Existential crisis is the most common form of crisis we go through, at-least once in our life time. Sometime it is tough to face it. The struggle of existential crisis makes us wonder about so many things and we start questioning everything around us. Questions like why should I work, why should I care about anything, what we should do with this life, does it have any significance whatsoever, what I am doing with my life, does this life have any meaning, why am I born on this planet. Why should we live when we have to die one day. Why we should face the anguish of this world.
There are many philosophies which can answer these questions. I have done extensive research on these questions over the period of time. Many time it happened that these questions haunted my nights. It was stressful. Finally I figured out answer to these questions. Here, I am gonna talk about some of the highest mind ever born on our planet earth. Some of them are philosopher, some of them are spiritual guru, some of them are scientist and so on. I am gonna connect the dots of philosophies given by all these highest mind in proper sequence. I will start with spiritual gurus then I will move to philosophers and then to scientists.
Swami Mukundanand is a spiritual guru who runs the organisation JK Yog. He have delivered lectures at some of the renowned universities around the world like Harvard, MIT Boston, Yale, UC Berkeley etc. He is a distinguish alumni award winner of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and he is alumni of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. His credentials are on par to believe whatever he says. He says the ultimate purpose of life is to attain God. Since he follows Indian mythologies, according to him human follows the cycle of birth and death until she/he attains God. Attaining God also means getting the state of nirvana (Moksha in Hinduism). He further says the way to attain God is through Bhakti (Devotional worship directed to one supreme deity). Neither I find it easy to do nor I find it relevant for everybody. There are many atheist or partially atheist people (who worship or pray to the supreme only in case of distress or for the fulfillment of wishes) who will call it rubbish. There are thousands of spiritual gurus around the world and all of them have same view on the purpose of life. But nobody tells the clear steps, on how to do it.
Aristotle is famous ancient Greek philosopher. He is also regarded as the father of biology and zoology. Aristotle was son of a medical doctor. His father sent him to the institute in Athens where Socrates was teacher. The institute was founded by Plato who used to do philosophy. After the death of Plato, Socrates became the head of the institute. Later Socrates was treated as a traitor and killed by ruler of Athens. Aristotle had worked for 17 years with Socrates. Even though he was the brightest student and senior most person after Socrates, he couldn’t become the head of the institute. Disappointed Aristotle ran away from Athens. After few years, Aristotle was asked to become the mentor of Alexander III by the king of Macedon. He mentored Alexander III and later he became Alexander the grate and ruled all the land around Mediterranean. Aristotle was Chanakya of west. Once Aristotle was asked what is the ultimate purpose of life by one of his pupil. Aristotle replied the ultimate purpose of life is to do Philosophy, thus I am a Philosopher. I find Aristotle’s explanation near to perfect. There are many religion around the world which follows the same core concept. Be it Islam where Prophet Mohammed wrote Quran (holy book), be it Sikhism where Guru Gobind Singh wrote Guru Granth Sahib (holy book), be it Jainism where Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain, became the most famous and the last Tirthankar of Jains, be it Bhagwan Buddh of Buddism, There are two common characters all these people had that all of them knew answer to all the question ever existed during their period and they were greatest philosophers of their time.
Albert Einstein was one of the smartest person ever lived on the this planet. During the World War II, a woman wrote letter to him asking why we should live when we have to die one day and what is the point of living in this world which is full of anguish and suffering. Einstein replied “In human sphere answer to all the question starting with “why”, is satisfaction“. According to Einstein every human is living this life to either satisfy herself/himself or to satisfy somebody else.
If we connect the dots. what we find that the ultimate purpose of life is to attain God. And doing Philosophy is the way to attain God. Nevertheless, In short run we are all here to either satisfying ourselves or satisfying somebody else by devoting time and resources.
Bonus Read
On lighter note you can ask your Mom and Dad why they decided to reproduce you. What were their expectations from you before you were born. Because they are the one who introduced you to this world. They must be expecting something before reproducing.
Also Srimad Bhagwad Gita (Ancient Sanatan Scripture) says the ultimate purpose of life is self realization. And there are four different pathway of realization. Namely Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gyan Yoga and Meditation Yoga. Swamy Mukundanand talks about Bhakti Yoga where as Aristotle talks about Gyan Yoga.
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