The Four Purposes Of Human Life
Almost all of us have heard of the question - "What is the meaning of life?" - We are supposed to contemplate this when we are 'starting to live consciously' and have a good stretch of life to look forward to.
Another closely related question is the same in essence but one which we would typically ask at the end of our life or when someone's life has ended - "Was it a good fulfilling life?" or "Was This Life Worth It?"
According to a philosophy, there are the following four areas in which we are each supposed to define our specific goals or aspirations. Achieving an acceptable measure of success in each of the four areas supposedly leads one to feel 'It was worth it!' at the end of life.
1) Justice/Doing The Right Thing: This has to do with a built-in knowledge that almost all are born with - a sense of fairness, knowing right from wrong and respecting other's rights.
2) Material wealth: Earning enough to provide for ourselves, our loved ones and even others materially - food, shelter, clothing and even comforts.
3) Love, Desire, Affection: A deep attachment or attraction to others, a need to express love towards others and achieve an acknowledgement, acceptance or love in return.
4) Liberation, Detachment and thought of the afterlife: A realisation of the fleeting nature of material wealth, relationships in human bodies and thoughts of a bigger picture beyond one's own lifetime in this body.
Here are the four areas, explained a little more in detail.
1) Historically, "Doing the Right Thing" meant not stealing, being honest and sincere, adhering to the truth, sometimes even fudging the truth, to achieve a greater common good in the face of evil. It was considered one of the supreme acts worthy of praise. That is why, old Royals - Kings and Rulers were called the ones chosen to ensure that Justice was done. They supposedly upheld this 'divine law'. They were supposed to be respected for that, not for assuming 'Divine Rights'. The law was supposed to be supreme. In some places, the term for 'doing the right thing' was mis-translated to mean 'perform acts of charity'. However, that is not the intention in this context. There was a simple but incredibly deep, powerful definition of how to know what is 'Doing The Right Thing' or being Just and fair ?. It was this one simple sentence - "Do not disturb others" - as the ultimate expression of this principle. The word 'disturb' covers just about every human crime and violence from the mildest annoyance to the most foul and horrible harm or 'crime against humanity'.
2) Earning material wealth was considered a worthy and necessary pursuit for all, to provide for themselves or their families or even for others. It is essential for surivival and everyone has an obligation to contribute. As long as the methods adopted to earn material wealth and essentials were honest, and one achieved wealth by 'doing the right thing', it was fair and good and for the benefit of all. This was not looked down upon. It was understood that various people would achieve different levels of material possessions and wealth by their varying efforts, contributions and chance of fate.
3) Desire, love, lust, affection, pleasure and attachment to others were also legitimate goals to pursue in life, as part of our pursuit of happiness (the words of the constitution of the USA rings the same note). Here again, the only requirement was to 'Do The Right Thing'. As long as it is done fairly, justly and without trampling on anyone else's rights and peace, it was fine.
4) The thought of liberation or even a cursory thought about the afterlife - even if one decides that none exists, is fine. But it is built-in, into almost everyone of us to sometime ask this question for ourselves. A certain knowledge of somethings about afterlife often helps us lead better lives while we are alive. There is no need to believe anything that is not rational, logical, truthful. Here, there is a small reminder of an indisputable fact, from which we each can draw our own conclusions - Change is the only constant and everlasting truth in the universe.
Change implies creation of new forms even as old ones are destroyed. Each form also appears to last for a little while (whether a few nanoseconds, microseconds, hundreds or billions of years). So, we can have an idea about ourselves about life and afterlife from this basic fact. Often it leads to a more gracious acceptance of the inevitable and end of our lives in this human form.
Each of the three aspects - creation, destruction and fleeting nature of existence is a basic, everlasting, ultimate truth and principle. They are worthy of remembering, respect, understanding, and even reverence. Sometimes these are called the 'trinity'. Some have made up characters, even with human or animal forms out of these basic concepts. This is an area that we are supposed to work out for ourselves, even if we take input from others. We are not supposed to blindly follow or believe what anyone says. Liberation or salvation is a highly personal concept in this context and philosophy.
The philosophy suggests that we are all inherently created with a definite and certain levels of inherent aspirations in all these four areas. If we do well in achieving satisfaction in each of these areas, we feel our life is fulfilled and 'it was worth it' and we can leave this human body gracefully without too many regrets. Achievements in these four areas are measures by which we (should) supposedly judge the life of someone else.
We can see that having achievements in one area and not the other can leave us feeling unfulfilled. We can also observe that as a society, the greatest respect and admiration goes to those who achieve the most in the first area of doing the right thing - it affects all of us. We recognise that everyone has a right to a private life of desire and pleasure. We expect everyone that can, to support themselves and others in society by being productive and contributing.
The two questions that led us to this philosophy can be answered for each of us by addressing our goals in these four areas and achieving them to have a good, fulfilled life.
Copyright (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2015
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