The Purpose Of Life

Sat is silent for a few minutes and begins: Today, I would like to talk about the purpose of life. It all depends where we stand. If we stand as body and mind, then life is very purposeful, because we don’t know better. As we advance, we realize what we thought was the purpose of life no longer holds that high place because we have tapped our reality and we have found peace and equanimity.
Then the world’s activity changes color. Not that it changes color, it shows its true color. We find it as reality, as where we are standing in silence, it is like an endless show of meaningless work. And that is the sign of advancement, because what we are seeing as the Truth. And the light of the Truth that shines, what we thought was stability, it just shakes it. It shakes the reality of it. And what happens is we realize that the life as we knew before, is a chain of change and repetition. The body repeats itself by eating and drinking, the mind repeats itself by changing and thinking, the emotion changes and shows different colors and different faces, and these all belong to ego.
What is ego? Everybody thinks it means pride. No, ego means that personality, that we gave it enough attention from birth, that we don’t find any separation from that causes pain, because it’s not real.
Now, the purpose of life, it depends where we are standing, as to what that purpose is. The highest purpose is to realize there is no purpose, there is just activity of the mind and the body. And that at times could be translated as a meaningless life or this and that, but it isn’t, nothing really has changed. What has changed is our consciousness going back to itself. Otherwise, the life is the same life, even our interest, the interest of the personality is the same, but we are becoming more of a watcher of our personality, rather than the personality itself.
So, the purpose of the body is to eat and drink and sleep and movement, activity by the order of the mind and the emotion and the senses.
On a higher level of consciousness, we become the watcher of the personality and still going back to it and finding meaninglessness. Because when we identify with it, we find no meaning, but if we stay as the Witness, we allow the personality to be a personality, the mind be a mind, the purpose be a purpose, the work be a work.
But there is not this oneness with it, so there is a period of time in our life, when we are advancing really quickly, that we say, “What happened?” Who says, “What happened, why is it purposeless?” It is the personality that says that, we are still the same as we were before, and because the personality says that, it is beginning to subside, its interest is beginning to subside. And this is when the Art of Living comes into play, when this period sort of asks for “what happened?”, and then the Art of Living comes in and goes like this.
No matter what the body needs to do, and the goal of life, whether you are in any profession that you have and the job you have, or the mind thinking about it and all of that goes, we allow it to happen. And how do we do that? We just relax in our own Being, without a judgment of “why am I like this?” You are not like this; your personality is a little bit confused at that time.
I know a lot of men, who have asked Me many, many times in the past, “How do we mix these two together?” It is our silence that brings the worth to our job, it is our silence that brings worth to our activity and to our family. It is our silence that brings silence to the nonsense stories of the mind. But at the same time, we cannot deny that the life that we lived and that (other) people are living, is really worthless. We have to be ok with that. The Art of Living is that you enjoy, after you have really, really practiced the silence throughout the day, not just in meditation now and then. If you visit it [the silence] often, then what happens is that even your work becomes easier and more enjoyable.
If you are a religious person, your religion’s rigidity falls, but the essence of your religion stays with you. If you are a loving person, the selfishness drops and just the love stays. If you are into sports, the competition drops, but the enjoyment of the sport becomes more. But in that transition, the personality or the ego gets shocked. We just have to not judge ourselves and go forward with this feeling of meaninglessness that we all feel.
I have to tell you, I feel like the whole world is meaningless. But nevertheless, because that period has subsided through the Art of Living, I still find Myself living fully, whether I am with My grandchildren, or My children, or you guys, or by Myself - there is a quality that takes place that will remedy it. So I would say if any of you guys are thinking, “Gosh, spirituality is becoming to make the world so meaningless,” it’s absolutely correct. It is meaningless, but something takes place if we continue practicing the Art of Living, it means mixing the inner and outer life together. Something happens that brings balance and wellbeing. So, in order to do that, we use as much wisdom as we can throughout the day, meaning if the thought comes that the world does not owe you this and that, whatever it is, we have thousands upon thousands of them. If we can use those, when it comes to our mind, or we read about it or contemplate on it, then what happens is, those wisdoms become your daily life, it becomes your work, it becomes your decision making, it becomes your free time, it becomes your association with others. The quality takes place over quantity.
I know that all of you experience (this), because you all have told Me that the life is meaningless, yes, but yet, with the tools and the teachings we have, we enjoy it more than other people.
Now for others that have not been introduced to wisdom, pain and suffering gives them a feeling of existence, a sensation of survival. It is a chain of fear and no fear, pain and no pain, anxiety and no anxiety. This is the rollercoaster that as a personality, we find purpose in. The purpose is only the sensation that keeps the ego going - it is a false energy. But once we realize that silence, consciousness, or “being” purely with its own existence, what happens is, without this rollercoaster, we walk through life. We see the temporariness and the unreality of it, and yet there is such an immense quality that comes from us, to our surroundings and to ourselves.
The remedy is no judgment of ourselves. [The remedy is] the Art of Living, meaning using the wisdom at work, at home, in the wilderness, on the plane, in the ocean, and staying and going forward. And not being discouraged by a certain period of time and phases that will come into our life, as we go back Home. There might be times that we feel confused. There might be times that the mind says, “This is nonsense, the whole path is nonsense, I should have a normal life” or this and that. Just move forward with the Art of Living, just keep going forward with the Art of Living. It is a false addiction to pain and suffering and it needs wisdom to eliminate this web of capturing our soul.
If I had to count how many times I could have been discouraged and I was discouraged, and I did leave the spirituality aside, maybe five days, maybe ten days, I wouldn’t be able to count it in these 45 years or half a century that I have been doing that. But something in you will not give up, it will always bring you back, maybe after a few pains, maybe after a few joys.
Another thing I want to emphasize: when we desire something that is unnecessary and it is not so important for our advancement, when it gets fulfilled and we feel happy, it is because the mind stops desiring. A mind that doesn’t desire is happy and that happiness is from our own spirit. It is not because we got what we wanted. This is the mistake that the world does make, thinking that the fulfillment of desire is what brings joy and Ananda. No, the moment your desire stops, because you had such an intensity in it, the mind stops and a joy takes over. So, now we know that an empty mind is a joyful mind. Now, it is not a ha-ha joy, where you laugh it off; it is a childlike okayness, a contentment State of Being.
Now, if we really want to know the purpose of life, the life as we know has no purpose. Why? Because you work, you get, you make, and all of that, and then it turns into a pile of ashes. What kind of a purpose is this? Why don’t you give me a pile of ashes in the beginning (laughs) and put me out of my 80 years of work?
But it has a relative purpose, meaning that the body needs to be comfortable and fed, we need to do that for our body. The body does it for itself, once we are in our State of Being. Believe Me, the money comes to you, but that does not mean you are not prompted to go make it. As a body and mind we are nobody and we don’t know anything, but that State of our Being shines through the body and the mind and makes our life as if it has a purpose and we enjoy it. We enjoy skiing, like I did today, we enjoy being with each other, but to find purpose, I am sorry, it is too short of a time to have a permanent purpose. (Pauses)
On the spiritual path, sometimes we feel confusion in the mind, not us, because it is like a trap. We find coldfooted-ness, that is another trap for survival. The same way that we don’t want to be pushed off a cliff because the body wants to survive, also the ego does not want to die down. And through the mind because it is the mind, will find some sort of an excuse to stay alive and real, more than alive, real.
So, does our life get more purposeful? No. Does the life offer purposefulness? No. What happens when we go through our doubts, even Jesus on the mountain had a doubt, even though He was almost one with the Father, the temptation.
The main thing is that your reality and My Reality, once you are attracted to it, will not let you go until you are completely content and you find yourself as Sat, Chit, Ananda. And you allow your light to help others. I did not ask My destiny or God to be sitting here every day, that was the farthest thing from My idea of living. But once you get trapped with Divinity and you are a good instrument, in other words, a humble, sincere instrument, inevitably, either your silence will help transform people, or your words, or your look, or your touch.
And during these little doubtful moments, when it happens to each one of you, and I know it has happened and I know it will still happen, the best thing is satsang. It means keeping the company of either highly evolved people or their teaching. Or to be childlike, if you cannot have that company, become childlike. Be like a child, playful, (with a) sense of humor, without concern, lightheaded, lighthearted, that is a fantastic remedy. Joke around, like My father did. (Remains silent). Namaste.