Living With a Purpose

    Understanding the purpose of  our  life is an extremely important step which helps us enjoy the journey of life well and reach destination. In simple words, it helps us in setting our life goals, achieving them and in leading a meaningful life.

   This understanding of our purpose however eludes most of us and we are leading our lives without a clear aim. We are born, we go to school , study what we are told, choose a profession whether we like it or not, get married, have children, buy a house  and so on.  Many of us just continue to carry on with the legacies of our families whereas some of us keep trying hard to out achieve our cousins, friends and neighbours. Therefore, during the course of our life we are mostly being guided by extraneous factors while lacking a clear direction. In short we are leading lives that are determined by our circumstances and the people around us. As per a study published in the New York Times only around 25 percent of American adults have a clear sense of what makes their lives meaningful. Nearly 40 percent either claimed neutrality on the matter or said that don't have the requisite clarity and purpose. Another survey by the Arizona Christian University in 2021 reports that 75 percent of the millennials (18-36 years) are struggling to find direction in life. As a result, most of us always feel deficient of some thing or the other be it money, position, relations, conviction or confidence thereby having a detrimental impact on our physical and mental well being. In addition to these discernible deficiencies, we also lead our lives without intrinsic qualities of love, trust, compassion, humility, integrity and so on. Life becomes a constant struggle within ourselves, our circumstances and our surroundings. We are working but we lack the enthusiasm and zeal to make a difference and excel. Most of the time, we are bitter, critical, cynical, argumentative and pessimistic. That this state of affairs is currently prevalent in the modern Indian Society is very much visible from the increase in number of suicides, cases of domestic violence, mental/chronic health issues,  substance abuse, increase in white collar crimes etc. As we produce more and more demotivated and unfocused citizens, the decay has started reflecting in our polity, governance, institutions and corporates thereby making them prone to corruption and unaccountability. 

    Is it right for us to blame lack of purpose as the main reason for these deficiencies? Will defining a purpose result in prosperity, success, better health, a sense of fulfilment and a better society? I don't say that it will resolve all our problems but definitely it is one of the most crucial and important first steps which can help us live in peace and harmony. Recent evidence suggests that relative to other dimensions of well-being, purpose in life appears to be particularly important in predicting future health and mortality. In a study on elderly persons, clarity on  purpose in life was associated with better ability to perform day-to-day activities and less disability in the future. Another study carried out in 2002 of nearly 73000 Japanese man and women revealed that people who had clear purpose or ikigai lived longer. 

    At this stage, it is also pertinent to ask how am I qualified to discuss this matter? Have I found the purpose and direction in my own life? To be honest I have not fully, but I have been through most of the struggles and have the courage to look back, honestly introspect over mistakes that I made and draw out lessons for myself and others.

    What should be the purpose of our life and how should we discover    it? Now these are million dollar questions, not easy to answer although there are plethora of self-help books, life coaches and internet/social media content offering quick fix solutions. A such very popular one liner based on the Western cultural thought that I came across is “follow your passion, you will find the purpose” makes it look extremely simple and easy. Although my experience says that this entire exercise of finding and then pursuing our purpose is indeed simple yet complex because it is shrouded in many layers of our being.

     As per Upanishads, humans have five bodies,

the Annamaya Kosha - Food Sheath, Pranamaya Kosha - Vital Sheath, Manomaya Kosha - Mental sheath, Vijnanamaya Kosha - Intellectual Sheath and the Anandamaya Kosha - Bliss Sheath. Most of us continue to associate with the first two to three outer sheaths which are prone to be impacted by the material aspects of the external world and do not connect with our inner self thereby remaining oblivious of the true purpose of our existence.  While exploring this topic, I have asked many individuals about their purpose of life, I was surprised that most of them answered "don't know" whereas many spoke of health, prosperity, career, family life, being a good human being or seeking knowledge as their purpose of life. Large number of them also mentioned happiness, joy and bliss. Further investigation and study lead me towards belief in the ancient Indian wisdom which specifies that the basic nature of human beings is to seek happiness that is eternal and emerging from the depths within. In my opinion, "seeking eternal happiness should therefore be our primary purpose". 

    This  "primary purpose" or "eternal happiness" provides an overall direction to the life and can be achieved by pursuing life goals, aims or objectives maintaining a fine balance between them. This part I would like to explain through a popular internet tool known called the "Wheel of Happiness" which traces its origins to the Tibetan Buddhism and has eight components" called the "happiness factors". However I have modified this tool as per my understanding of the subject and would like to refer to these happiness factors as the pillars of a happy, balanced and a meaningful life. I would not like to rank these factors and also give liberty to the readers to  give  weightage as per their choice and circumstances. During the course of my service in the Army, I often used to quiz my colleagues on their priority between health, family and profession and then invariably pontificated by saying that the priority of these factors will depend on the stage of life that you are in. It may be early for a young man to focus too much about health and spirituality but on profession and finances. Balance however is the key to ensure that the wheel of happiness keeps rolling smoothly.

   I will sum up this post by saying that we should make "eternal happiness" as the primary purpose of  our life and utilise it to give direction to our lives and define our goals. More on achieving our goals in posts to follow.