Human Existence

[Anurag]

With great courage, I am opening this cliched yet most unsatisfactorily answered question - "What is the purpose of our life" to the learned audience of this forum.

 

I have thought a lot about it and have spoken to a number of people about it and still have not got a satisfactory answer. This should not be contrived as my being an ignorant or obstinate or a hardcore critic. The reason of my search for an answer is that people have given me answers like - 1. serve the poor, 2. Do your duty (?), 3. Be a good guy/neighbor etc etc. Obviously, this is not the set of answers that truly could be the purpose of our life.

 

Is there a common goal? Is there a different goal/purpose of life for different human beings? or is it simply to live, struggle, produce, grow old and die?

 

Anurag

[viji_53]

The purpose of our life is to realize God & reach HIM. We are fortunate to get this human form. Only in this form we can attain God. The easiest method to attain Him is through devotion. The nine features of devotion which could be the highest education are ; to hear the praise of God, to remember His deeds, to sing His glories & chant His names, to talk about His traits, to involve oneself in His service, to worship Him, to dedicate all actions at His Feet, to try & understand that He can be one's comrade, and to offer total surrender to Him and to His devotees.

[shvu]

 

Hi Anurag,

 

There is no common purpose of life. If there was one, it would have been clearly communicated to man. Any purpose that one has in life is what he or she decides for themselves. Some guy wants to become rich, someobdy else wants to be the President and some others want to realize God.

 

Why do we think that there has to be some purpose to life ? There may not be any. There are so many animals that are born and die. Why should only humans be having a 'Purpose to life' ?

 

As you have said, 'simply to live, struggle, produce, grow old and die' is definitely common to all, although it is not a purpose.

 

Cheers

[animesh]

Different people can give different answers to this question. But none of those answers can be proved. We can't even prove that there is a purpose in life. Similarly, we can't prove that there is no purpose in life. So, it all boils down to what we consider as our purpose in life. Since it is upto us, it is always better to consider something which will make our living and living of other people happy. To do this, just a single thing can not be called as purpose in life. We need to do so many things if we want to be happy and want others to be happy. Helping poor is just one of them though it is very important.

[animesh]

Dear Viji has mentioned that realizing God should be our purpose in life. It is really a very good purpose if we think properly what we really mean by realising God. Does it simply mean keeping vratas and going to temples? Of course, going to temples gives us peace of mind. But is this all there is to God realization? Definitely not. If you read vedas and puranas, you will come to know that for God realization, we have to leave greed, hatred, selfishness etc. etc. As all will agree, a large no. of crimes both in the eyes of law and dharma (I do not want to use the word religion for dharma as it does not give as accurate meaning as I intend it to be). Of course, some will claim that there is always selfishness in whatever we do. Whether there is really always selfishness or not, depends on what we mean by the word selfishness. If selfishenss means desire, then there is definitely always selfishness. But all desires can not be considered as bad. When I use the word selfishness, then like most people, I am talking about the bad part. So, if we genuinely try to abandon our bad qualities, then we can definitely make the world a better place to live.

Nobody knows whether he will really someday realize God or not. But even genuinely trying to realize God will make us nice human beings. And if you think over the conditions mentioned in scriptures for realizing God, then you will find that it includes all the good qualities we talk of, e.g. honesty, kindness, patience etc.

[animesh]

Sorry, I left one sentence incomplete. I will complete it now.

 

As all will agree, a large no. of crimes both in the eyes of law and dharma (I do not want to use the word religion for dharma as it does not give as accurate meaning as I intend it to be). happen because of these bad qualities.

 

[shvu]

 

Dear Animesh,

 

All the different purposes that people have in their lives have been put forth by man, based on speculation and his background. We choose one according to our background and interests, say x. We were NOT born to do x, but since we have taken birth, we have decided to do that, and it is optional. Which means, x is not a common purpose of life.

 

There would be a purpose, if we were sure that someone created man. Then it would mean that the creator created man for purpose x. We can never know if we were created or not, which also means that if there is a purpose, we will never know that.

 

For all practical purposes , we can assume that there is no purpose to life. The only common charcterestic found in all forms of life, is to Survive and to Reproduce. Everthing else is speculation [guess work].

 

Cheers

[gtam]

The purpose of life is to serve God and sing the glories of his name,form and qualities.Its like tiny iron fragments which are attracted to the magnet no matter they are in a pile of dirt or gold.The soul is eternally attracted to the Lord whether it is going through phases of being dormant or active in doing what it longs to do.Life is a practice ground for doing this hence we are always either serving a person, a cause,an organisation so on and soforth.

We have to keep building tanks and storage areas for rain water to accumulate so one fine day when rain does come we don't feel its too late.Rain comes according to when it wants to but our preparation is what we have to concentrate on.We have to keep doing this service but whether we can get to see GOD face to face,talk to him, ask questions,serve his divine personality in his very form is according to what he desires for us.

I had once heard this and it only then made sense as to why we have to do our service relentlessly without expectations.The learned say that while doing this service we become very purified that we hardly have any expectations henceforth but just the motive of serving with all love and affection.

 

One day when rain does come (or God appears)it is so rewarding than what we would have got from any of the services we performed in any of the material avenues.It is beyond comparison to anything material but it does not stop there we still continue our service and we do it eternally.We can do this with ease because of ages of practice and familiarity of this noble work.

 

Thanks

[viji_53]

The purpose of our life is to realize God. Do not think that keeping vratas or going to temple have no meaning. Vratas make you realise what is hunger & make you take pity when you come across poor hungry men & will cultivate the habit of feeding them. Upavas really means live near God. That means you are suppose to think about Him throught the day. That will make you slowly think about Him daily. Temple is the place where all people come & worship, by doing that we make the Idol powerful by our devotion. The divinity increases. Again in temples prasad is distributed. Those who can afford take the responsibility of feeding the people who come to temple. That way also you learn to be kind hearted show mercy to others. Easiest way to reach God is to chant His names. There is no restrictions for that. If you can, recite Ramayana & Gita regularly. It is my personal experience the recitation helps you to change a lot. You become friendly, kind, pleasant & lovable. Everybody will like your company inspite of age difference. Like our parents who wait for us when we go out, God is waiting for us to return to Him. Through human form alone we can attain Him. So our goal is to realize HIM & attain Him.

[animesh]

We are talking about the purpose of human life. Could we extend it further and talk about the purpose of creation itself?

[shvu]

Dear Animesh,

 

We don't know if we were created, in the first place.

 

Cheers

[animesh]

Dear Shvu,

What do you mean by the word "we" in your statement? It is our physical bodies, then we were created. Because there was a time when my body did not exist.

 

But in my comment, I used the word we not only for our bodies but for everything (living and non-living) that we can observe.

[ggohil]

Hari Bole:

 

Sri Shvu:

 

Hari Bole:

 

Sri Shvu:

 

“There is no common purpose of life”

 

Is there a poof of this?

 

Is there a proof that we were not created?

 

 

[animesh]

Ggohil ji,

Even though your question is addressed to Dear Shvu, let me just put my views also.

The answer to your question depends on what you will consider as proof. If, by proof, you mean a rigorous scientific proof, then we can neither prove that there is a common purpose in life. Similarly we can neither prove nor disprove that we were not created. So, in such matters, I will agree with jndas ji, that we can rely only on faith. Even if we say that there is a common purpose in life, how do we know what exactly it is? We can only speculate. Since we have to use speculation to decide the purpose in life, it is better to speculate something good. But there are many good things to do. Different people may consider different things as best thing to do. Therefore they will not come to any unanimous decision. Since they will not come to any unanimous decision, the decision can not be termed "common".

[shvu]

 

Dear Ggohil,

 

Is there proof that there is no common purpose to life ?

 

In a way, we know for sure that there is no common goal which is being pursued by all People. That way, we can be sure that there is no common purpose to life, that is known to us.

 

Is there proof that we were not created ?

 

There is no proof to say we were created and no proof to say that we were not created.

 

Dear Animesh,

 

By we, I meant all of us. By Creation, I mean creation of Humans at some point of time by a creator. I did not mean the creation of an individual.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

[shvu]

 

More about creation:

 

All the evidence uncovered to date, are in favor of the theory of evolution, that Homo Sapiens came out of Apes. Homo Sapiens has been traced back to 100,000 years of existence. Beyond that, while other fossils are available, no human fossils have been found.

 

Cheers

[ggohil]



Hare Krsna:

 

Sri Shvu:

 

As far as the theory of evolution is concerned it is just a theory, just like any other science theory.

 

In science there is no proof for “Love” and “Feelings” yet they exist.

 

Just few months back I heard on TV that science had enough evidence to show that mother’s milk is good for the new born. Does this mean the mother’s milk was not good for the new born babies until it was proven?

 

I am not saying that Science should be ignored. All I am saying is that the scientific results are only good as the experiment performed. The results from the experiments are not necessarily the

absolute truth.

 

If God is speculation, then we must also acknowledge that Science that proves this is also speculation.

 

[ggohil]

Hare Krsna:

 

Sri Anurag:

 

I am probably the least qualified to answer this questions. But here is my understanding.

 

Our natural state is to be eternally happy. Eternal happiness cannot be achieved as long as our happiness is based on the material things.

 

Secondly, in our natural state the eternal happiness is only achieved by association with the Almighty.

 

Thirdly, it just so happens that our association with the Almighty is best achieved by serving him.

 

[ggohil]

Hare Krsna:

 

Dear Shvu:

 

>>>“.... They presumed that there must be some purpose and then they set out to find it.”

 

Yes, I understand what you are saying.

 

But I tend to think that the people “realized” (rather then presumed) that the life is more then just eat, live and die, so they set out to find the purpose of life. : )

 

 

[animesh]

Sri Ggohil ji,

You are saying that even though people do not follow a common purpose, there may be some common purpose. I agree with you that this is a possibility. But how do we know what common purpose it is? Nobody knows. We can only speculate. So either there is no common purpose in life or even if there is nobody knows. Everybody can say what he thinks to be the best as the common purpose of life. But it is only one's feeling. So, nobody knows what is the common purpose of life. And, as far as I know, we do not know of any method by which we can find that out. So, I think we must use Occam's razor here.

[ggohil]

Jai Sri Krsna:

 

Sri Shvu and Animesh

 

The fact that people do not follow a common purpose, can this in itself be a conclusive proof that there is no common purpose? I don’t know.

 

People do not have a “common right” way of doing things, does this mean there is no “common right” . In the world of no “common right”, there would be no difference between the Hitler and

Mother Teresa.

 

In the absence of concrete scientific proof on Creation, any argument on either side must be speculation.

[shvu]

 

Dear Ggohil,

 

We are speculating and we don't know. But it seems logical to think that if there was a purpose to our lives, then it would have been clearly made known to all of us. [Every human in ever corner of the world]

 

We see no such purpose.

 

Rightfully the early people who started wondering about the purpose of life, should have first stopped to think, why they felt that Life should be having a purpose at all. They presumed that there must be some purpose and then they set out to find it.

 

Cheers

[shvu]

 

Dear Ggohil,

 

Although you have addressed the aove posting to Animesh, I would like to

comment on that.

 

Not causing misery to anyone is a social value in the interests of society trying to maintain itself. it is a taught/learnt value. A group of people who were never taught this or who never understood this would not practice this. So it is not common to all people of the world.

 

Keeping our self extremely happy [seeking pleasure] is more a characterestic than a purpose. It is an instinct like the instinct to Survive, to Reproduce.

 

A purpose typically would be something, that the creator would have. That is the intent with which the creator creates. Like if man came up with computers, he knows why. He had a reason. So a universal purpose of life, would be something like that. And we don't know of any such thing. As Animesh pointed out, we also don't seem to be having the means to find out if there is such a thing. So we can safely assume that there is no common purpose.

 

Cheers

[ggohil]

Hare Krsna:

 

Sri Shvu:

 

Always nice to hear from you. : )

 

I do not believe compassion to be socially taught value.

 

Society is more likely to teach you to look out for yourself and be greedy.

 

The creator wanted us to be happy (our natural state) and he showed us the way, henceforth the purpose of life.

 

Why do you assume that if their was a common purpose to life then everyone would necessarily

following it.

[shvu]

 

Dear Ggohil,

 

----

I do not believe compassion to be a socially taught value.

Society is more likely to teach you to look out for yourself and be greedy.

----

 

In my opinion, it is the other way around. Man is basically selfish and greedy. With such an attitude, it would be near impossible for people to live together. Realising this, the early people came out with a set of values, which would enable us to live together [live and let live]. Moses came out with the Ten commandments whoch are all basically social values. While no one teaches anyone to be selfish and greedy, you will find these qualities in every person [atleast traces of it]. Which proves that they come without being taught.

 

Of course, compassion and pity may also be natural qualities, and may have been stressed further in the books realising the importance of their role in society.

 

----

The creator wanted us to be happy (our natural state) and he showed us the way, henceforth the purpose of life.

----

 

My immmediate response is, "what is the purpose of creating humans and wanting them to be happy? Why create people in the first place ?" If we know why we were created [if we were], then the purpose would be clear.

 

---

Why do you assume that if their was a common purpose to life then everyone would necessarily following it.

---

 

If there was a common ourpose behind our creation, then I don't think it would be a matter of choice left to us. Every human would have been working towards that, without exceptions.

 

Another important thing is the purpose cannot be for our bebefit, but will be for the benefit of the creator.

 

Cheers