Goal of Life?

Life, as we know it, seems to be simple but at the same time exhibits variety of complications. One may think he is living a satisfactory life filled with all the riches in world and yet his inner conscience yearning for more. 

There is always an internal desire in every human being that keeps driving a person to achieve something in order to reach a stage of contentment. Every individual feels he lacks “that” in life which, if existed, could lead him to perpetual satisfaction. Have you experienced it?

Well, then at least for the moment achieving “that” would mean having led a life of accomplishment. In layman’s vocabulary, “that” is called a goal. 

It is the objective of one’s hard work and aspirations. Perhaps, yes, it is true that successful people in world have emerged victorious in something that they cherished in. 

But can it be said without any doubt that they have attained the “goal” in life?

Do you say it depends on the individual? Why not? As separate entities, all of us are different. We have our own lifestyles, carry disparate dreams, wish for various stuff in life. And when we obtain what we wish for as a result of our immense efforts, tough situations that we have endured the satisfaction that occurs is imminent. 

It obviously brings pleasure, happiness and gratification. Does this qualify to be considered as reaching the goal of life?

Maybe yes, if we are to confine ourselves within the context of individuals. But is life, in the context of universe, just a constitution of individuals? Is there anything binding the individuals that cannot be visualized? Is there something to be considered as a “common goal” of the entire human race?

In this context, Swami Vivekananda says “Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge.” He opines that pleasure is not everlasting and suggests that it is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal. 

He extends it even further by attributing such thinking to the physical and mental distress that world is witnessing. But he also indicates that sooner or later man will realize the truth. 

It is then, he advocates, the person who had been misled that his attainment of pleasure had fulfilled his goal would become aware that pleasure is only a milestone in the path but not a goal by itself.

In the same vein, philosopher Adi Shankaracharya notes in his composition Bhajagovindam as below:

He goes on to say that a person may go to the Ganges (revered because of its powers to destroy one’s sins and purify the person), observe rigorous fasts & ceremonies and donate money towards charity but yet cannot attain liberation even after a hundred births if the person does not possess knowledge. 

So, it is quite evident that there is a lot of emphasis on gaining “knowledge”. However the next obvious questions need to be answered, which are “what is this knowledge that great ones are talking about?” and “How do we gain this knowledge?”

Join us in our journey to explore answers to these questions. 

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Self-realization – What does it truly mean?

Before any attempt can be made to provide an explanation, it must be understood that everything in this world can be thought of problems and solutions to those problems. As many intellectuals have already noted, “to solve a problem, one needs to have a clear & thorough understanding of the problem itself”. 

So what is the problem here? The quest for getting to know the truth would obviously direct us to the problem – what is the real meaning of self-realization? So let us start by analyzing the problem. 

The term self-realization seems to be self-explanatory and we get a rough idea that it has something to do with becoming aware of one’s own self. Easy, isn’t it? Yes, but is the definition complete? What does one’s own self mean? 

Is it the body that moves, eats, drinks & takes a nap? Is it the mind that thinks, prompts one to act, and visualizes the different fantasies of the world? Is it both of these, neither of these, or a combination of these with something else? 

One of the simplest definitions is “Self-realization means becoming aware of this universal, cosmic power, available at all times. ”

Ah! Now what is this all non-sense stuff about cosmic power? It may sound absurd, however when one thinks about it in depth, it has to be acknowledged. We are surrounded by it all the time. 

Its only sad and disappointing that we have lost our intelligent faculties to identify it, be in harmony with it and grow along with it. Of course all the different cultures on this earth have duly noted this. 

Its only that they have named it according to their convenience. You have surely heard of “Chi”, “Tao”, “Prana” right? And the list continues. Ever wondered what do they mean? As Confucius narrates the parable of a baby fish and its mother, we must realize that every one of us is engulfed with the same cosmic entity.

Ok, hang on…It is not a surprise that by reading the above lines many of you may have dismissed it outright. Yes, it does not bring any excitement and sounds just as if someone is pointing to the clouds overhead and say “look at that, there is water in there!”. 

Of course everyone knows the principle, sea water evaporates and form clouds. One would say that after science has proved this by performing experiments and we have been trained by means of education to accept things that are rational to us, that make sense to us.

Unfortunately, the topic that we are dealing with is not something that can be perceived by everyone in the same intensity of light. Some need more and others can manage to grasp the truth with less. 

And the interesting part lies in the control of intensity - who controls this? It is the individual who has the control!

Yes, we do have the ownership of controlling this intensity in order to bring ourselves into the path of truth, to understand our own self. 

Science has not yet been able to provide a step-by-step approach to direct us towards the control. Maybe it will happen soon. 

Let us see what we can do in the meantime to help ourselves to realize the truth.

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Merriment Myths

All of us have different notion of happiness. We can hear people mentioning “After I get rich, I’ll be enjoying the rest of my life!”, “I’m searching for my perfect life partner and once I find the person, I’ll be very happy”, “If I get good grades, I’ll be happy”.  

We would have a set a goal and believe that after achieving it, we will really be happy. Certainly the sense of achievement takes us into a state of excitement, so no wonder most of us think like that. But how realistic is this?

It turns out that we fall into the trap of misbeliefs that if something happens then it results in happiness. In short, it would mean that you don’t need to be wealthy or enter into wedlock to lead a happy life. 

This article based on an extensive research carried out in this direction explains the most common myths about happiness. It emphasizes the fact that there is no step by step guide to become the happiest person. Likewise there is no certain path to get into a miserable state.

We cannot, however, deny the fact that our mind would indeed reach a blissful state, let that even be for a few moments, which is what we would term happiness. We should bear in mind that there is nothing like “happily ever after” and learn to treat the happy and sad moments as milestones in life. 

Perhaps a monk’s life would teach us a lot on this matter. Maybe we can get some inspiration from the happiest person currently in the world! 

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"Simple" truth of life

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