his own peace. He has made his life so artificial that he can never imagine how far he is removed from what may be called a normal, natural life for him to live.
We shall not experience peace by improving outside conditions.
Where does war come from? It comes because the meaning of has not yet been fully understood. Man strives in a continual turmoil, in a restless condition.
We shall not have peace till every individual begins to seek peace within himself first.
What is peace? Peace is the natural condition of soul.
The normal condition of mind is tranquiilty, yet at the same time the mind is anything but tranquil; the soul experiences anything but peace.
The Sufis
The Sufi’s have therefore called “God the Beloved”. They have seen the Beloved in all things.
The Sufis do not believe that God was in heaven, apart, away from all being.
In everything in all forms, they have seen the beauty of God. Through this realisation, the ultimate purpose of life is fulfilled.
The purpose of creation was that every soul might recognise his source and goal, and surrender to it and attribute to it all beauty and wisdom and power so he might perfect himself.
Significance
When someone has found his life’s purpose, no matter how difficult is for him nor how many hindrances he has to contend with, from that moment there is nothing he will not withstand, no sacrifice he will not make, nothing he will not endure.
We are all born in this world to accomplish a certain purpose, and as long as man does not know this purpose he remains ignorant of life; he cannot call himself a living being.
The first knowledge we must gain is the purpose of our life.
A machine has no choice, it cannot find its purpose.
It is a great pity that education today pays very little attention to the question “what is my purpose?” Children, youths, and grownups all go through life toiling from morning till evening, studying or working, and at the same time not knowing what purpose they have to accomplish
By the time they have gained the means to be able to do something in life, the desire of accomplishing something is all gone.
Everything is created with a purpose, in order that we may use it for its purpose.
Every being is created for a purpose, and the light of that purpose is already kindled in his soul.
As we need blacksmiths and goldsmiths and farmers and others, so we need philosophers, mystics and prophets. That creates harmony, just as we need sharp and flat in music. If it were not there, there would be no beauty, for beauty is created through variety.
Every person is like one note in this symphony of life, each contributing the music which is needed in that symphony. If one or four strings of the violin is not tuned, it cannot give the music it should produce.
If we do not contribute what we are meant to and should continue, we are not in tune with our destiny.
Everything one does, though it may look better or worse, yet belongs somehwerein the scheme of life and we have no tight to condemn it. The principle thing for every individual is to become conscious of the duty for which he is born.
There are four different ways people take in their lives.
1. Way of material benefit
By profession, occupation, business or industry a person wants to make money. There is nothing wrong in earning money and devoting one’s time to it, as long as the motive is right and good.
Against: while working for money one may lose the right tract, thought or/and consideration
For: one may use wealth for a noble purpose
2. Way of duty:
If it were not for the dutiful the world would be devoid of love and affection.
It is the sense of duty that makes man greater than other beings; that is why we admire it.
It is something great when a person gives his life for the sake of duty.
Duty is a great virtue, and when it is perfected and deepened in the hearth of a man it wakens in him to a greater and higher consciousness. In that way people have accomplished noble things. The great heroes have lived a life of duty.
The sense of duty comes from idealism. The greater his ideal of duty the greater the man
3. Make the best of the present:
“If I was great in the past, what does it matter?”
The past is forgotten, and the future, who knows what will come of it?
No one knows his future. Let us make the best of this moment, let us make life as happy as we can.
4. Those who think:
What is life after all? Is it not only a few days to pass somehow?
The day ends, the month and the years pass, and so time slips by. One comes to the end of life before one has expected it, and the whole past becomes like a dream into night.
It is said that the earth and sky and space do not accommodate a person who does not answer life’s demands, although for exceptional souls there are exceptional laws, for the lives of exceptional beings can be explained in extraordinary terms.
We must learn our lesson right now. Life is lived right now, its demand is right now, and we must answer it right now.
At every moment we are asked to perform a certain duty, to fulfil a certain obligation; and to do it in the most fitting and right manner, that is true religion.
Expanding the ways
We understand life’s demands by understanding life better. When the demands of outer life are different from what the inner life asks of us, we should fulfil the demand of the outer life without neglecting — those of the inner life.
Four different ways people take to accomplish the purpose of their lives:
- Making wealth
- Being conscientious of their duty
- Making the best of every moment of life
- Preparing for the future
Keep in mind the following
The ultimate purpose of life is always the same; in the end, every man has to accomplish the same purpose in whatever way he will—spiritual attainment.
To realise the preliminary purpose of our life, we must first find our natural rhythm.
Today, people adopt the wrong methods. They go to a clairvoyant and ask him about the purpose of their life. They do not know it themselves. Nobody else must tell them except their own spirit, their own souls; they ask others. They do not tune themselves to that pitch where they can intuitively feel what they live for.
It is our own spirit that must speak to us.
We must be able to still ourselves and tune our spirit to the universal consciousness in order to know the purpose of our lives.
Rise or fall, success or failure, doesn’t matter as long as you know your life’s purpose. If you fail nine times, you will succeed the tenth time.
The ultimate purpose for which the soul seeks every moment of our life is our spiritual purpose. How do we attain this purpose? The answer is that what you are seeking is within. Instead of looking outside, you must look within..
The way to proceed to accomplish this is for some moments to suspend all your senses, such as sight, hearing, smell, and touch, to put a screen before the outside life and concentrate and develop the meditative quality. You will sooner or later get in touch with the inner self, which is more communicative, which speaks more loudly than all the noises of this world, and this gives joy, creates peace and produces in you a self-sufficient spirit, a spirit of independence, a spirit of true liberty.
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