THE PURPOSE OF LIVING
General
Contributed by : Darshan Goswami
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THE PURPOSE OF LIVING
By Dashan Goswami, M.S., P.E.
The Purpose of life is what you want to make out of it. Each one of us has a unique purpose in life, and in its realization lies our happiness, growth and success. The real purpose of human life is to understand our relationship to a broader reality than our own God-realization and realization of one''s True Nature as Pure Consciousness.
Do you have a clear idea of why you were placed here on the Earth? Have you ever asked, "What is my purpose in life?" Is life anything more than a brief span on earth? This is the question that baffled the greatest thinkers and philosophers down through the ages. Just living the life in itself is not enough. In other words, life in itself is not the goal.
Most people are busy and caught up in day-to-day pressures that they do not have time to think about our Purpose of Living. It''s hard to live on purpose when life revolves around daily crises and we are reacting to external worldly demands rather than living lives that really fulfill us. Many religions have preached about it, philosophers have pondered over it and ordinary mortals have lived through it. But the eternal mystery of Life still eludes us. With all our technology and sophistication we still haven''t answered the fundamental question of what is the purpose of human life. We have failed conclusively to solve the riddle posed by two indelible facts of human existenceLife and Death. In this article, I will attempt to share with you my thoughts on purpose of living on this earth.
What would you like to ask the Supreme Being if you could get a direct and immediate answer? A poll in USA Today reports that the No. 1 question people would like to ask God is "What''s my purpose of Living?"
According to Swami Rama, "A human being is a citizen of two worlds, the world within and the world without are two entirely separate realities. The external world dissipates energy, but the internal world showers blessings that fill the vacuum created by the world. Conquering the inner world is more difficult than succeeding in the kingdom of life in the external world."
To find your purpose, the answer lies within you. We as human-beings are blessed with knowledge; great brain and consciousness to think; and can decide so as to what we want to make of our lives. We were all created to be happy and have purposeful lives. The Purpose of life is what you want to make out of it. Each one of us has a unique purpose in life, and in its realization lies our happiness, growth and success. The purpose of our lives here on earth is not what we accomplish outwardly, but what we accomplish within ourselves. The real purpose of human life is to understand our relationship to a broader reality than our own God-realization and realization of one''s True Nature as Pure Consciousness.
Often, a purpose gets assigned to an individual by their family, their culture, and government or even, by any other individual who seeks to control others for their own purposes.
Why would I want to know my purpose?
Knowing your purpose can dramatically open up a world where you experience joy, satisfaction, and happiness as you build toward fulfilling your dream life. It is proven that the purpose-driven people experience more fulfillment, more success, and often greater financial rewards than most other people. By taking the time to define your Purpose, you''ll open up more satisfied life, have more energy, and be more focused to achieve your Purpose in life. Until you find your purpose and begin fulfilling it, you will never truly be happy.
My incentive for knowing my purpose lies in my own future. My greatest wish is that I will look back with a sense of great satisfaction, knowing that I gave it my all unselfishly and that my life made a difference in those who are less fortunate than me. From this point of view, what could be more important than fulfilling my life's purpose?
Where Do I begin to find my purpose?
How and where would you discover the purpose for your life? I'm not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you're here on this earth. I used to think that our most fundament human desire is happiness. I also believed that all our happiness can be achieved through material possessions and lot of money. I thought if I made enough money, then I'd be happy and fulfilled. But it didn't work out that way. The more I followed this path, the less satisfied I was. I no longer believe this to be true.
Many people also believe that you have to give up all your worldly possessions and give up all your time to helping others without any regard for your own wants and needs. The most important thing you want to understand is that you're not going to find the answers to your Supreme Purpose by searching outside of yourself. But the opposite is true, this is when you need to begin finding quiet time where you can focus within yourself for the answers to your personal purpose of life. You may want to invest time in learning about the various meditation methods in order to help you look within.
If you had all the money you needed, what would you be doing with your life? Answering these questions will help you uncover what your life purpose is. When you're clear about your purpose and living it, the God will give you what you want, and the future steps you take become easy and clear. Now, I am living to understand and achieve the ultimate purpose of the human life.
Where to find your purpose?
To discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you've been taught by others around you. This present life and body are temporary and will come to an end. And yet, whatever we do in our present life is quite important because it decides what kind of future we are going to have. At death, we acquire a new body based on our previous activities (karma) and desires, taking birth (reincarnation) in any of 8.4 million species of life in any planet within the universe. This continues in repeated cycles of birth, death and transmigration. The human form of life is a very special opportunity in this cycle, because in this human body alone, unlike those of animals, we are endowed with intelligence to inquire into the purpose of this repeated cycle, just as I am trying to define my purpose in this article. Unless one comes to this point of inquiry, his human life is considered to be wasted or lived in vain.
Death is not the end of life. According to Eastern teachings, we are eternal living beings - we are not this body but eternal spirit soul residing in this body. Our real self, the spirit soul, is never subject to death because it is eternal. It is the body that dies. The body is just like an outer garment, and it is the soul only that animates the body. When the body becomes old or useless, the soul leaves that body and takes on a new body, just like a person changing his dress. However, the prospect of death and changing bodies is very unnatural, unpleasant and depressing. But the reason we find ourselves subject to the unpleasantness of birth, death, diseases or old age or any other misery of this world is only due to our having forgotten our real spiritual nature and our relationship with God.
Accepting death is a reality that will help you to realize that this life here is temporary, that the world is only a platform that you have come here on a journey to learn and grow, and then the journey ends. At the same time remember that God, or the eternal Reality, is within you. For example, if you turn the lights off in your bedroom one night, you would neither be able to see yourself, nor the objects around you. In a similar way, God is compared to the Sun and when we forget Him or turn away from Him, and then we are
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