Hindustan Times
Discovering the core desire
Life has a definite purpose and most of us die without realising it. That is because we are too selfish and self-centred and too ignorant to be otherwise. Fortunate are those who realise this folly and live to fulfil life’s purpose before bidding adieu.
Khushdeep Bansal, in his book, Purpose of Life, says sometimes a yaksha prashma (quest) arises within us: Why am I here for. Have I done something meaningful and what I should do to create happiness for all.
The day one comes to such an understanding, it would be the beginning of a journey towards self-realisation. Bansal writes that kings in India and Greece hired scientists, scholars and philosophers to find answers to such questions. Astrology was widely used to know one’s purpose of being.
There is a beautiful parable centring a fish that makes our understanding of the awareness of the purpose of life clear. This fish lived in deep sea and was very curious to know what water was and also the purpose of her life. Her friends told her of different ways of making her know what water was. Some of them assured her that they could take her to a place where she can meet water and see for herself what water was!
But she was not satisfied with any of the ways explained to her and remained unsatisfied and sad for her whole life.
The lesson: We too are like the fish, ignorant and unaware of the purpose of life. Only if the fish knew how to go to the surface of the sea and experience sunlight, she could have got enlightenment. Similarly, if we can shed the cover of ignorance, we too will get to know the purpose of our lives and be contented and happy. To make it simple, one has to manifest one’s core and true desire to understand the purpose of life. Once the core desire is manifested, then one has to perform the right kind of action — karma.
One has to develop Yogic state of mind that would help a lot in reaching the stage of discovery of one’s real desire. Anyone can develop this state of mind with a little bit of seriousness and the ability to choose and discriminate between the right and the wrong.
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