The Purposelessness of Life
Bliss is choicelessness. If we try to make bliss a choice, it will be absent. If we can understand the purposelessness of life as a part of the grand plan of Existence, we will reach this layer.
Ego believes that there is purpose to life: material, relational and spiritual. The more the purpose, the stronger our ego feels. If we drop all other purposes and still hold on to the purpose of enlightenment, it is futile. Only when we realize that life is totally purposeless and drop our ego will enlightenment happen to us.
Even if you look at it logically, what is the purpose of Existence? Could God who creates everything else, including jungles, not have created concrete jungles and cities as well? The purpose of Existence is bliss, that is all!
How can we enjoy without possessing, without making something our own? We are like water bubbles on a wave in the ocean. Each bubble catches hold of a few more bubbles labeling them as wife, husband, father and son. The bubble collects sand particles thinking they are jewels, since it does not understand that it can burst any moment!
When we are ready to digest that everything is purposeless, including material, relational and spiritual objects, only then life acquires meaning. When we have a goal we miss the path! We miss the joy of the path.
The mind waits for something to happen. It waits for salary: weekly, monthly, yearly, five-yearly. When we measure life by pay cheques, we reduce our spirit to matter.
Our ego is stuck on what we see as a purpose in life. We think that after we settle our social responsibilities, we will take up the spiritual path. An elderly lady came to me with her son. She wanted me to take him into the ashram as a brahmachari (young boy who stays single and follows certain vows to follow reality instead of fantasies). I was surprised since usually no parent would like their child to be a brahmachari. Many think that Vivekananda is great, but no one wants his own son to be a Vivekananda. They can't imagine how their child can be so blissful. I asked her to tell me why she wanted him to be at the ashram. She said that that he was mentally unsound. I told her politely, 'Amma, I run an ashram, not an asylum!'
We have many reasons why we cannot do things. We say, 'If I didn't have this responsibility, I would be with the master.' By the time we finish one responsibility, we will have ten more waiting for us! Running has become our conditioning, not relaxing. When we are young, we tell ourselves that we will relax after we graduate from university; then we shift the goal post to marriage; then to children; then to educating children; then their marriage. Can we relax after we are sixty? By then we miss the path and we forget how to relax!
The primal sin we can commit is to miss the path of life by following goals. When we live, let us allow our being to be blissful. When we start hurrying, think about what we are hurrying for. Do not allow restlessness in you hoping it will settle; that will never happen. If we are not able to relax into the present moment even after fulfilling our responsibilities, we will still feel unfulfilled. Whenever we run, when we hurry, think 'why', 'what for'? ```
We may have a big house, drive a big car, and people around us may be always praising us. Can we carry any of this with us into the afterlife? Can we carry even one single cheque book with us? It is all purposeless.
When we understand this purposelessness, healing happens. Even if we have been abused, we will heal. if we allow this understanding to happen, the understanding itself will guide us.
We may ask, 'What kind of teaching is this? All my life I have had a purpose, and my life has been fine. Now you say that everything is without purpose!' Whether you like it or not, this is the truth.
People are shocked when I say this.They begin to think, 'Now I know life is purposeless. I should not go to work. I should not take a vacation.' This is wrong understanding. Once we have the understanding of purposelessness, we can never be lazy. Tamas (laziness) cannot come out of intelligence. Perhaps for two days you will just lie in bed and not get up. The third day, you will wake up as a different person, without restlessness; restlessness is a monster that you would have conquered.
Restlessness hides purposelessness from us; it hides the path using goals. Please understand this and be healed. All our dreams of the future, all our guilt of the past will disappear; all ephemeral joys and suffering will vanish.
In Tiruvannamalai, there was an enlightened master by name Ram Surat Kumar. He was as innocent as a child. Whenever people came to him, whatever their problem was, he would say 'Alright'. When someone died, he said, 'Alright.' When someone told him, 'My son is getting married', he would said, 'Alright.' I asked him, 'Master, why do you say 'alright' to everything?' He said, 'Everything is just purposeless. Whatever we think has a purpose, has no meaning.'
Whenever we remember the truth of purposelessness, healing will happen; suffering will disappear. Whether we have something or do not have, neither will have purpose.
We need courage to pursue the truth. Then, life will take a different path. We will live as a liberated soul. We will never drop our job, relationship or wealth. We will drop only what we do not have. We will drop the mental associations. We will drop the fantasy of a throne and start enjoying the seat. When purpose is dropped, meaning will happen.
When you wake up in the morning, just laugh! If you cannot feel free to laugh in your own home, where else can you laugh? Laugh at how purposeless everything is. Release yourself from the nagging of restlessness. There is no need to sell our inner space to have outer space. We can retain the joy inside and still have outer space to enjoy.
When we have fear, we are enslaved. It is social conditioning. Drop it! Our very quality of life will change. Once we understand freedom, we cannot be enslaved any more.
The Master is there to awaken this understanding of freedom in us. Ramana says: Guru is a simha swapna, a nightmare, a lion that chases you until you are fully awake! You will wake up even if you are not in a dream!