Purpose of life

The purpose of life, in one word, is holistic growth of the individual .Holistic growth means growth in all aspects of a persons life. There are four aspects of growth Physical , Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual. 1) Physical growth To grow physically into a healthy human being is the first step in the process of growth. Healthy food, healthy habits not only help in growth but also help us to maintain good health It is said we lose our health to get wealth and afterwards we lose our wealth to regain that health and in the process we may lose both, Bhagavan says in Bhagavad Gita - Yuktaharaviharasya yuktacestasya karmasu. Food eaten should be moderate means not too much and not too less. But how do we know what is moderate ?Sastra tells you how much one should eat Purayed ashanena ardham, trutiyam udakena tu, vayoh sancharanartham chaturtham avaseshayet. You should fill your stomach half with solid food, one fourth should be filled with water and one fourth is for air circulation. 2) Emotional growth and stability One needs to grow emotionally and maintain emotional stability. Aspects of growing emotionally are a) Being sensitive to others emotions and requirements. Respecting likes and dislikes ,feelings, circumstances of an individual is the first step towards emotional growth Suppose I want to get up at 3 oclock and do my meditation. If I am staying with somebody, then I make sure that I dont disturb the other person. Similarly I want to practice my singing and I just do it without caring that the other person has exams and has to study. This is lack of sensitivity. . If someone wants to worship Devi, Krishna, Haumanji or Jesus we should respect their feelings This does not mean everytime we have to give in or compromise with our principles. We just allow the person to have his or her practice as far as it is not harming anyone. b) The ability to give and receive love. I should be able to give love and equally important is to be able to receive lovegracefully. Some people ,when someone expresses love they feel uncomfortable and reject it. For eg: suppose someone complements you on you singing well. Immediately you feel uncomfortable at the complement and deny it or compare yourself to someone else who sings better. Why not instead accept the complement gracefully with a simple thanks and say it is all due to Bhagvans grace. You need not be proud about it, but recognise your talent as a glory of bhagvan. Giving and receiving love also means appreciating the beauty in others whether you like or hate that person. Normally when we hate a person we tend to overlook anything good in them. This shows that we have emotionally not matured.

Somebody said very nicely To love and be loved are the biggest blessings in the world. c) Caring. : Whether it be for parents, fellow beings. Caring means making him feel good about himself or herself. Does your servant feel good working for you or wretched? You can discipline and do what is required to get the work done, but do we show respect to him as a part of the family because like the other members he is also a part of the family. Infact sastra has rules that yajamana should eat, after even the servants have eaten.. Some people give care easily, but are uncomfortable in receiving care. That is an emotional problem. We should be graceful in receiving care. If somebody cares for you then acknowledge it gracefully. I should care for others care. That is emotional growth. How to have this emotional growth ? a) Be clear what is emotional growth. b) See the importance of emotional growth. Some people especially men feel that being emotional is feminine and it is sentimentalism. Paradoxically ,emotionally some men are weak, project themselves as being emotionally very strong. We are human beings and we need emotions, so we should express that we care for emotions. For that we need to be convinced that emotional growth is necessary. Otherwise in old age a sense of loneliness comes in if we have not received or given love properly when we are younger. c) Another way to develop it is remaining in the company of those who are emotionally grown up. We get the good vibrations from them and we definitely develop this. Suppose you remain with someone like that for several years then his or her qualities rub off on you. d) Introspection One should introspect on the areas where all one has been insensitive and consistently work on it. Ofcourse whatever upbringing you have received in your childhood will matter a lot. So in childhood only we inculcate sensitivity in the children. Just because I want something I should get it, is not correct thinking. This idea is to be inculcated right from the beginning. Suppose these have not been acquired in childhood then one should develop them by the ways we discussed. Emotional growth also includes stabilizing the emotions and maintaining and strengthening the stability in your life. 3) Intellectual growth Developing the ability to think systematically and rationally is intellectual growth. A lot of the highly educated people lack this quality of systematic thinking. Our education should bring that. One should be able to see things systematically and think things logically .For eg: How can such a famous person, commit a mistake? this is emotional thinking whereas thinking systematically and rationally is intellectual growth. Also one should not be afraid of logical thinking. People simply like to know what exactly to be done, they dont want to think. That is called intellectual lethargy. To summarise, intellectual growth is developing love and ability for systematic and logical thinking and not having any fear or laziness for a logical argument. . This does not mean that one becomes argumentative about everything and enjoys fighting with others For intellectual growth,some mathematical and science background is useful, as they develop the infrastructure for systematic thinking. Of course this is a highly developed discipline of knowledge and in our scriptures ,it is called Nyaya sastra.

In this, we are taught how to think. When you speak make sure it does not have defects . How to have intellectual growth? For any growth one common requirement is I should be convinced of it and then do what is to be done to develop it. So intellectual growth comes by conviction, by good company and by working on it thro introspection, by reading certain books and there is also certain training for that. So by these methods one gets intellectual growth. 4) Spriritual growth Generally this word spiritual is highly misunderstood. Suppose somebody is growing a long beard and hair, weara a dhoti and puts vibhuti, or he leaves the house and goes to Hrishikesh, then we call him a spiritual person. This spirituality has nothing much to do with all theses external signs. To grow beard you dont have to do anything. You dont shave then beard grows. Or someone remains aloof, then we feel he is spiritual. Really all these things can happen to a person who is spiritual, but just because he has these things does not mean he is spiritual. So what does spirituality really mean? The word spirituality is derived from spirit and the word spirit does not have a very appropriate meaning which we want to convey. But we can take simple meaning of spirit as self. In Sanskrit we have a more appropriate word - adhyatmika means Adhyatma eva adhyatmika, that which is related to the self. Spiritual means connected with the self. Spirituality means pursuit of self-growth or growing from within is spiritual growth. This does not convey much. So we need to understand what growing from within means. Generally we consider the outside world to be source of our happiness and peace. So generally we think that I am happy or unhappy because of presence or absence of someone ,someplace,or something in my life... The sastra calls as samsaric approach. According to sastra a samsaric person is one who has dependence on the world to be happy and peaceful. So even though a person is wearing orange, have long beard and hair and live in an ashram, if his happiness depends on the world then the person is a samsari. If your happiness or peace does not depend on external people, object, situation, then you are not a samsari. Thus spirituality means commitment to inner growth. It is the journey towards becoming independent of the world to be happy and peaceful. He doesnot blame the world for his misery. Owning up your responsibility is the beginning of spirituality. Like generally we say- That person provoked me. Really no one can provoke you. Only toys can be keyed up to do something. The other person just pressed the right buttons and you reacted. Mahatma Gandhi said- No one can provoke you without your permission. And that permission is given when we give undue importance to the other persons comment. In this journey there are 5 stages i) Discovery of the absolute goal. What finally do I want to reach in my life. ii) Discovery of the means to achieve that ultimate goal. iii) Preparing oneself for pursuing the means to achieve that ultimate goal. iv) Employing those final means to attain that goal.

v) Attainment of the goal. i) Discovering the absolute goal is to be at permanent peace and happiness ,which is called moksha. One has to have clarity what is the final absolute goal in life. We first say I need enough money to survive and bring up family. Then we grow older and say we just want to see our children happy. But these are not really goals. Behind them also there is another goal I want to be happy peaceful and happy permanently. Think it over and try to see it in your life. Suppose you say I dont want happiness all the time. I want dukham also sometime. Why you want dukham is because you can enjoy sukham better. It means finally what you want is sukham. Suppose someone says I want only Krishna, no sukham or dukham. Then ask the person why he wants God. God is so nice muralidhari, with a smile on his face, I feel nice seeing him. So you want bhagvan because he makes you happy. So if you realy anlayse and see, everybody does anything only to gain happiness. We want to be happy all the time in all situation when interacting or not interacting with people. In short we want absolute happiness. We ourself will not be knowing this clearly, but this is what we want. Like a small baby is crying. The baby himself will not be knowing why he is crying. But he feels something is missing. Similarly we are also like these babies crying because this permanent happiness is what we want and we are struggling to have that. We are superimposing that in different different situations. If I get this house. I will be happy. If I get this job, i will be happy. If i marry this person, i will be happy. But that is not true. There is a yoga and kshema. Yoga is apraptasya praptih, then afterwards praptasya rakshanam. First you acquire and then you maintain. So dont think just by getting a particular person or object you will be absolutely happy. Then afterwards we compromise and say absolute happiness is not there. But sastra says it is possible. So first of all I have to discern and discover that this is what I want in my life. Really what I am seeking is permanent happiness and peace. It takes so many years to discover and discovering does not happen easily because we are so much caught up in the world. After discovering this is what I want in my life, then I discover the appropriate means to get it. How do I get this permanent happiness because anything i have gives me limited happiness and aftersometime my peace gets broken into pieces. I see myself helpless in terms of resources and time then how can I be happy? The sastra says that you will be permanently happy when you are free from the conclusion that I a limited or small. Even US president Obama will be feeling small in front of earlier presidents. Even Lord indra feels small because he has to get up when Brahmaji comes and Brahmaji has to get up when Vishnu comes. But Vishnu does not have to get up because he has owned up his limitlessness. So i discover that nothing will solve my problem as long as I feel limited. ii) So I have to see myself as limitless then only I will not be limited. For that I should get limitless. How do I do gain the limitless ? You can never get limitless. Because if limitless is gained by you then you are away from limitless. Then limitless is no longer limitless because limitless to be limitless it has to include you. Therefore logically you cannot get limitless. And without getting I cannot be free from the sense of being limited. There sastra comes and says that perhaps you are already limitless, but you do not know

what you really are. Therefore you are seeking fulfilment from outside. Then I ask How can I be limitless. I am Mr so and so and limited. Sastra says No, this is what you are identifying with this body and saying. But this is not your real dimension. Maybe you are different from what you are thinking of yourself. How do I own up to this limitlessness? Sastra says- Discover who you really are and own up that. Thus sastra gives the means for attaining the ultimate goal in the form of selfdiscovery or knowledge of reality. That knowledge I get from by listening to the scriptures thro a competent teacher systematically for some length of time. That is technically called Sravanam. Then some doubts are there they are resolved thro Mananam (pondering over) and habitual errors are removed by Nidhidhyasanam (contemplation) and knowledge then gets clearly established in my mind.

iii) But for this whole process to happen my mind should be fit. This freedom from being limited is possible by self-discovery, self-discovery is possible by studying the scriptures and studying the scriptures is possible effectively, if I have made my mind qualified. And the qualification of the mind is in the form of purification of the mind and steadiness of the mind. That is possible by doing your duty as a dedication to Isvara called Isvararpana buddhi and receiving the result as prasadam. Whatever karma you do, offer it as naivedyam and receive the result of karma as prasadam from the lord. In worship also what we offer to the Lord is naivedyam and Lord alone can convert naivedyam into prasadam. Similarly let every action be naivedyam to the lord and let every result be prasadam from the lord. Doing your duty with this attitude is called Karma Yoga. Ofcourse with that karma yoga some meditation and japa are helpful to make the mind steady. iv) These sadhanas karma yoga, japa and meditation - helps me to get a qualified mind so that I will be able to pursue this self- knowledge through sravanam, mananam and nidhidhyasanam which were discussed earlier in the 2nd stage. v) By sravanam, mananam, nidhidhyasanam one gets knowledge and becomes free from the sense of limitations. That is moksha, the final destination. That everybody wants and that sastra tells how to attain that. This is what is called spiritual growth. So the road map and the destination should be very clear First qualify yourself for getting self-knowledge, then work for getting self-knowledge and get self knowledge and be free from the sense of limitation and therefore free from dependence upon this world to be happy. Thus the spiritual growth starts with discovery of the goal and ends with attainment of the final goal. The person who is in the process is called spiritual person and his pursuit is called spirituality. If you are in anyone of the five stages, maybe even in the preparation stage, then also you are a spiritual person. If there is conscious commitment for moksha which is the final destination, then your pursuit can be called spiritual pursuit. What are the signs of a spiritually evolving person? Nowadays it is called SQ- spiritual quotient. a) As you grow spiritually, you are relaxed. b) There is acceptance of oneself and others. More acceptance you have yourself

and others, more spiritually grown-up you are. c) There is freedom from guilt and hurt. d) There is certain amount of cheerfulness. These are the real signs of a spiritually developing person. So let us pray that spirituality comes in our life in a true sense and finally we attain that ultimate goal.

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