by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev: What is the purpose of life? If you were very blissful and ecstatic at this moment, would you think, “What is the purpose of my life?”
No. Only when life becomes burdensome in some way, do these questions arise: “To be or not to be?” “Is there a good enough purpose for me to exist?”
Your experience of life itself has not become grand and worthwhile enough. That is why you are trying to find meaning. If just sitting here and breathing was ecstatic for you, you wouldn’t ask: “What is the purpose of life?” So, before you ask that question, the most important thing you need to learn is to enhance this life to its maximum potential. When I say “life,” you don’t even know what it means. All you have right now is your body and mind. Make them as pleasant as you can. Only when your physical body and mind are in a state of happiness, will you work well. Your intelligence works at its best only when you are joyful and blissful. If a person manages to remain in a continual state of blissfulness, let’s say for 24 hours, one’s intelligence will be doubled. There is enough medical evidence to prove this.
Have you spent a single day in your life without a moment of agitation, irritation, anger, anxiety, or anything like that? In all these years, have you spent 24 hours in pure bliss? Not just you, almost the whole of humanity will answer this question with a “no.” If you are not blissful on one day, that’s understandable. But not having been blissful for even a single day — that means something is fundamentally is wrong. Without understanding the fundamentals of what this human mechanism is, you are trying to operate it. When you first get into a car, you don’t know what the three pedals are for, and you push one randomly. Do you know how bad a driver that makes you?
Similarly, your current well-being is experienced in jerks. You know moments of joyfulness, you know moments of love, you know moments of blissfulness, you know moments of ecstasy in your life — but you are not able to sustain this. It is jerky because you are trying to operate your life without understanding the sophistication of the mechanism you are handling.
So, “What is the purpose?” This question arises because you have not experienced the grandeur of existence. You have not experienced the magnificent nature of your being. That is why you are asking, “What is the purpose? What should I do to make this life meaningful?” You don’t have to do anything. If you could sit here for one moment and experience this, you would know you don’t have to do anything. Just being alive is grand enough.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, an internationally renowned spiritual leader, is a visionary, humanitarian, author, poet and speaker. He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org
