What Is the Purpose Of Life?
Transcending the psychological needs
What is the purpose of life? It’s a common question that often comes up in varied discussions in many settings. This question can be looked at from the biological dimension and the psychological dimension of our being.
In the biological dimension, the only purpose nature intends for all species including humans is to survive and reproduce. Nature is only interested in re-assembling atoms in various patterns to continue evolving the various species. Therefore a flower, a bird, a cat or a human all have the same purpose in this dimension.
However unlike a flower, a bird or a cat, only humans ask this very question of purpose because we primarily function not from the biological dimension but the psychological dimension. And therefore our purpose is directly tied to the emotional needs projected by the psyche or the mind. The two primary emotions of the mind are fear and desire. And one’s purpose is normally defined by which of the two predominates.
When fear predominates, the purpose gets defined around security. It includes financial security to maintain a certain lifestyle. And relationship security to feel a certain connectedness. It is driven by the fear of being broke and being lonely. This is the predominant need among the majority and the purpose therefore mainly becomes having a job and a family or social life. This also drives us to take comfort in various identities — religious, national, racial etc. And it has also created in the human psyche a fear of an external God with all its definitions provided by organized religions.
On the other hand, when desire predominates, the purpose gets defined around acquiring — whether it be money, fame, sex, travel, entrepreneurship, new experiences, power etc. Desire unleashes more energy than fear and gives a much greater drive to accomplish one’s goals. This need also results in seeking heaven, enlightenment etc. as imagined states of pleasurable experiences.
Fear and desire determine how we approach our life regardless of what we do. So one can be into any profession or activity and yet approach it with a completely different energy based on whether fear or desire predominates. Of course, desire will open up more possibilities of what we do than fear.
Then there is a third emotion that is beyond both fear and desire — a need for giving, to give or share with fellow humans, animals and nature. If this sense of giving predominates, then the purpose becomes defined around charity, philanthropy, activism, religious evangelism etc. This transcends both the fear based need of security and the desire based need of acquisitiveness and thus unleashes even greater energy and drive.
This provides the framework for how most of us perceive our purpose of life to be. These three needs of fear, desire and giving that drive how we perceive our purpose represent the fundamental three modes of the mind respectively — inertia, excitement and goodness (tamas, rajas and sattva in Sanskrit).
However, is there a different dimension from which we can look at the question of purpose? To understand that, we have to first look at the limitations of the psychological dimension and the three states and the corresponding emotional needs that define our purpose consciously, or in many cases, unconsciously.
As varied as these three states of consciousness are, they have one thing in common. They are attached to an outcome. And therefore, those pursuing them are susceptible to praise and criticism. So whether we work in a desk job for a greedy corporation or toward world peace, we measure the purpose based on a specific outcome of job title or business goals or number of lives saved or whatever.
Having the purpose tied to an outcome is a lose-lose situation because either we don’t achieve it or we achieve it to only feel a vacuum of what comes next and therefore again start setting and chasing another goal in an endless rat race. Whether a 9–5 worker or a globe trotting philanthropist, they both feel elated by praise and defensive at criticism. So there is always misery around the corner when one is emotionally vulnerable to the opinions of others that one can’t control.
So we have to then inquire whether there is a dimension of purpose beyond what the mind projects. Where there is no attachment to an outcome and therefore no impact of praise or blame. Which implies no notion of a self or ‘me’ that is either attached to any outcome or seeks any recognition, fears failure etc.
The key to coming up on this dimension is looking into the very nature of the questioner who seeks a purpose of life. The questioner is simply a product of societal conditioning that has acquired this implicit assumption that there is some purpose in time and space to be attained through some activity. When this very questioner is seen as simply another thought (albeit a sticky one) that has been programmed by culture, it is the beginning of becoming de-programmed.
This opens up a state of being where each moment is complete unto itself in its perfection and there is total presence in each moment. Bringing this about requires us to first understand, by being brutally honest with ourselves, as to where we are functioning from and how that defines the ‘me’. Seeing clearly the emotional needs driven by fear, desire and even giving and all the corruption that it brings forth internally is all that is needed to transcend the psychological dimension which is rooted in time and becoming.
To realize the falsity of becoming is to be rooted in our own Being that is the timeless true Self. This is the highest purpose of life and the fullest expression of our potential. As Ramana Maharshi put it succinctly, “Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” This makes the purpose of living into living itself by embracing the glorious uncertainty of each moment and unleashing the innate creative intelligence within.
