Purpose of Life

[Guest guest]

Interesting discussions. I noted Mani's disagreement with the

usage of 'creation' of soul. His explanations have the heavy

accent of advaita in them. I don't find this an appropriate

place to discuss this aspect. Anyway, the point of my writing

has more to do with saying again and again that all Vaisnava

acaryas are in unison in saying that the purpose of life is to

serve Lord Vishnu.

 

K.P. Sridharan stated the Gaudiya position. The point there is that

the jivas born onthis material planet have a choice to continue

enjoying independent of Lord Vishnu or choose to engage in the

service of Lord Vishnu.

 

Jagannath stated the point on envy very well. I could not have

done it better. When we associate with Vaisnavas, we can see that

one of the greatest qualities they possess as do all Vaisnavas

is that theyare free from envy. This is possible for them because

they are free from envy of the Greatness of Lord Vishnu. Otherwise,

it is not possible.

 

About Krish's comments. All Vaisnava Acaryas and the champion of Advaita,

Sri Sankara differentiated animal and man. Because man is endowed

with this human body, it is possible to raise the consciousness to

something Godly. Thinking that man is like an animal, it is not that

we have think we are animals and behave like animals.

 

Another of Kirsh's comments. To have personal goals and ambitions

of coming to US, etc. All these can be directed to wards God. That is

what service to Lord Vishnu means.

 

Sorry for not elaborting, but network is really slow.

 

-Eswar Josyula

[Guest guest]

K.P.Sridharan

 

On Tue, 7 Nov 1995, Mani Varadarajan wrote:

>

> 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

>

 

 

I am afraid I erred while framing my question. Bg, 2.12?

states clearly that the Speaker ( Lord Krishna) as well as all others

existed always and would continue to exist in the future as well. The

fact that jivas existed always in the past seems to indicate that they

were not crated as such. This lends support to the Sri Vaishnavitic

point of view that jivas as well as insentinents are part and parcel of

the Lord.

 

Therefore something happened to the jivas which makes them

experience miseries. This is possibly due to loss of this knowledge

( BG5,2) of the eternal relatinship of the individual souls with the

Super Soul or due to the action of Maya or due to the action of the Gunas

which are inherent nature of materials.

 

Be that as it may, my doubt still persists. This time I would

put at as: If we are part and parcel of the Lord having all His

qualities, how is it that we were overtaken by forgetfulness or how is it

that we were overpowered by Maya or we were currupted by the material nature?

 

Possibly Forgetfulness is a nuture of Jivas?.. BG 5. " I have

passed thru many many births and so have you. But I can remember all of

them, but you can not"

 

I am just thinking aloud in my quest for a firm basis for

Prapatti. When one tends to be analytical as all of us are, surrender

does not come about easily and seems to need a basis. Helplessness is a

basis but is not a very satisfactory one when the ego is still present.

Thanks.

[Guest guest]

I did not receive the original question but I think I would like to

take a shot at this question.

 

I guess someone was wondering as to what the purpose of life is ..

am I correct? If that is the question then I think I can try ..

 

A shloka in bhagvad gita (the most common one) :

Karmanye vaadikaraste maafale shu kadaachana

maa karma fala hetur bhu matesu savi karmani...

 

The duty of a man/woman is to do the karma.

In olden days men were responsible for taking care of the

family(financially) women responsible for taking care of the

family needs.. and children were responsible to follow the truth

and to do their dharma. Yes Dushshana's dharma was to support

his brother even if it was for wrong reasons.

 

In my opinion (only) the purpose of life is to believe in humanity

and to live according to the laws of humanity.. by stating that I

don't say that one should follow the wrong path.. but I mean that

one should try and follow the straight and narrow. One should

realize the only way to follow the straight and narrow is to

have faith in GOD. I don't and can't say that Vishnu is the best

and everyone should follow him instead no matter who the

supreme power is(in terms of faith of people) having faith

in God is the only way to try and fulfil the purpose of life.

 

When Kunti and Madri go with her husband to the forest for a

vacation.. rishi kindam says : The purpose of a woman's life

is to be a sahadharmacharini for her husband, and the man should

protect her .. and I think this is one of the purposes of life.

Husband and Wife are partners in everything therefore another

purpose of a woman's life is to help her husband attain salvation,

because if he does so will she.

 

The gist of the entire topic is Karma is the Purpose of Life.

Yet not all Karmas should be purpose of life(only good karmas).

 

Purpose of life is to try and restore mankind and help people

grow intellectually, emotionally and mainly spiritually. Have

faith in GOD and believe that whatever happens .. happens for

our best because GOD will never harm us.. Its our karmas that

harm us.

 

Hope this is an answer.. and not gibberish

 

Manjula

--

 

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IF YOU LOVE SOMETHING LET IT GO

IF IT COMES BACK TO YOU IT WAS AND WILL ALWAYS

BE YOURS

BUT IF IT DOES NOT COME BACK TO YOU IT WAS NEVER

YOURS TO START WITH

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