The purpose of life
Who are you really? Brenda Shoshanna once rightly remarked, “Unless we base our sense of identity upon the truth of who we are, it is impossible to attain true happiness”. If you were stripped bare of the tags of your name, nationality, and ethnicity. What would your true identity comprise? We all are distinctly aware of a “life force”. The vital impetus manifested in all things and is in everyone. And this awareness keeps driving us to deeper existential questions. Why am I in this world? Do I have a purpose, or am I an accident?
From the earliest monks and philosophers to present-day scientists, we have been trying to join these dots. Even our advanced search systems, which get us answers to most queries, are silent over these tough questions. So, where, then, shall we turn to?
In the novel ‘The Fault In our stars’, the character Hazel Grace says there will come a time when no human beings will be left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra. How everything humans ever did, built, and wrote will be forgotten. If that is the case, everyone should eat, sleep and perish one day. Yet, we all have a deep and inarticulate desire to know why we are here and to leave behind a legacy in this world. So again, who are you really?
Does it all end here? What happens to us after our death? Do we descend into a vast abyss of nothingness? Are we just random outcomes of a million possibilities, mere accidents of evolution? Or is there something more to this life? Who are you really!?
How to figure out the answer?
The undeniable vacuum in our hearts and the questions that arise out of it are nothing less than a pursuit of the truth. Even our most vital philosophies can be proven false tomorrow. Our best technologies may fail us in the future, but truth cannot fail. As we look in and around to search for the truth about life, don’t you think, dear friend, that the Maker would know the creation (you) best? Maybe, it is worthwhile to turn to that Higher Power who created us and the sense of whom we all seem to have in the depth of our beings. The Bible would say that this higher power is a person.
God, who wishes to have a relationship with each one of us. Therefore if this is true, don’t you think it may be worthwhile to turn to this person for answers to these pressing questions? So think about it and try it if it is a good idea. A life committed to a sincere pursuit of the truth will have nothing to regret at the end of the day. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Bible)
