The Ultimate Goal of Life

     The ultimate goal here is for jiva to attain to the state of ‘oneness’, realize the ‘Truth’ that ‘I am not this body, Mind, intellect, or the ego’; but, it is not easy to drop the curtain of avidya and to realize the ‘truth’- that “I Am That”, the Unborn, Eternal, Immortal Self. One must ultimately realize the principle of So’ham asmi |

   The human brain is a wonder-machine that is closely associated with the Mind and has immense capacity to think, imagine, dream, create and destroy, discover and discern, dissect, disseminate, organize and reorganize, produce and reproduce, edit and re-edit what all that has been understood, assimilated, and then present that in a holistic synchronized picture! It all starts as a desire (ichha), though-wave, an imagination and create images and gradually with sankalpa, determination, consolidate and create a world by itself! Different parts of the brain have trillions of cells, each cell performing almost sixty thousand jobs at a time, instantly, and many of them do specialized functions, too! Along with the ageing process of the jiva these cells develop their ability to perform more and more specialized functions and they too die out! In fact, the very ageing process is attributed to the cells. Cells constantly divide and multiply, retrieve the information stored in the DNA and RNA, transfer all memory intact to new cells before they burnout. In fact, it is so mysterious that we grow from childhood to ripe old age and perform specialized functions as per the genes and memories of the past lives. It is estimated that a normal person hardly ever 

uses one per cent of his mental potentiality.   

        While the right side of the brain is normally used, the left part is left almost unused by most of us! In fact, the left part of the brain has unique capacity of perform the jiva’s karma. This is the most significant aspect that determines the destiny of the jiva. The entire life and activity of the jiva such as intelligence, creativity, art, music, mathematics, etc depends on the carryover of the past.

     We know a lot about the brain and its function. As an organ of the body it performs a specialized function with the help of almost a trillion cells, numerous nerves, and neurons. It is still a mystery as to how the brain operates under the control of some extraneous factors such as buddhi, ahankara, manas and chitta, karmaphala and vasana, etc. In fact man is known as the embodied mind with its memories and karma!

     The ‘Mind’ (manas) is at the root of all that is human (‘manava’). This is the third level of evolution, the first two being that of plants and animals, the latter evolving from the aquatics, amphibian, the quadrupeds, and the bipeds. The animals that evolved from the primates to the Homo sapiens have developed the brain and the mind operates it. However, it is difficult to know what this ‘Mind’ (manas) is, where and how, when and why it enters the jiva! Once the mind takes over the human being it operates till the end of its life-span. It is governed by two other factors- Intellect (buddhi) and the ego (ahankara). Together these three control the life of the jiva. The Gita exemplifies the five elements and manas, buddhi, and ahankara as prakruti ashthada (manas and chitta are considered one here since the active mind is vikshipta manah). These are the manifest aspects of the Lord.

   It is a mystery how mind works as chitta and thoughts occur, desires start, and imagination and dreams work! Except in deep sleep, the mind is working continuously. It is a winder how new ideas come and materialize in daily life! It is said that geniuses, wizards, path-breakers, and inventors use the left part of the brain, and none ever masters the use of all parts of the brain in their life time. Hardly even a  It is the constant endeavor of all thinkers, whether they are Vedantins, or the scientists ‘to know’ and ‘understand’ the reality, the ‘truth’ about the world we live  and work, as also, find out who we are, wherefrom we arrive here, and wherefore do we go from here? The scientists think in a limited way, in a narrow perspective, and feel that answers are eluding!  However, the ancient sages have found the answer to all these questions by taking recourse to yoga and their intuitive thoughts and vision have revealed the ‘truth’. They have experienced, realized, envisioned ‘truth’ in a transcendental or extra sensorial sate, i.e., the turiya or atindriya sthiti of savikalpa samadhi. It is also the state of sakara brahmn.

   Almost a hundred and odd Upanishads explain in different ways what the sages experienced in their yogic trance. The nature of ‘reality of existence’ is explained by Bhagavan Shree Krishna in the Gita. There are many other scriptures like the eighteen epics, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, besides the brahmasutras. Bhagavan Shree Krishna, the supreme Lord, as an avatara of Vishnu, helps us to find out the true nature of both the ‘purusha’ and ‘prakruti’- ‘the self’ and ‘the nature’. 

   The ultimate answer is very simple: “The perceiver and the perceived are one”. Conscious awareness of the seeker will bring out this truth! Consciousness is not only conscious of itself, but also of the ‘other’. Almost all of us are interested in the external world and dwell in it from birth to death! It is rarely possible for anybody to take respite, pause for a while to think about the self, unless ordained by the divine, as if by the carryover of the past lives! The entire life is spent in earning a livelihood and running the family. Scarcely any time is left after the days toil. However, a time will come for taking stock of the situation, look where one is moving, and turn away from the sensuous world toward the higher spiritual aspects! Wisdom dawns and renunciation begins. This is consciousness being conscious of itself!

    Ultimately, what is it we want? We are all like children crying not knowing what for they are crying! No one is ever happy even when one gets what is desired! Every jiva is born with desires, dreams and aspirations, and is bound to die with total disillusionment. The reason for this is ‘time’; time wears out the fervor, the charm of getting is worn out by the time the desired wish is fulfilled since time, space or distance and causality eats away the charm. This is the inherent nature of this phenomenal objective world! None is ever happy in this transient world of insatiable desires. Eternal happiness, joy and peace will never ever be attained by worldly attainments. There is an anonymous saying: “Lo! The entire world knows him. He is so well known that his name and photograph are the part of text books in schools. Alas! He knows not who he is, and it is the greatest tragedy of his life! This should not happen to us. The real joy, peace and happiness, is within us all. Whatever we experience is just sensorial perceptions and not due to the ‘true nature of our self’- that is ‘sat-chit-ananda’.

    The goal of life, purushartha sadhanam, is to attain to this state of sat-chit-ananda by withdrawing our senses, mind, intellect, and ego from their constant engagement seeking joy and happiness in the external transient sensuous world, and make them turn them inward toward the soul, the Self. This needs yogic practices to open the third eye or develop the inner intuitive insight. This inward journey takes more rigorous exercises and the journey is much longer and more tortuous, difficult to traverse without the help of a guru. negligible percentage of the brain is ever used in a lifetime of a person. Only a ‘Vedantin’, a man of higher knowledge(para vidya), yogi or spiritually enlightened person can develop his/her full potentialities through practice of yoga. In yogic trance, samadhi, a yogin can reduce the vibration of a trillion cells that cause thought waves. All the heated cells are cooled down and condensed into a molecule! Thus, the visionaries have given us a brilliant presentation of the holistic view of this universe!