By Mesha Oh
Generally speaking, when we engage in a particular activity, we do so with a clear understanding and awareness of the purpose behind that activity. For instance, if a child goes to school, she does so with the understanding that the purpose of her going to school is to study. If a person goes to a market, she does so with the understanding that her purpose in doing so is to purchase something. If someone goes to office, he does so with the awareness that his purpose in this is to work in order to earn money to maintain his family and himself. If you go to the circus, you go with the purpose of having fun there. And so on. Generally, human beings are quite clear about the purpose of each of the many mundane activities that they engage in, day after day, every day of their adult life.
But what about the purpose of life itself? How many of us have any clarity about the actual purpose for which we are on Earth, for a relatively short span of time before we have to depart? Caught up in our everyday concerns and diversions, our immediate activities and their purposes, how many of us give adequate thought to the macro-picture of our earthly life, the why—or the ultimate purpose—of our brief sojourn here?
Imagine what would happen if people forgot what the actual purpose behind each of the activities they routinely engage in should be and got them all muddled up—if a child began to think that the purpose of her going to school was to sleep (rather than to study), if a person went to the market thinking that her purpose in doing so was to watch a movie (rather than buying something), if someone went to office with the purpose of watching TV (instead of working), or if you went to the circus with the purpose of having a serious discussion there (instead of having fun), and so on. If people began to behave like this, they would fail to achieve the actual purpose of their activities. There would be chaos all around. Things would be completely topsy-turvy.
In just the same way, if we forget the actual purpose of our earthly life—of our temporary stay here on Earth—and we take something else for its actual purpose, we would find ourselves in a total mess. We would completely fail to fulfill the purpose for our having been sent here.
The purpose of our life on Earth is described in different ways in various spiritual traditions. One way to describe this purpose is for us to grow in reflecting the attributes of God through a strong personal relationship with Him. If we forget that this is the actual purpose of our short stay on Earth and we make something else as our purpose—be it having ‘fun’, becoming ‘rich and famous’, chasing after popularity and privilege, power, and pelf, maximizing sensual gratification, and so on—we would completely waste our precious life, with ominous consequences for the phase of life that follows this present one.
This suggests the great importance of having a basic clarity about what the purpose of our earthly life—our brief stay on this planet—actually is.
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