Man is gifted a God-like heavenly existence on earth. But human civilisation births a complex mind in him. Complex mind leads to a complex life. More the complexity, the more fame that man earns. Fame forms a complex ego. Ego depends on others’ attention. This engages man into a struggle to do something and to be someone that becomes his purpose. Man needs a purpose to do something or to live. Man needs a purpose to define himself. Man keeps running after the purpose all life. He wants to possess money, bigger house, big business, et al. But the possessor becomes possessed in the possession-slave of possessions.
Man corrupts his child, asking him to dream of a purpose. He imposes a purpose that burdens the child. Child is dancing in the joy of existence that has been poured on him by existence. Child is innocent but man burdens him with purposes. Children are expected to follow all those purposes that parents, families, religions, nationalities, ethnicities followed. After 2,000 years, Jesus is gone but man is burdened to carry the cross on his head. In the name of religion, man has massacred millions. Sword is the sanction of the organised religion to unleash violence.
Mind is thoughtful. We can live purposeless but the mind says that to be purposeless is just like being an animal. Atheists ask whether God exists. If he does then who made God? If someone made God then who made that someone? Then theists ask that life’s purpose is to find God, we agree. Then what is the purpose of finding God? Such futilities lead man nowhere.
People go on telling others don’t waste your life. If a child is playing, parents ask him the purpose of playing. Why waste time? Or play to become an Olympic player. You don’t let him play. You pinch ‘playing’ out of his life. To play no purpose is needed. Life does not need a purpose. Life is a purpose in itself. Playing is a goal in itself. But you have to put him on the bandwagon, so tomorrow he is engaged in the mindless struggles of artificial life that you have led yourself.
We keep on saying, don’t waste your time. Make a purpose in life. Time is valuable. Your time should be invested the best way. Time never comes. Time is wealth. You keep on investing your time for creating wealth. Once you get hopelessness because when you find purposelessness to run after wealth, then you are told don’t waste time here on earth. Clerics ask you to spend time to find God. Invest time to get to the heavens. In heaven, you will get rivers flowing with liquor which is controlled here. There you get all those young beloveds that you couldn’t lay your hands on here.
In fact, life is purposeless. Purposelessness is the purpose of life. Time is not wealth. Neither time is money nor a commodity. Time is bliss. Time is life. Drown in the now-ness of life, immersed in the intoxicating waters of life. Dance in it, life is raining on you every moment. Get closer and closer to it so that there remains no gap between life and you. You are the life. Time is wealth in itself if you live in the here and now, wealth of the world is a crap. You are the lord of life. You are the dance of life.
But you want to live with purpose. To live with purpose is to live tomorrow. Man loses his today for tomorrow. Except men no other animal or tree or birds live for tomorrow. They get food, air, water, everything. Complex mind breeds complex insecurities. He has learnt to live in hope. He invests today for tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes like today. Tomorrow comes exactly as tomorrow. Hopelessness brews. You will never be able to live in tomorrow. The one that we call today will become yesterday by tomorrow and tomorrow will come as today. Tomorrow never comes.
Begin living your life today in the now-ness. In the now-ness of your being. It does not mean that things that are to be done tomorrow cannot be planned today. Plan them today. Enjoy the planning. Be the planning. Make planning a purpose of life while planning. Just that much. If you do that your purpose will become purposeless.
What is the purpose of blooming flowers, singing birds, swinging air that makes trees and leaves sway in dance, rains, clouds, rainbows, butterflies, fragrances and water gushing down. Man wants to know the purpose of his life. Man’s purpose is that purposelessness that exists in existence. We exist purposelessly in existence as part of the larger purpose that is beyond imagination of our small intellect. We are an occurrence, we are not a mass. Our mind can only think in terms of ego and ego is not. Our mind wants to conquer nature, the planet and the universe. But it knows nothing about it. The real purpose of existence is beyond our comprehension and will always remain beyond our comprehension and there is no way that we can fathom it. Hindus call it Brahma, which is expanding. If our mind can fathom and comprehend something, then comprehension becomes our possession.
The existence is far beyond human comprehension. The only way to understand is to accept our ignorance that we don’t know and we cannot know the mystic purpose of this existence but we can live and immerse into the deep ecstasy of mysticism and be child-like once again.
The author is a spiritual teacher and advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com
