The Purpose of my Life.

Submitted to Piya Mukherjee

By
Soumyajyoti Kundu PGDM-International Business (2010-12) K.J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research Roll No: 26

THE PURPOSE OF MY LIFE

In Murder in the Cathedral, T. S. Eliot defines life as a part of the great design or pattern, and to be in tune with the pattern, is the purpose of our life. Vedanta says that the manifestation of divinity is the purpose of life. What I feel is this divinity or spirituality do have its base in humanity, which comes with the expansion of heart, extension of the boundary of ones knowledge and construction of ones character. The clarion call of Swami Vivekananda,Make your heart like an ocean, inspires me from my very childhood days. These words are in my heart of heart and has made my existence a worth living, has given a meaning and purpose to my life. The inspiration that I get from these words urges me to climb up the stairs starting from man to human and to divinity. It is not just a theory but a way of thinking and includes an effort towards acquiring qualities like self-sacrifice, self-respect, self-confidence, discipline, patience, self-reliance, self-control, right thinking, purity in thought, word and deed, tolerance, perseverance, determination, honesty to oneself and to others, sincerity of thought and purpose, courtesy, sympathy, spirit of service, moral and physical courage, truthfulness and so forth. These are all mental qualities, so it is very important to purify the mind first. The method of achieving this purification of mind is contemplation of the pure, austerity, non- violence, serving others selflessly and doing work for works sake only. The building blocks of my life lie in assimilating ideas like, KARMA YOGA- We do have the power to make ourselves but first of all what we needed most is to know how to act. One must remember that all work is simply done to bring out the power of mind, to wake up the soul. There is infinite power inside everyman, the different works are like blows to

bring them out, to cause these giants to wake up. Even the lowest forms of work are not to be neglected. As Vivekananda said, The ideal man is he, who in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the most intense activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. He goes through the streets of a big city with all its traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he is intensely working all the time. That is the ideal of Karma-Yoga, and if you have attained that you have learnt the secret of work. This ideology has to be my goal & I behold it close to my heart. Asking nothing in return, is the secret of work and Karma-Yoga. Swamijis prescription is,Ask nothing, want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you- but do not think of that now, it will come back multiplied a thousand folds- but the attention must not be on that.Learn that the whole life is giving TRUTH- Truth is the basis of Karma Yoga. To be true to ones own work transforms simply the work or karma to Yoga. Keats defines Truth as -Truth is beauty, beauty truth. To be true to others and to own self is an important step towards achieving inner beautification and divinity. With truthfulness comes strength of mind, courage, self-respect, self-reliance, self-confidence and purity of thought, word and deed. Upholding the ideals of truth is one of the milestones in my way towards achieving divinity. JNANA YOGA- Infinite opportunities lie in front of a youth, but he has to gain the wisdom to utilize properly the opportunities and chisel out a brilliant future. A youth has everything- bodily strength, mental vigor, un-put-down able enthusiasm, and infinite creative drive. But, if he lacks the silent, invisible strength of calm wisdom, everything will be in vain. What is this wisdom? In Sanskrit it is called Viveka. It is a sense of discrimination which enables one to know what is right and what is wrong, what should be done

and what should be avoided, what should be acquired and what should be given up, and what is to be seen and what is not to be seen- it is most essential for a youth to develop this vital faculty. Jnana is nothing but the education which is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. Yes, it is the awakening of perfection, the absolute perfection. Knowing of the Truth that each soul is potentially divine, discovering the infinite strength of the world within, and realizing the immense possibilities inherent in human being, is the end of Jnana Yoga. Reaching this perfection is my austere endeavor. Even religious book, be it be Vedas or the Qurans or the Bible teach us these. There cant be any discrimination of which book it is as long as God is being worshipped. SELF-RESPECT- It is absolutely necessary for a human being to have respect of own, even before faith in God; but it seems that we are losing faith in ourselves day by day. It is self-respect or self-reliance that makes the difference between the great and the good. Whatever of material power we see manifested by the Western races is the outcome of this self-respect, because they believe in their muscles, and if one believes in his own spirit, it will work much more. There is a vast world of knowledge and ideas surrounding us, but to realize them we must make them embedded in the mind and to understand the process by which this happens, we need to know about ourselves, about our capabilities and possibilities. With this comes self-respect. It was self-respect that helped Nachiketa, the mythological personality to acquire the Absolute Truth and Self-knowledge. It was for the lack of this, the sleeping Leviathan, India groaned under the foreign domination for centuries. What I feel is that if I dont respect myself, then none will respect me. With this attitude comes determination and boldness, which has instigated me to rely on my dreams.

FAITH IN SELF- Chandogya Upanishad says that even the dry branches bring forth new leaves when the glory of the Brahman- the Self within charges up. This is called faith. Infinite strength, infinite purity, infinite knowledge, and infinite joy- all are within man himself. All weakness, all bondage, in my opinion, is in imagination. It is our own mental and intellectual lethargy that abides us from activity, and fills it with evil designs. As the proverb goes, an idle brain is a devils workshop. But one must not give up until he is knocked down. According to Vedanta philosophy, the human personality consists of five layers or sheaths. These five sheaths are1.The physical body (Annamaya Kosha), 2.Vital Body (Pranamaya Kosha), 3.Mental Body (Manomaya Kosha), 4.Intellectual Body (Vijnanamaya Kosha), 5. Blissful Body (Anandamaya Kosha). In the West, man is body, he has a soul. In India man is basically, the non-physical Self, which takes a body according to desires of the evolving soul. A purely technical education can cover the first four layers, but never touches the final non-physical spiritual Self, which is the source of infinite bliss, knowledge, strength and all kinds of human excellence hidden within each and every student. The Kena Upanishad says, Atmana Vindyate Viryam, i.e. strength comes from the Self within. It is this faith in self that will construct my character and form my ideas. POSITIVE THINKING- One must stamp out the negative spirit as if it were pestilence. A life above the ordinary and the search for fulfillment in ones higher Self has been the quest for many gifted souls who often become the silent creative leaders of mankind. These ignited divine souls achieved their goal through the pathway of positive thinking. Their philosophical idealism consists of units of positive ideas. Dissatisfaction, frustration, hopelessness and meanness only weaken ones resolution. So there should be no

negativity in ones attitude towards life. My resolution is that I will manifest health, purity, knowledge and whatever I achieve. MANAGEMENT OF THE SELF- We are born human. It is up to us to revert, to be subhuman or distort ourselves. All of us are managers of our selves, consciously or unconsciously. We manage our bodies, we manage our households, we manage our finances, we manage our surroundings, and we manage our families and friends and we expand in proportion to our ability to manage our thoughts and our attitude towards the objects and individuals around us. Our ideas and ideals have to be well managed, so that they are harmful to none. The corresponding activities too have to be managed well, so that they are detrimental to none and delightful to all. Self management has to be both broad-based and goal-oriented, both for internal evolution and external endearment. Expansion is life, contraction is death, said Swami Vivekananda. When the expansion is guided and governed positively for the welfare of all, it is good management. Forest expand wildly, gardens are managed to expand beautifully. Child grows with or without management to be inhuman or unfold to be superhuman. Even to remain as human beings, we need some self management. Self management in the ordinary individuals is by inertia, impulses, instincts, and intellect. But depending upon our use of intellect, we conduct ourselves. Every individual is endowed with intellect. It is left to us either use it powerfully and intelligently & make it intuitive or not use it, abuse it and ignore it. Self-management is in other words management of ones own intellect. When the intellect is unused it is inertia. When it is least used, it is impulse. When it is silent, it is instinct. When it is actively used, it is reason or discrimination or rationalism. When it is subjectively and selfishly exercised, it is prudence. When it is objectively and

nobly utilized, it is science and philosophy. When it impartial analyses, it is enquiry. When it is conclusively evaluates, it is assessment. When it fearlessly pronounces its findings, it is judgment. Rectifying its earlier follies, if it blossoms into perfection in every respect, it is intuition. Intellect has to shine flawlessly and fruitfully as the self-luminous intuition. Selfmanagement is meant to unfold that latent intuition. In present age of break-neck speed and mean minded materialism, cutthroat competition and shameless selfishness, instant results and internet enchantment, global palms and flying feet, hearts are shrinking and heads are reeling making man either a robot or a Rakhasa,(demon). Rishis are rare, righteousness is scare, divinity is dear, and morals are outmoded. Ethics is becoming extinct. Intellect is perverse and intuition is buried in inertia. But we need not lose hope. Divinity is hidden in all and dynamism is the conspicuous trait of the youth. Each soul is potentially divine. Amidst computers and competitive contortions, in spite of greed and grabbing tendencies despite tension and despondent notes, we ought to outgrow all inertia, impulses, instincts and intellectual perversions and there by shine with the intuitive radiance. To be a man of intuition is my legacy. DIVINITY- THE SELF REALIZATION- There are three kinds of instinct within man-1.Animal instinct, 2.Human instinct, 3.Divine instinct. To suppress the animal instinct is the gateway to humanity and to divinity. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal, either by work or by worship, or psychic control, or philosophy- by one or more or all of these-and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas or rituals or temples or forms are but secondary details. Life is the development and unfoldment of a being under circumstances tending to press it down. Hence all life is a constant struggle- struggle

against nature, inside and outside. Man is man, so long as he strives to rise above nature. When man conquers nature, realization of his divinity comes and he feels the urge to manifest this divinity in every movement of life. He gains a vision of all existence, differences disappear, a wonderful kinship grows between man and man, the heart blossoms, empathy emerges, love flows, selfishness goes, sacrifice becomes spontaneous, and service to all appears to be the purpose of living. This happens when man defies himself and the worlds he lives in. The conjectured world with its painfulness vanishes. To him no activity is secular; all work is adoration and worship. He understands that this life is short and the varieties of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. To become this divine man is the ultimatum of my purpose of life. CONCLUSION- The art of living is to live for others. So, I feel that the life in short is a sacrifice. The finest steel has to pass through severest ordeal. Life is to be sacrificed for the service of men and this is the idea that should be spreaded. I want to serve men by living an absolutely untainted life. A life of realization is the essence of the mystery of man, universe and their relation to each other- a realization that discards all dichotomies, a realization of harmony and oneness. Denying the selfishness is to arouse sympathy and love for all. A realization of the importance of Hand, Head, and Heart, together as they are, which involve the full development and expansion of the heart, allow us to feel for our fellow beings, sharing their joys and sorrows, serve them as the highest manifestation of God. Destination is not important but the journey. No mans life can defined or described in one telling. It is a summation of each person who helped to shape a lifetime. So pray to god for what you seek to make your life a holy sacrifice and thank for all what he has given you. Thank him for giving you opportunity again and

again to succeed by providing obstacles and thank him once again for giving a chance of a lifetime to make heart pristine. ----------