What is the purpose of life?

If everything was really haphazard and pointless, then asking “What is the purpose of life?” would itself be meaningless. But practical experience tells us there’s a reason for everything, even though sometimes it’s not obvious:

“Who left a mess in the kitchen?” (somebody did)

“I dunno.” (I don’t want to admit it was me)

To ask “why?” shows we’re willing to accept there is a purpose behind something, and a consciousness (or person) behind that purpose.

A reporter once asked Srila Prabhupada about the purpose of life. His quick reply: “The purpose of life is to enjoy.”

anandamayo ‘bhyasat
(Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12, quoted in Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.24.58, Purport)

Our real, spiritual nature is to seek enjoyment. That’s what everybody does. The Vedas talk about the purpose of life in great detail: Krishna is the cause of all causes, the Supreme Enjoyer, and He expands Himself unlimitedly to make unlimited enjoyable relationships possible. That’s what He does.

If we want to enjoy, there are basically two ways to go about it:

1) the self-centered approach, and

2) the Absolute Truth-centered approach.

Way #2 to act in harmony with the ultimate purpose, with reference to an ultimate creator and controller—is called bhakti-yoga—real spiritual life. This results in actual (permanent) enjoyment.

Way #1 assumes “no God, no ultimate purpose,” or “it’s all about me,” and hopes “everything will turn out the way I want.” This results in hit-or-miss, short-lived “happiness” (and depression when it’s all over). This is materialistic life.

For more info on this topic, check out Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 15, verse 7

Source- Krishna.com

Inspiring Quotes 3

• My nature is to love Him. And therefore I love. I do not pray for any-thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I cannot trade in love. by Swami Vivekananda

• He who trusts in the Lord, is ever at peace, with himself and the world by Dada J P Vaswani

• Acquiring fame, wealth and prosperity become meaningless if our achievements are not appreciated by our partner or the people we care about.

• Step out of what is safe, comfortable and familiar to you. Examine what feelings emerge when you are thinking about taking a risk. Ask yourself, “What am I afraid of?” Concealing yourself in a safe container prevents you from exploring other possibilities. Embrace the unknown and anticipate success. You will never know the outcome if you don’t take the risk.

• Listening to your inner critic can sabotage your dreams. Silence the critic by reaffirming all the things you are capable of doing. Dream big and be excited about your future.

• Continuing to live life in a safe container doesn’t help you gain anything in life. Take the necessary actions to achieve your goals. Stop assuming and start achieving!

• We all have negative and positive sides. Nobody on this earth has a squeaky clean nature. We all have flaws, however some people are observed negatively by their rude behavior and we become very judgmental about them putting them in the negative category. We should understand that people who are rude have their own weaknesses. They do not choose to be like that.

• The polite words filled to the brim with modesty and love melt the hearts of even the rudest amongst the crowd. By talking politely to all we can make an impact on others’ lives.

• You’ll find your passion in what inspires you the most. And what does the word “inspire” mean? It derives from the words, “in spirit”. When you’re inspired, you never have to ask about your purpose. You’re living it.

• “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)

You will never come out of it alive

“Don’t take life too seriously. You will never come out of it alive”

The above is one of my favourite quotes. I first saw this hung in a wall of one of my senior directors office in Chicago. That was in 2006. It was simple, handwritten, maybe done by his chidren.
I felt it had such a deep meaning. Even though I didnt ask the person on why he chose to hang it in his work place, I soon realised that it is qutie an effective stress-buster.
We all take our life very seriously. For many of us, the term “our life” means our job, career, money, comforts, family, growth, fame and maybe status. For achieving these, we put in long hours of stressful work daily, sometimes even on weekends. In this process, taking care of our health is quite neglected. We forget that half of our life we spend earning money only to spend that on medical bills due to ill health. Isn’t that an irony?
When we are young and able to go and climb mountains, we come up with an excuse that we have so much of work and no time to go on vacation. Later on, as age catches up, even though we have time and money, we wouldnt be able to do the things we can do now.
Am  not advocating that we should neglect our work always. I believe in the saying that “Work is worship”, but I also realise that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.
So, is there a way out? Yes, “Balance” is the key word. Draw a balance between the time spent in “work for a living” and “actually living”. Make your own rules. Learn to say “No” whenever required. That is the simplest word to throw many monkeys off our shoulder. (In a mangament seminar, I learnt that extra, unnecessary works dumped on you is called as monkey on shoulder)
Realising this is the first step. Second step is to make plans on what you want to do in this life. A note of caution – too much planning sometimes takes the fun away. Act on the spur of the moment. I have enjoyed many vacations where there was bare minimal planning and I took off on the journey. I try to enjoy the journey and not just focus on arriving at my destination.

Live each moment completely. Act on your dreams and not procrastinate life. As the slogan says “JUST DO IT “

Remember the day you are born , the countdown has started. Lets make the most of that!

Happy Living ! Celebrate Life !

Writer – Prashanth RajaRao  Source – Speekingtree.in