Journey

If you search on google for the term “Nihilism:, the definition you get is “the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.”

If a person is able to think, this might be one of the questions that one should ask himself, what is the purpose of life? or what is my purpose of life. And there is no right answer. The purpose of life is not the same as one’s dreams/inspirations. Purpose is more the reasoning of your existence. Why are you the way you are. The way you think and act is unique to yourself. If we assume that there is a well defined purpose of yours, will you reach that the way you are living life right now?

Let’s look at the history and see if we can find any people who have found a purpose in life. Starting from Alexander the Great, who went to conquer the whole world. Is that a purpose? Can making name, leaving legacy be a purpose of life? Well, It is more than an ambition than purpose. A quote from one of the books I like is “Oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have”.

So, should we just give up? No. It is empirical that we find answer to this dilemma. One good answer that we can find is in religion. Religion is not an overnight concept. It is a set of beliefs that keeps us human. One of the things we do find common in the religions that I know of is Man is given soul by God. Maybe the purpose that we are looking for is not for our lives but our soul. After all, we are nothing but our souls. They are the true representations of who we are and not what we want project ourselves to be.

In Bhagwat Geeta, we are given the same knowledge and purpose of soul which is to reunite with one true soul/ParamAatma/God. In bible, Adam used to take walks with God everyday before calamity struck. Adam was God’s image as man and until we abide by his purpose of represnting him, he was awarded with a place along side god. So, as children of the first man, we need to find that purpose once again. To represent as God’s image and unite with him. Unite our souls to one true soul.

So what is this God’s image? There can be many many answers to this question. What do you think God is like? If we exclude all the mighty powers he posses, what does God represent. Is he kind or cruel? Is he loving or forgiving or is he punishing? Is he lazy or industrious? Well, If you do believe in God, just give it a thought. When you pray to him, is it to get his blessings or to get his forgiveness? You know yourself better than anyone and you would know exactly where your character deviates from God.

God has powers to create and destroy worlds. He has a duty, a work that even he needs to do. Maybe he likes his work or maybe Liking something like that is an humanly emotion. Unlike him, we are weak, we don’t have power to create worlds, but everyone does have his moral obligations to work, as a teacher, a scientist, a solider. If we want to walk again alongside God, we also need to keep doing the work we are supposed to do with honesty and dedication. When God created Earth, he worked for 6 days and taken rest on 7th day. So, your tiring body also do deserve it’s rest after than work. You can not only cheat during your work days, it is a sin to cheat on your rest day as well. The Hebrew word “sin” here means to “miss a mark/stray from path” and not “immoral act”.

What else? Now, we are kids of God. We can make mistakes and if we admit them to God and atone for them, then are usually forgiven. It is quite similar to your kids making mistake, coming clean with you. If you forgive them, then you are acting in his image. However, if we you get angry on them or punish them, you are not. It is also true that God punishes. When a soul is so lost that the sins made are unforgiving and repeated after forgiveness, then punishment is necessary.

To conclude, It does not seem possible to find an answer to purpose of life but we need to believe in something. Something that would keep us sane and keep moving the world for better. A purpose of soul is something we can choose to believe in. A purpose to walk in God’s image and to reunite with him eventually. Maybe it’s all darkness after death. Who knows? But would not a death with a soul at peace be better than a death with a confused soul. A soul which never believed in a purpose or never even attempted to find that meaning?