Daily Readings from the Works of Swami Venkatesananda


Venkatesa Daily Readings Vol 1 — Discovering The Purpose Of Life

March 20, 2024

Discovering The Purpose of Life

     What is the purpose of life? The answer is in life itself, not in the intellect which brings in “convincing logic” to justify itself. Life is not logical - it has to be lived by one who is alive to it, and not to a purpose invented by the brain, which is polluted by all sorts of ideas. 



     The pursuit of happiness or peace may lead to a better understanding of the purpose of life than all the philosophies and religious doctrines have been able to generate. “My” happiness can not be promoted at the sense of yours - your restlessness will soon engulf me. In this sense, “I am my brother's keeper”. We discover that restless man creates restlessness in his society, a person who is divided within himself divides society into warring factions and this inner division must be removed before the purpose of life can be truly seen as it is.

     The purpose of life is the spirit of religion but the way in which to discover this spirit is to turn one’s attention to life itself, without artificial aids (whether political, social, intellectual, emotional, psychological or philosophical). There is a natural spirit in each one of us which, when freed of all kinds of pollution, will reveal itself as the true spirit of religion. Life, God, religion and humanity become indistinguishable at that point.

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