Purpose

I have been blue for a while now and that I have some time to ponder doesn’t seem to help. It actually has exacerbated it.

I asked a dear friend of mine, what he thought was the purpose of life. He looked at me like you would look at a particularly disgusting spider. Why do you wonder, he asked and I told him that since we are alive, I figured the primary question would be about its purpose. Then he told me that that was philosophy and that as engineers we need not bother about it. There are others who sit and think and write about such inane things. It was not up to us to do so.

I persisted. Being a devoutly religious person, he said that according to the scriptures, the purpose of our life is to do good, acquire ‘punya’, pray to God and hope to be liberated from the repeated cycles of birth and death.

That must be it, I thought. But then… The purpose of existence is to cease existing. We live so as to not live. Is that not a paradox?

Be that as it may, if my purpose in life is liberation, any action that takes me towards this goal is ‘good’ action and any action that isn’t, is ‘bad’. It may not necessarily take me away from the goal, but it is not taking me towards it. And these actions are to be avoided. Discouraged. Right? So how is studying engineering, or building a house or getting married helping me achieve the ‘goal’?

Obviously, I am such an idiot that simple truths skip my mind.

Duh! One needs to be at a stage of spiritual maturation where one has realized that all world is maya and then and only then would he or she renounce all worldly things and start working towards moksha. Not before that.

Oh! Spiritual maturation. That did skip my mind.

So, ok! What is our purpose now?

That’s the best part, he said. Since you and I are not in “the” spiritual zone, we don’t have to worry about purpose at all. We can do whatever we want. We’ll simply have to be good people and that’s it.

And what is being good people?

It is simple. You have to be gentle, courteous, generous, honest and just (Duh! Duh!). You should not harm others. And society has evolved some dos and don’ts and if one follows it and does whatever is acceptable to everyone, you will find yourself in the good people list.

Wokie! That was awesome man! You really opened my eyes. One last thing: What was the purpose for this birth? Don’t I have to think about it at all?

Haven’t you learnt anything? (sigh) You don’t have to think about purpose. That is the job for a later you. For now, there is no purpose. But if you insist on having one, we could say that we live this life, so we may leave a better world for the next generation.

For the next generation, uh?

Yes! One must work hard with diligence, get over 90% in the board exams, get into a good college, study well, get good grades, get placed (preferably by campus interview) and earn decent money. If you do all this well and get settled, you will get married to a good person. Then you will be happy and will have kids. And then you put those kids in reputed schools, take them to tennis and swimming, make sure they get over 90% in their boards and then get admission for them in a good university and pray for them to get placed on campus and once they are settled, find them a good husband or wife and wait for them to have children. Once you hold your grandchild in your arm once, you are so blissful that, it is as if your purpose is fulfilled. Then, you live out your life in peace and die. That is it.

That was so eloquent, I can’t help but be impressed. Of course I don’t think we are leaving a better world to our next generation. Look at the environment. We have screwed it up beyond repair and have a lifestyle that is clearly unsustainable. So I am not sure if we are leaving a better world.

Surely, that is not us. It was our forefathers. We are not responsible for what has happened to the environment. Anyway, I am sure our future generations will develop new technologies to make everything alright. It is not our problem. Why do you fret over it unnecessarily? You wanna catch a movie?