By Roshel
A topic that she enjoyed exploring was how different people thought of (if at all they did so) the purpose of human life. There must definitely be some purpose for which human beings have to spend a short period of time on Earth before they are whisked away, she was convinced. But what was that purpose? She loved reading writings on the subject and asking others to share their views about it.
Her eagerness to learn what might be the purpose of human life was triggered off after seeing a dream one night. In the dream, she found herself sitting in the compartment of a speeding train. She had absolutely no idea how she had got there and was greatly surprised. As the train gained in speed, she looked out of the window. To her utter shock, she discovered that they were rushing through a vast, seemingly endless, plain that carpeted with a thick blanket of snow, with range upon range of mountains in the distance decorated with tall evergreen trees. She thought it could be Siberia, or perhaps somewhere around the South Pole, places that she had never been to before but that she had seen on the National Geographic and Animal Planet channels on TV.
“How on earth did I get into this train?” she asked herself. “I don’t remember boarding it. And, who put me in here, and why?”
Then, again peering out of the window, she wondered, “Where is this train heading to?” She had not the faintest idea where the train was going, what its destination was. Nor did she know how long the journey would be and how she should occupy herself till it finally came to an end. She was frightened completely out of her wits!
In order to find out the answers to the questions that were troubling her, she decided to find out if there were other people in the train who might be able to help her. Hauling herself out of her seat and heading further into the compartment, she spotted a couple of other passengers. She politely asked them, “Friends, do you know how we came into this train, where we are heading, when this journey might end and what we are supposed to be doing on the train till we reach our destination? And what happens after we get to where the train is taking us? I have no clue whatsoever, and it all seems so very scary!”
The fellow passengers shook their heads and clicked their tongues. Like her, they were utterly clueless. “We have absolutely no idea, dear,” they replied. “It’s all such a mystery, and we are as baffled as you are!”
At this, she was about to burst into tears when, all of a sudden, she shook wide awake. She was so relieved that it had been just a dream!
Later that day, she shared her dream with a friend who had some understanding of matters to do with the heart, mind and soul. He surmised that the dream indicated that she was deeply concerned to discover the purpose of her own life, and of human life more generally. Her surprise at finding herself in a speeding train represented, he said, her consternation at finding herself in this world, not knowing how and why she got there in the first place. Her anguish about where the train was heading and not knowing when the journey might conclude reflected her deep anxiety about the ultimate destination of life and about her inability to know when her own life might end. Being troubled at not knowing how she should best occupy herself during the train journey represented her unsettled feelings about the basic purpose of the journey of life. And fearful of the thought of what might lie in store for her after the train arrived at its destination was an expression of her perplexity about what she might face when her life on Earth came to an end, when death overtook her.
His incisive reflections on her dream proved to be of great help to her. His deductions inspired her to reflect more deeply on the purpose of her life, and of human life generally.
The dream had taught her a great deal: For many people leading an unreflective life, she realized, life in this world was like travelling in a train without knowing how they had boarded it and why, where the train was heading, what they were supposed to do with their time while the journey lasted, when the journey would end and what might be in store for them thereafter. But life could be led very differently, she was now convinced—one could engage in a quest to find out the purpose of life, what we ought to do with ourselves and our time while the journey of our life on Earth lasts and what happens when that journey comes to an end.