My Words

PURPOSE OF LIFE

Your body is the chariot and you are the charioteer, horses are the mind, reins are the emotions, your actions are the whip, and your atman is the master.
-Upanishad

( Don’t be shocked, even I haven’t read any of the Upanishads)
“We have a purpose in our life…”, “ but not everybody has a purpose otherwise everybody would have been the main actor on this stage…” , one of my friend said so and he added that one has to awaken his/her conscience to know that very purpose but every time I close my eyes and try to find out that purpose, I find my mind pushing out some of the valid options. But to be frank this is something deliberate, I don’t get these answers from my conscience, I get these answers because I think these are some of my purposes but this is not what my friend meant. But I don’t agree with his second statement, I believe that everybody has his/her own purpose for his/her life. Well, another friend says that if you know what is your purpose in life and in case you fulfill that then you don’t have a desire to continue living.. that also sounds convincing and he added look Nidhi if we were able to fulfill our purposes in our life times then we would have been satisfied at our death beds, then what would have been the need to ask a dying man about his “last wish”.
When I was with my first friend I was totally convinced whatever he said but when I talked about it to another, I was equally convinced. Now one can think either I am confused or may be both of them are true to some extent. Now let me put it my way, what I understood from all this.
We all have wishes and desires.. true! And we often try to fulfill them and even get hurt when they are not fulfilled. We have goals and aims in life… there is a difference between goal and aim too( sorry I cant explain that but basically goal is a short time vision and aim is something higher than that) but the purpose of life is different from these wishes and desires. Wishes and desires are our own made things but purpose of life is something that is given to us by the divine authority, the one who controls our atman,
until we get hold of it. So the above quote, from one of our UPANISHADS, seems to be meaning that until and unless you know where your master wants you to lead, you don’t know in which direction to lead your chariot. So, it is damn important to awaken your conscience and to take control of that. But it is not so easy to awaken your atman, so what should such a person do? I have been searching for this purpose of my life since a few years but haven’t got any satisfactory answer. So I felt bad about it but now I have a different philosophy. It is true that everybody has a purpose in his/her life but you don’t have to go looking for it. Just have faith in your God and do your work(whatever it may be) sincerely and be scared of God(if not of anybody else ). Having faith in God helps you realize that even if you don’t have control over your atman, then there is the divine light that controls it and at the right time and situation He will let you know about your purpose in life.I didn’t mean to lecture anyone through writing this but just wanted to clear up my thoughts and I think I have moved up a step in this realization…