purpose of life

[Guest guest]

My understanding is that Shri Josyula had correctly presented all

Vaishnava Acharyas' emphatic statements that Service to Sriman Narayana or

Vishnu is the aim and goal of life and that only those who are envious of

Sriman Narayana have trouble accepting the fact. In the Bhagavad Geeta

Sri Krishna says that He is partial to no one. This means that whatever

facilites were available to Nitya Suris like Garuda were also available to

us at all times. We (here we refers to Baddha Jivatmas only) just failed

to take advantage of it because we did not see how much Krishna loves us

and wants us to be happy by serving the All Perfect Being, but we only saw

how He sits on the big throne and orders everyone about. This is the

beginningless Karma that Ramanuja talks about in the Geetabhasya and

Vedartha Sangraha. However from the story of Puranjana and avignyatu in

the Srimad Bhagavatam it is clear that we enjoyed a very close

relationship with Narayana in spite of not surrendering to Him and

rendering constant service to Him. It was an accumulation of sins that

resulted from us not serving Sri Krishna that eventually brought us to a

stage of forgetfulness of our Master in this material world. When we

begin to seek salvation it is because Sriman Narayana out of His kindness

made life so difficult for us that we appealed to Him for help. His

response eventually brought us to the stage of Prapatti or other paths

towards Moksha. It is only at the time of Moksha that our jealously

towards Him is totally removed from which point service to Him is

constant.

 

Regarding Shri Bhasyam's question, service to Narayana is in three forms.

(a) Bhagavath Seva or service directly to Narayana in His Vigraha,

Salagrama or Avatara forms.

(b) BhAgavatha Seva or service to His devotees depending upon which

devotee we are put in touch with by Narayana. It is not for us to judge

who is or who is not a devotee until we are put in a situation where a

stand has to be taken (e.g. emails on the purpose of life). Social

Service falls within this category and WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT SRIMAN

NARAYANA IS USING US AS HIS INSTRUMENTS TO HELP OTHER INDIVIDUALS IN NEED.

© The third and highest category is Acharya Seva or service to Acharya

according to His instructions.

 

Jaganath.

[Guest guest]

Please accept my apologies if my langauge was offensive.

I just wanted to point out thta many things are included

in the pupose of life. Life of devotion or bhakti is

not what I do and it doe concern me enough to

question it.

I thoguht we would complete Ramanuja's play and learn his

philosophy.

The very fact I or many others left India was to fulfill

our chosen goals and purposes of our lives.

My arguments have nothing personal

[Guest guest]

K.P Sridharan writes:

* But what

* intrigues me is that why would an all merciful Lord would create a bunch

* of beings only to serve Him?

 

This is a good question, but the premise on which it is based is

a mistaken one. First of all, contrary to what Eswar has written, we

have not been *created* by the Lord. We are ever existent, just

as he is. There was no creation of the individual, nor can there

be any destruction. So there is no question of God creating us

to simply serve him. It is realizing our inherent nature that

dictates what our purpose in life is. What is this nature, and

what is this purpose?

 

Certainly at the one level Krish is correct. For most creatures,

procreation is the highest purushaartha. Darwin's theory attests

to this. However, I suspect that most people on this list believe

that there must be a higher good to be attained.

 

Suresvara, one of the chief disciples of Sankaracharya, writes

that all creatures naturally seek to avoid pain and increase their

own happiness. These are the incontrovertible facts of existence.

Unfortunately, most worldly happiness is fleeting, because we try to

seek it from subsidiary things instead of going to the source of all

happiness itself. The Upanishads teach us that the source and essence

of all happiness is Brahman, i.e., God. Nothing in and of itself

causes happiness or sadness apart from Brahman; He, on the other

hand, is the very embodiment of Bliss.

 

Since by nature we all desire happiness, why look any further than

Brahman? This is what our sampradaaya teaches. Serving the Lord

fits in as we realize our essential nature as seshas of Brahman,

mere instruments in his hands. The service (bhavagat-kainkarya)

results from a feeling of overwhelming love and a recognition of

God's presence in all things everywhere, including the individual's

very self. Our acharyas have said that we regain our lost knowledge

and bliss, potentially infinite but forgotten due to ignorance from

time immemorial.

 

This issue can be summarized as, ``Do we love and serve the Lord

because he asks us to, or because we want something in return?''

NO -- we do it because it is our inherent nature to do so. Recognition

of this nature leads to the highest bliss.

 

Mani