Hari OmWhat is our purpose in life? What is the purpose of life? Why do you think that we are born here like this? What is the reason for this? If you go to the Bible, Matthew chapter 8 verses 21 and 22 answers that question very clearly and very distinctly.
“Another disciple said to him, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father'. But Jesus told him, 'Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Let the dead bury their own dead. That is the answer to life. Who are these dead people? These are the people that are dead to the spiritual journey, the spiritual life. In your idea dead people cannot bury dead people. They are dead to spirituality. So the purpose of life is to know God in the Bible, to know Jesus and to know the journey.
If you go to the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna continuously emphasises more than 108 times, “Just surrender will give you that state of eternal joy”. What is that state? No worry. No pain. No sorrow. That is the point of eternal joy. Many of us think the purpose of eternal life is to be complete. Get, married, have children, have some money in the bank and then die. When you take a life where we just eat, sleep and die, That is only for the lower forms of creatures. This creature is an intelligent creature. It has in its system something called logic, justification, justice. You are not the lower creature; you are the higher creature. Many times in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says “Surrender, surrender, surrender,” and he goes further in this purpose of life. He doesn't stop there. He starts by telling us of gnana yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga. He's giving you all the yogas, and in the end he gives the yoga of the self. “Surrender to me, then you will attain the state of bliss.”
But we are caught up in this accumulation of wealth. We are caught up in this race where we now have this distrust of everybody. If somebody said something to you, you always confirm with somebody else if it happened or not. You are living in the state of distrust, not only in the ashram, but at home, in your marriage, work, school. We have this constant turmoil within us and this is what Jesus is referring to when he says, “Let the dead bury the dead”. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “You should not grieve for the dead. You should not have any pain or sorrow when somebody dies. You should be joyous. Enjoy this life but enjoy it with me. Enjoy it with the Lord on the spiritual journey. Once you do that, life for you can be termed bliss and that becomes the purpose of this life.
What's the point if God gave you intelligence and you don't use it the way you should? You use it only for accumulation – of children, clothes, property, wealth and money. We do not use our intelligence to accumulate spiritual knowledge, and spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can give you spiritual joy. There's no pain in spiritual knowledge. On the material plane everything is painful. We live a very mundane life. We get up in the morning, we do the same things seven days a week 365 days a year. We don't change. When I say 'same thing' I mean we get up, brush our teeth, get our bag, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, get up, do the same thing again. We have this automation in our system. We don't think any more. We are so accustomed to our routine. Yet every day in the spiritual journey is a magnificent day. Always happiness, different kinds of eternal happiness. And that is the greater definition of the purpose of life. To know God. And Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita has put it down so conveniently, so simply. It has been translated into so many languages how to attain God. The Bible says, “The Kingdom of God is within”. Krishna says, “I am that which is within”. 'That' he is talking about is the Self. The Kingdom of God is the Self.
We need to understand – as I was listening to a speaker a while ago - you know those people who go to Ayappa? They walk for forty-three days up Swamiamalay, and what happens when they get there? As soon as they're in front of the murthi they close their eyes. Why? Because only then they realise that it's all within. You all do that. You shut your windows. You carry kavady from Verulam to Tongaat and then get to the murthi and close your eyes. By closing your eyes you're shutting the windows and doors to outside interference.
What is no mind? Meditation. What is meditation? No mind. That is the only time on this journey you'll be able to experience and understand God. Only then. Many of us believe that God, whatever you call Him, Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Muruga – you see pictures of them sitting next to each other. There's nothing like that up there. It's your perception. You don't even need that. You need to see within.
As Paramahansa Yogananda, the great saint and rishi, said very clearly and nicely – “In the deepest, in the innermost altar of your being, is Ishwara”. Think about that. You might know Ishwara, your neighbour's son, but this is another Ishwara. He's seated there. Enjoy him. Why are we looking everywhere else? It is only possible to experience the inner self through the grace of Guru and God. No other way. I told you last week, I'm emphasising it again. There's no other way to experience the states of bliss, beatitude, love, peace – all eternal, not ending. The only time you can experience that is if your guru holds you by the hand and points it out to you. Where will he point? Inside. We need to get to the innermost self and to get there – meditate, meditate and meditate. Meditation is no-mind. If you meditate constantly every day for five minutes with deep music, not letting your mind flicker everywhere, you'll have that experience.
Know life. Know life to be. Know life to be constant. Know life to be a constant inspiration. Know that inspiration to be from God. Do not live your life mechanically. Then you are dead inside. Do not indulge in shallow channels for your happiness. Go to the source of limitless joy (bliss). That is God.
In John chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert so, the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him”.
What is the desert? It is the muludhara chakra. If you lift up the serpent from the muludhara, then man becomes divine. Because once the kundalini has been lifted, divinity starts. Again, nothing different from what the Hindu scriptures have been telling us.
In John chapter 9 verses 1 and 2 we read, “As he went along he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that the was born blind?”The disciples asked Jesus, the rabbi, 'who sinned the parents or him?' We talk about karma. Christians will tell you there's no such thing as karma. But there it is in the Bible. The disciples were aware of it. Jesus answered, “Neither him nor his parents,” referring to him in his past life.
“But seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given unto you as well.” What does 'seek' mean? Search within. Once you find it, you will get everything else. Self. That is self-realisation.
Hari Om.
