Day 3 - Sep 6, Tue

Chapter 3 - Beauty of Purposelessness – the meaning of living

The whole of Existence, the whole Universe is purposeless.

From a young age, we are socially conditioned that life has some purpose or goal. The more we run after some goal, the more we are respected by society. Society teaches that life has a purpose. Actually, the more we run after some purpose or goal, the more we miss out on enjoying life. Society wants you to be useful, society wants you to be of service, this is why it places so much importance on titles and designations. The more you are of service to society, the more titles you will have and the more respect you will get from society.

What is the goal of your life? Even if you fulfill all your goals you will still feel unfulfilled. In fact, if you fulfill all your goals you might experience what is called 'depression of success'. You always have some goal or another in front of you. Running after goals has become your lifestyle. You don't even know why you are running, but you will run for the sake of running. It has become a habit.

Actually, it is envy that makes you run after goals. The moment envy enters your Being, you run after goals. The moment you get a thought that someone is having more than you, all your spirituality fades away. Goals make you feel that you are not enough. Whatever you think of as the purpose of your life, even if you experience complete fulfillment in that dimension, you won’t rest in yourself.

You may have heard of Alexander the Great. We call a man who has killed so many people as 'great'! Every warrior is a coward. They kill others because they are afraid that they will be killed. When Alexander the Great went about expanding his kingdom, he was advised to bring an Enlightened Yogi from India with him. One day he saw a Yogi sitting by the river and he ordered him to return with him. The Yogi refused. Alexander drew his sword and put it to the Yogi’s neck and threatened to take his life if he did not go with him. 'You cannot kill me', the Yogi responded calmly. Alexander was moved by his courage and composure. 'Please come with me and I will make you leader of my army', he said. Again the Yogi declined. Alexander did not understand and asked the Yogi how he could be so content. The Yogi asked him, ‘What are you conquering lands for?’ Alexander told him, ‘So I can have more land.’ ‘And then what will you do?’ the Yogi asked. ‘I will have the whole world as my kingdom', replied Alexander. 'Then what will you do?' asked the Yogi. ‘Then I will be happy and relax', said Alexander. ‘That is what I am doing now!’ the Yogi exclaimed.

Only Krishna, only a man who rests completely, who rests in himself, is multidimensional. A man who can't just sit with himself misses out on a major dimension of his Being. Ego means thinking that there is some purpose in life. Ego is merely a social conditioning that there is some purpose in Life. Of course ego thrives on importance. The greater the purpose, the greater the importance.

One man wins $10 million in a lottery. He has a weak heart and his wife has trouble with breaking the news to him because of this. She thinks that it is very dangerous and not worth the risk. So she goes to their priest and asks him to help. ‘Don't worry', he says, 'I have known your husband for thirty years and I can tell him the news.’ He goes and starts the conversation very slowly. He says, ‘My son, I think you are going to be blessed with a great fortune from God.’ The man says, ‘What are you talking about. My whole life I have lived in poverty.’ The priest says, ‘What would you do if you suddenly won $10 million in a lottery?’ The man says, 'I would give all of it to your church.’ The priest falls and dies of a heart attack. Even if the blessing comes, without the maturity it is nothing but a curse.

Life has no purpose but it has meaning. Purpose and meaning are different. Purpose is goal-oriented. Living itself has only meaning. The path of life itself is a meaningful thing. There is no such thing as we will be happy in the end. We always postpone our joy and happiness. When we run after some purpose we don't experience the depth of life or its true meaning.

The meaning of life can only be experienced when you understand the beauty of purposelessness. Let your mind, your inner space not be contaminated and filled with purposes. Our inner space by its very nature is filled with bliss. The more you fill it with purpose, the more you empty it of bliss. Let your inner space be empty. The emptier it is, the more ecstatic and blissful you will be. Continuously if you think about something, you will never be able to perform your actions completely.

A purpose can be fulfilled, but if you carry these purposes in your life, you are not living. Purposes are living through you, that's all. A purpose can be fulfilled through your life, but you will not be fulfilled. If you want to be fulfilled, you have to accomplish a completely different dimension; you have to follow Krishna’s teaching in this chapter.

Krishna is the first and last Master who declared the Truth as it is. Krishna is the only Master who is Enlightened and a King. He is the only man who created the formula for practical spiritual living, to furnish the outer world with the ultimate luxury and to keep the inner space in ultimate bliss.

We always feel as if we can only pursue either the material or the spiritual. Yet no matter which we choose we always feel that we are missing the other. Mind is nothing but the dilemma that we experience in trying to choose between the two. The moment you realize the goal is purposeless, the moment the respect for the purpose is gone in your life, you fall into your Being. You become multidimensional. You experience a totally different spiritual and material life.

If you understand only this one idea, you will become enlightened. This single sloka is enough. If you let this one idea penetrate you, it will transform your whole Being. Krishna states that when you enter into your Being, when you drop all your goals, you will be guided by God Himself. You will become an instrument of the Divine. You will become a hollow bamboo - like Krishna’s flute! Then your words become a mantra to guide people, your form becomes a yantra and your actions, tantra!

If you realize the beauty of purposelessness, you realize Spiritual Consciousness. If you live with goals, you only have social conscience. Krishna speaks of shraddha. Shraddha means faith and courage. We need courage to experiment with the idea of the beauty of purposelessness. We need courage to drop all the goals. Whatever you think of as spiritual or material life, when you fall into your Being, you will experience it in a different dimension of life.

When you enter into your Being, the so-called material and spiritual drop, and you begin to truly live. This is Quantum Spirituality: Eternal Bliss or Nithyananda.