Purpose of life
It was a nice warm summer morning when he was sitting on a park bench. So peaceful and sorted was he within that every bird chirp was crystal clear to his ears. He could actually rejoice every single layer of light that covered the blanket of grass and flowers around. He was in bliss, he was listening to the sound of silence and just then this lady came and sat right next to him. She looked successful in every visible frame, yet there was a strong sense of discomfort in her demeanour. Just when he was about to get up to kickstart the day’s routine, she turned to him and asked if she could speak with him for a few minutes. While it did appear strange to him, he stayed. She had been thinking for some time now and a few questions were stuck in her head. Speaking with friends might give her an opinion, albeit biased, conditioned or judged. She was clear, she wanted to speak with someone who won’t bring any pre-conceived shades into the conversation. Hence, she chose him. He looked sorted to her and most importantly, he won’t have any baggages of her life situations while talking to her.
“Do you mind, If I talk to you for some time?”, she asked. “Sure, How may I help you?”, he replied. She: “It feels weird to have this sort of a discussion with a stranger, but I think it’s best to get a view, an opinion on this from someone who won’t engage in a conversation with you with a purpose to lead you to some particular thought… I feel you’d share your thoughts without any bias and with a fair mind”, she explained. “I will try my best to”, he replied (wondering what she was about to throw at him).
She: “I have been in this city long enough to know how to make a successful living here. My job pays me really well, I have a very comfortable place to stay, my relationship is going good, I am happily taking care of my health.. all looks well in place but despite all of this, I have a strong sense of lack. Having achieved all, a strong thought remains in my head and that that thought is- the Purpose is yet not realised. Good health being the most worthy gift of life, I feel, even If I wasn’t paid as much, if my relationships had different shades, if my apartment wasn’t as big, I, as a person, wouldn’t have felt much differently. I have really tasked my self hard, rather very hard to maintain my high paying Job, keeping my relationships going, meeting expectations etc etc. I doubt if I have realised the purpose of my life by achieving all of this. Those who don’t have a lot of this are not very different from me. Broadly, I see all of us sailing the same boat. If achieving all of this isn’t the purpose, if achieving all of this doesn’t settle me inside, then what is it. What will settle my head? What is the purpose of my being here? What am I here for?”
Right around the time in life when he had figured out answers to these questions for himself, he found himself here, in position to answer her. He was glad, he thanked the heavens.
He: “I’m not sure what prompted you to ask this from me and if I’m capable of answering it, but I can definitely share my thoughts here”, he said. “We all come to life, with a purpose. If the purpose was to make wealth, make a family, create businesses and legacies; Alexander, Julius Ceasar and all the affluent wealthy Families and Czars would have lived happy and died contented. But, history stands witness, none of the Emperors were fulfilled. Despite having all the power and wealth that the world wants, they all lived a very disturbed life. Right from the moment we are born, we are taught to chase. We are taught to live a particular way, ironically by those who have never been sorted themselves. While we are born free, we are conditioned to live enslaved to ways that haven’t worked for most of us. We live and die, enslaved. The purpose of life is to live and die, just the way we are born- Free. Being Free doesn’t mean letting ourselves go berserk on the non-sense stuff. The sense of right and wrong is deeply rooted in us. We always know what is right and what is not. There is no discussion on the ‘rights and wrongs’ here. Being Free, in the right definition here means being in touch with our inner self, knowing our own being, living in a state of constant awareness of self that is separate from our ‘always talking’ mind. We are always under constant pressure to conform to the ways of living, dictated by our society. Never do we realise that there can never be a ‘dictated way’ to living life. It’s good to get directions in life but it certainly isn’t a great idea to be told ‘how to live’. What works for me, may not work for you. We are conditioned right from the time we are born to live and be a way that is meant to gratify the collective needs of those around us. Infact a lot of us, even before we breathe our first breath, are burdened by a heavy load of collective expectations. While we struggle and fight to get what we want, we also win many such smaller battles but on a larger and more fundamental scale of our life term, we mostly loose and end up submitting to a format of life that isn’t aligned to our being. The purpose of life is to find the way that settles us inside. It’s OK to make mistakes and learn from those in pursuit of realising self. But, till we don’t realise it, no matter what we achieve from the outside, we shall always feel the lack within”.
Peace to all 🙂