To-be or not-to-be moment, and thereafter

Sankar S Velayudan

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Many of us would have faced the question, “What is the purpose of my Life?” at various points in life, especially in situations where you have lost a loved one, faced a deep personal problem, or a serious health issue. The reason is that we think deeply only when an event shakes the roots of our existence. More often than not, it would just be a fleeting thought, which is parked in a dark corner of our mind as we get on with life. This has happened many times in my life, but at a point in time, I was ready to confront the question till I got an honest answer.

Life is not just a four-lettered word, it is an acronym, which forms the basis of the framework to find the purpose of life.

L — Learn from multiple sources. If you believe a book or video would be interesting, just read or watch it. I found the following books helpful — The Gita: For Children by Roopa Pai, What should I do with my life? The True Story of People who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson. In videos — Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Mahatria Ra and Velukkudi Krishnan Swami (if you understand Tamil). All the videos are available on YouTube.

I — Introspect on what you have learnt. This word was abstract for me till the time I had the maturity to understand what it means. The key to introspection is to have a sound body in a sound mind. When it comes to sound body, I am not suggesting that every one of us should get a six pack. Playing sports and doing yoga works for me. Choose what works best for you. Your body should enable you to work towards a sound mind. As far as sound mind is concerned, think of yourself as a frequency modulation (FM) Radio. Through meditation, which is the tuner switch, you are tuning your mind to the channel you want to listen to. All learning in the previous step would be of no use unless you tune your mind to the right channel to receive the message. The process of tuning the mind through meditation is introspection. I practice the meditation techniques taught by Vethathiri Maharishi and have found these to be useful.

F — Focus on what matters. Learning and introspection prepare the ground for you to embark on a journey towards your life’s purpose. Unless you diligently follow that path, it is easy to get lost. It is like listening to a motivational speech, feeling inspired for a few minutes/hours and forgetting it all by the end of the day. Set aside an hour daily to move towards your life’s purpose. You don’t need to move to a silent mountain, you can find a silent corner in your house to do this.

E — Experience life. Now is the time to apply your learning in different situations to assess if you have become a better person than you were yesterday. The Bhagavad Gita says, “Without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains the supreme”. Attaining this state of enlightenment is when you are no longer affected by external stimuli (events which happen in this world, be it good or bad), but are focused on internal stimuli to become a better human being. This is a way of living till you attain the Supreme. That is my understanding of the purpose of life.

The author can be contacted at sankar.mit@gmail.com