THE REAL PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE

By Niraj Bidawatka

When the Pandavas were living in exile, a yakśa asked Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava about the greatest wonder of the world. None of the other Pāndavas – Bhima, Arjuna, Sahadeva and Nakula – could answer this question. However Yudhisthira gave the correct answer. He replied that everybody is seeing that so many people are dying every day but still everyone is thinking that “I will not die”; this is the most surprising thing, in fact there is no greater wonder than this. Everybody can observe that when a person dies, he can’t take any of his belongings with him but still everyone is working hard to amass more and more wealth. He doesn’t mind even if he has to indulge in sinful activities in order to earn money. He thinks that he will remain alive permanently although he sees people around him are dying every day. This shows that the majority of people are foolish. Any intelligent person will think, “Since everyone is dying, I will also die. So why am I working so hard to amass so many assets when I can’t even take a farthing with me?” So what is the purpose of life – to work hard in order to earn money through any means and ultimately leave behind everything? No, this is not the purpose of life.

The purpose of human life is to put a stop to the cycle of repeated birth and death. There are four real problems of life, namely birth, old age, disease and death. These problems of life can be solved by understanding the spiritual nature of the self. Unfortunately, since modern educational institutions have failed in giving information about the transmigration of the spirit soul, practically no one knows that there is birth after death. The Bhagavad-gita gives complete scientific information on the subject matter of birth and death. Therefore an intelligent man should refer to the Bhagavad-gita to understand the nature of the spirit soul and how he can be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. Lord Krishna declares in the Bhagavad-gita that one who understands His (Krishna’s) transcendental activities can put a stop to the cycle of birth and death. Such a person enters the spiritual abode in the spiritual sky to enjoy eternal life full of cognizant bliss. So the purpose of the human life is to understand our spiritual nature by referring to books like the Bhagavad-gita and reestablish our relationship with God. Once we are connected with God there is no fear of death.