Purpose of Life
by Varad Deore
For Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull it was flying.
For Sania Mirza it is probably being the best tennis player in the
world. For me, I still don't know.
Yes! I'm talking about the purpose of life. Why do you live? What is it
that you wake up every morning for?
The Bible says to know it you'll have to find and search for Jesus. For God. Because he created you. You cannot ask a tool what is was invented for. You can only ask its inventor what and how it is to be used. Similarly, you cannot ask yourself what were you created for. You can only ask your creator.
The Geetha says it is to strive. To strive to compound yourself with
Him. This striving can be anything you do. It may be by following
religion, by worshipping what you do or else by pursuance of knowledge.
All these arguments are based on one common assumption. They're based
on the assumption that God exists. What if I challenge this assumption?
What if I ask "where is god?" Or "is there a god? Is there an answer?"
There is an answer. But to find it one would have to widen his vision.
His perspectives need to broaden. What he must ask is not "where is
god, but what is god?"
Magnificence, elegance, beauty, excellence are all but unfulfilling to
answer this question. To put into a broader light just think which
people do we compare to god? I'm sure no Indian has ever not heard the
phrase "if a cricket is a religion Sachin is god." Why is no other player ever compared to God?
A woman with emphasized reproductive organs and an inviting charming
face is often compared to a goddess. On porn sites she becomes a sex
goddess.
Just go back to your nostalgic anecdotes. You will find one place where
you felt your insignificance. It might be on a sea cliff watching a sun
set. It might as well be in the sky when you peeped out of the window
of your plane while flying or may even be something as small as someone's eyes. What was it that you felt in those moments?
Imagine a place of all marble. White, smooth, natural marble. Mountains of marble all around you, where there is lonely you and silence. Silence but for the stream of white water that is flowing right in front of
your eyes striking its own musical notes on your minds instrument. And you are there all alone on a moonlit winter night. How beautiful do you think the place will be? You must have begun wondering whether the place
actually exists. The answer is it does exist. Where, is a matter incontexual here.
If you have never been to a jungle, then open the closest encyclopedia
on nature that you find. Watch the images in it. The birds, animals and
other creatures. The stalagmites and stalactites and other naturally
occurring structures.
From Sachin's and woman's comparison to god and goddesses let us move
on to idols of gods and goddesses. What do you find? An elephant headed
human with four hands? A ten handed and serene faced lady riding a
tiger? Royal looking blue bodied male sleeping leisurely on a huge snake?
What are all these? What do they signify? From Sachin to the goddess called
women, from women to nature, from nature to idols. They are all but
various perceptions of perfect "somethings".
No other batsman was ever compared to god. It's the ease, the
excellence, the elegance of Sachins strokes that gives him such a stature. Not
every woman is compared to a goddess because not every one's
reproductive organs are almost perfect. They represent her stature because she has
always been respected, worshipped and celebrated for her ability to
give birth. To give birth to a new one is godly for this nature to go on.
Every creature, every sight, every feeling of vastness, of perfection,
of ease and excellence in itself is god. God is not a different entity.
He is not a mere person like you and me. And to excel, become vast, to
expand and to exhibit excellence in something is what we must live for.
To strive to be one with Him. With His excellence, His vastness, His
ease and his perfection. This in itself is the purpose of every life. How
to do it is what is left to us. Sports, Music, Literature, Art, Work,
Be a good father, Mother, Sister, or Lover is all it takes.
Purpose of Life© COPYRIGHT 2006 Varad Deore.
Reproduction prohibited without permission from the author.
06/19/06
