I have seen people debating about the purpose of life. Plenty of discussions followed by plethora of suggestions. But seldom has anyone been able to give me one satisfactory answer that settles the quest for finding the purpose of life. The reason does not lie in the lack of knowledge of the participants. We have been unable to find a meaningful answer because we often fail to address the actual problem. And the actual problem is our wrong interpretation of the word itself: ‘life’. What life are we talking about? Is this the life that we are supposed to spend as social human beings or is it the biological life given to us by nature. Former is a subjective topic and latter an objective one. You can have as many opinions as you like for something that means and matters differently to different people. Social life is one such topic of discussion. I may wish to spend my life sitting in the serenity of my small village and you may wish to explore the limits of your human senses. It all depends upon your upbringing, your education, your family, friends, peer groups, the sociopolitical environment that you were born in or even your natural environment. The purpose of life that you might decide for your social life may suit you, but it may not be fine for me and rather be a cause of anxiety and depression.
What we generally ignore and fail to argue about is the purpose of the biological life, a life that has been bestowed upon us by mother nature (for an atheist) or by the Almighty (for a theist). Have you ever given it a thought? You might have, and I am sure you must have, at least, once in your life because this is one question that any living being with the intellectual capacity of a human cannot ignore to ponder upon. Many of you must have brushed it aside, focusing on the social life, but there are definitely some of you who would have given it a serious thought. And those are the ones whom you will always find in the quest of one single answer, “Who am I?” That’s because, you cannot find the purpose of life unless you know what life is, the life that is effervescent in your mortal human form! If I am a materialistic guy who wants to accumulate the pleasures of the worldly senses, I may choose my purpose as accumulation of wealth. If I am of a more spiritual bent of mind, I may choose to follow the path of a seeker. I choose my purpose because I know who I am as a social individual. I know my social identity, my intellectual capacity, my likes and dislikes and so on. If I am aware of ‘Who I socially Am’, I may be able to choose my social purpose of life with ease and perfection. If I am even confused about that, I may end up what we define as average struggling human being. Unfortunately, majority of us don’t even have the basic knowledge of their true social self and end up choosing wrong careers and professions for us.
For me, it is very easy to state the purpose here in one line. But I chose to elaborate it, though precisely, because you won’t get enlightened by reading my article. You will get enlightenment by realization. The fact is that you are already enlightened. All you need to do is be aware of your enlightenment. You will surely find the purpose of your life.
