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"LOVE ALL SERVE ALL" "HELP EVER, HURT NEVER" Sai Baba

The Sacred Purpose Of Human Life

The purpose of human life is a steady development from Dharma, Artha, Kaama and, finally, to Moksha. It starts with knowing that aspect in each one of us that sustains one’s essence (Dharma), and then proceeding towards a comfortable worldly life (Artha). It continues with enjoying one’s hard earnings and fulfilling one’s desires (Kaama), and finally reaching his ultimate goal in life, which is putting a complete end to one’s delusions (Moksha), that is, to know one and be liberated from the vicious cycle of birth and death

Most of us pass through life earning to fulfill our desires. In the process we allow the precious moments of life to pass by without thinking about the actual reason we were blessed to be born a human being! Many consider that having been born into this world, life’s aim is to grow up, receive an education, pursue a career, find a partner, raise children, acquire beautiful things, live a luxurious live and finally meet with the end of our life!

And yet, in spite of having achieved all these things, how many of us are leading a comfortable and contented life? Although surrounded by comforts, man is basically unhappy.

So, what has gone wrong? The sooner we find the answer to this, the happier we will be! The fact is what we really want is not just physical comforts but actually HAPPINESS, because that is our true nature, as Baba says.

Each one of us is looking for happiness from childhood to old age. We want to be happy not just for today and for tomorrow, but throughout our entire lives. There is nothing wrong in this and nor is it an unrealistic hope. It is in fact unnatural for us to be unhappy.

When one sees a child smiling or laughing does one not immediately get attracted to that smile and start smiling back and feel happy oneself, in spite of the problems one may have? Happiness is like a magnet, we all get attracted to it. If something or someone makes us happy we want to make that ours so we get that feeling again and again. On the other hand, we reject any sorrow that comes into our life. When we see someone sad, do we not try to comfort them? Do we not want them to be happy too?

Our actual purpose of life is to discover our true nature, which is happiness, a state we should always be in. But the problem is we do not feel happy all the time. We are happy one day but not every day. We are happy with some one but not with every one. We are happy with some things but not with every thing. Why? Because our search for permanent happiness (Bliss) is in the world which has no permanent happiness to give us. In other words, we are searching for happiness in the wrong place.

We search for happiness in people and objects around us. However, as long as we do this we are bound to be disappointed. The world is constantly changing: people are changing, places are changing, our friends are changing, and even our bodies, thoughts and feeling are changing. And so it is not possible to find anything permanent in this world.

We are looking for something permanent in an impermanent place. That is why we are always disappointed in our search for happiness. Things that we have found start to change and eventually lose their lustre. The world around us can never deliver us the happiness we seek.

The scriptures, great sages, and saints say that human life is very, very sacred and precious. It is a very rare opportunity to achieve this human birth. We must have done a lot of good karmas in order to have this human birth. In this human life, we are gifted with a body, with senses, a mind with the power to think and remember, the faculty of discrimination (which is the intellect that makes human beings superior to other species of creation), and a heart full of emotions.

Who knows what different forms of life we have taken from time to time? It is with this intellect that we can discriminate right from wrong, good from bad, truth from untruth. We are taught this universal prayer:

“Asatoma Sadgamaya
Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya
Mrityorma Amrutam Gamaya”
(Lead us from untruth to the Truth
Lead us from darkness unto Light
Lead us from mortality (death) to Immortality!)

In the prayer we are asking God to lead us from untruth to Truth, and that is the PURPOSE OF OUR LIFE!

What is the definition of TRUTH?

It is that which is prevalent in all the periods of time (i.e. ever was, is and will be). Therefore, anything that changes cannot be the Truth; only that which does not change is the Truth. Now, what is it that never changes? What is that which always is, was, and will be? How do we go about finding it? The answer lies in discovering what does change and then excluding it? People, objects, circumstances, everything around us changes.

But there is someone who notices the change, who does not himself change. That is the ‘I’ - the Witness of these changes, who remains permanent in all experiences in the past, present and future.

We come naturally to the next question: “Who is this ‘I’”? Certainly it is not the body, for there is a constant change. Nor is the ‘I’ the mind which is also constantly changing. Our emotions are also constantly changing. The ‘I’ who is witnessing the changes is the real ‘YOU’. Call it the soul or the Atman, which is nothing but Consciousness and that is Omnipotent. In fact, the real power within you is the Atmic Shakti (the Atmic Power). That Truth is none other than God.

It is only by discrimination that we realise what is real and what is not real. That will enable us to realise our own divinity, who we really are! That is the sacred purpose of human birth!

The scriptures and masters of all times tell us the purpose of life is to know ourselves. We should not take this for granted. Human life is not given just for eating, mating and sleeping. We should use our faculty of discrimination to realise our divine nature - the ability to reflect upon oneself is what distinguishes human life from animal life.

Swami says: “Your foremost duty is to recognise the Principal of Truth that is present in you. But you are forgetting your innate divinity.” Swami constantly address his devotees as Premaswaroopa (Embodiments of Love), Atmaswaroopa (Embodiments of Atma) and Divyaswaroopa (Embodiments of Light). What does all this tell us? He reminds us who we really are and what our real nature is. He reminds us to realise the ultimate Truth. He continuously urges us to find out who we really are, and that is our real purpose in life.

Swami says to constantly live in the awareness that “I am GOD, I am Everything and I am the Reality!” All forms are subject to change. For example, an infant will grow into a child, into youth and finally an old person. In all these different stages of life, man alone is the reality. All are one, be alike to every one. This is the lesson we must learn.

Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, and Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba have all come in this world with a body like yours and mine. There is absolutely no difference at the body level. Yet they are called God or Avatar. This is because they know they are God, and we have yet to realise that we too are God. Swami says, “I am GOD and you too are God. The only difference is I know I am God and you don’t.”

Swami says, “You are God. God is not separate from you. It is a mistake to consider yourself separate from God. This difference is the result of your deluded vision. When you rectify this defect in your vision, you realise ‘I am the I!’”

This reality is not somewhere in a distant place. It is within us, right here and now. Our true nature is the reality. To realise it is our purpose in life.

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