The Purpose of Life!
People tell me that I have been writing a lot of crap, and it is time I turned a wee bit serious. So let me put forth my ideas on something I think a lot about. There is something I have always wondered. What is the purpose of life? We are born poor or rich, stupid or intelligent, hindu or muslim, man or woman (or..maybe..er..)and with many more of such traits. But do we ever realize why we are toiling so hard everyday ? What is it that drives us ? Why don't we make peace with the fact that no matter what we do we are going to die sooner or later ? Ok, no I don't believe in life after death and life after death or any such theory. I feel the people are always looking for a reason to live and these theories in a way form their driving force.
But for people like me who find it really hard to fathom the authenticity of these doctrines, what should be the innner motivation? Now as a kid, on a particular day you might long for a toy. That desire to have that toy keeps you alive. As you grow older your toys change, your desires increase, but they don't end. No matter how much you earn you will never be satisfied. These are the small and big things which tend to keep us moving. Indian philosophy preaches renunciation of these material desires and offerring oneself in the service of the almighty. But I ask, what about the people like me who are skeptical about the existence of god itself ? What are we supposed to do ? Ok, I already hear the gurus mumbling that you don't question faith. You believe it. Once you are dead and gone you will realize the point of existence. Wow! if god really made us all, why did he not give us the brains to deicide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong? Why is it that 99.99% of all humans practice what a saint/sadhu would term sacrilege ? It is interesting to notice that there is a class of people who listen to the preachings and all. They can't stop admiring the wisdom of their gurus, but when it comes to practising, they fall back to the last bench. Now I don't blame these guys. Rather I feel pitiful them becuase I think they are constantly living in the guilt of believing that by longing for material benefits they are doing something wrong. I again question, why is that only a few bunch of enlightened folks can really understand all that they practice and the rest just need to blindly believe in them. Why didn't god give them the power to understand the puzzle of life ?
Anyways, the point I wanted to make above was that is longing for our desires really a vice ? I feel that ordinary people need something to do, every morning they wake. Why feel so shameful about it ? Okay, some guy tells you that you are not leading the right life and may end up badly after death. I say, to hell with him. Please you lead your life and let us lead ours in the way we want to, in the way our natural instincts lead us. That's because for me my natural intinct is the voice of god. He wanted humans to be a certain way, and he communicates through our inner voices. The point is there are people specially in India who superimpose those thoughts with their own. They start telling you, that hey, what you just thought was utterly wrong. Do what we say and you'll live after your death.
Still, the totality of all things is very unclear to me and I know to most of us. This emptiness is what some guys take advantage of. They weave different stories and make you believe into their logic. Now, I must clear one thing. I am not at all against any theory of god or attaining nirvana/mokhsha. What I believe is that if god wanted me to do something I would have been naturally inclined to do it. I wouldn't need some god-send messenger to tell me what to do.
[By the way, if in any way I may have hurt any religious/spiritual sect I am really sorry, as it was not my intention to do so.]
People tell me that I have been writing a lot of crap, and it is time I turned a wee bit serious. So let me put forth my ideas on something I think a lot about. There is something I have always wondered. What is the purpose of life? We are born poor or rich, stupid or intelligent, hindu or muslim, man or woman (or..maybe..er..)and with many more of such traits. But do we ever realize why we are toiling so hard everyday ? What is it that drives us ? Why don't we make peace with the fact that no matter what we do we are going to die sooner or later ? Ok, no I don't believe in life after death and life after death or any such theory. I feel the people are always looking for a reason to live and these theories in a way form their driving force.
But for people like me who find it really hard to fathom the authenticity of these doctrines, what should be the innner motivation? Now as a kid, on a particular day you might long for a toy. That desire to have that toy keeps you alive. As you grow older your toys change, your desires increase, but they don't end. No matter how much you earn you will never be satisfied. These are the small and big things which tend to keep us moving. Indian philosophy preaches renunciation of these material desires and offerring oneself in the service of the almighty. But I ask, what about the people like me who are skeptical about the existence of god itself ? What are we supposed to do ? Ok, I already hear the gurus mumbling that you don't question faith. You believe it. Once you are dead and gone you will realize the point of existence. Wow! if god really made us all, why did he not give us the brains to deicide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong? Why is it that 99.99% of all humans practice what a saint/sadhu would term sacrilege ? It is interesting to notice that there is a class of people who listen to the preachings and all. They can't stop admiring the wisdom of their gurus, but when it comes to practising, they fall back to the last bench. Now I don't blame these guys. Rather I feel pitiful them becuase I think they are constantly living in the guilt of believing that by longing for material benefits they are doing something wrong. I again question, why is that only a few bunch of enlightened folks can really understand all that they practice and the rest just need to blindly believe in them. Why didn't god give them the power to understand the puzzle of life ?
Anyways, the point I wanted to make above was that is longing for our desires really a vice ? I feel that ordinary people need something to do, every morning they wake. Why feel so shameful about it ? Okay, some guy tells you that you are not leading the right life and may end up badly after death. I say, to hell with him. Please you lead your life and let us lead ours in the way we want to, in the way our natural instincts lead us. That's because for me my natural intinct is the voice of god. He wanted humans to be a certain way, and he communicates through our inner voices. The point is there are people specially in India who superimpose those thoughts with their own. They start telling you, that hey, what you just thought was utterly wrong. Do what we say and you'll live after your death.
Still, the totality of all things is very unclear to me and I know to most of us. This emptiness is what some guys take advantage of. They weave different stories and make you believe into their logic. Now, I must clear one thing. I am not at all against any theory of god or attaining nirvana/mokhsha. What I believe is that if god wanted me to do something I would have been naturally inclined to do it. I wouldn't need some god-send messenger to tell me what to do.
[By the way, if in any way I may have hurt any religious/spiritual sect I am really sorry, as it was not my intention to do so.]
posted by Anurag Ruhela at 1:10 AM
1 Comments:
Now this is really disturbing...
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