oops... didn't mean to bold everything. Let me correct that... There ain't divine purpose of life - http://www.sajha.com/archives/openthread.cfm?threadid=15437&dsn=sajhaarchive#21599 If we want to talk about the meaning of life, we first need to determine the meaning of 'meaning'. Until then, it is meaningless to try to look for meaning of life. Now, let's go to the purpose of life. We should separate purpose of individual lives from the one of universal life or rather collective purpose of life. Purpose of individual lives is probably not the topic of this discussion. So let's skip it. Now, about the collective purpose of life- if this is what Gokul ji is talking about- I think the problem with it is its anthropocentric approach and not taking the natural history of creation and life into account. Let's put the life in the timeline of natural history (we can trust this with fair confidence, right ?) 15 billion years ago- Big Bang 4.6 billion years ago- Formation of the earth 3.5 billion years ago- first life form appeared 6 million years ago- first huminid 130000 years ago - first modern human 6000 years ago - Writing developed in Sumeria It took more than 14 billion years for nature (okay, creator) to give us human brain (ignore the possibility of life in other part of the universe) which can think about the question we are asking. Does this not put a big question mark on the idea of collective purpose of life ? *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** The purpose of life to an atheist - http://www.sajha.com/archives/openthread.cfm?threadid=13146&dsn=sajhaarchive2003#117040 I think we do not have any disagreement regarding, let's say, the scope and possibility of human life to experience the supreme beauty, grandeur and richness of life and universe. If life has this potential, then it will be a great waste not to have a purpose. That is how, at least to me, life gets a purpose. As life evolved either spontaneously or accidentally on earth (Life as a designer's creation does not make sense to me, because, among other things, looking at the evolutionary time scale for the time it took to reach to human brain, the designer appears quite inefficient, lazy and an average Joe, which is hard to believe if there should be one) it is not responsible to any designer or master, so to speak. So we do not come with someone else's purpose on our shoulder. We invent our purpose. And because of the nature of the purpose (referring to beauty, grandeur and richness !), it is okay to say that we discover our purpose. Once we make the purpose of life free of someone else's game plan, we can safely say each individual should invent/discover his/her own purpose of life. Aren't there any condition/limitation for that ? I think the only condition is that it should be compatible with the sustenance and continuity of life on earth and wherever we can take it to. And it is always preferable to have a purpose that enriches life. However, the later, being highly subjective and desirable but not compulsory, should be left to each individual to decide. So, it is not easy to determine/define/decide the purpose of life. 'To be happy' sounds a reasonable purpose, because it fulfils both the obligatory and desirable criteria outlined above. The alternatives of it- to remain unhappy (makes no sense but suppressive regimes of the world is what makes it a reality) or feel nothing (Buddhist purpose) can not contest with the promise of the purpose of being happy. In any case, it is important to note that it is not necessary to assume that happiness is the ABSOLUTE purpose of life. Just to make a point, you may still have less desirable alternatives if you want. What is happiness ? Happiness is something that happens in our brain. It's basis is pleasure which in turn has a biochemical basis. Depending upon the level at which we observe, we can call it Physiological or biophysical bases too. We know very little about it. But with continued scientific research, we will know more and more about it as time goes by. Mediation, sex, food, reward, beauty and mood elevating drugs look so different on the surface, but they become the same at biochemical or rather biophysical level. Pleasure is the central motivation of our voluntary decisions. So it makes sense to say that happiness is the purpose of life. But it is obvious that the sources of pleasure are diverse. Which is nobler/superior is an artificial distinction. I am not qualified to discuss about the meditation because except for the Bhavatit Dhyan in my high school and some my own brand of meditation which is rather some moments of reflection mostly when things I have done go wrong, I have not practiced meditation. However, I believe that, similar to how physical work-out strengthens our body, meditation, which is a mental work-out should strengthen our mind. And similar to how over work-out damages our body, over meditation damages our mind too. It may be a temporary damage, it may be a permanent damage. Hallucination like effect of intense meditation, in my humble view, are malfunctioning of mind rather than something mystic. It is in no way to trash the power of mind. Mind is definitely very powerful, not only in metaphoric sense, but in proper physical sense. What is mind ? It is simply a very complex biophysical activity of our brain. Although it sounds futuristic, I think as we understand more about our brain, we will discover or, if you like, rediscover the power of mind. However, there will always be physical explanation for that power. Because mind is a physics at the end of the day. Mind is not abstract. It is abstract to our mind only. In the brain, it is a mere matter and energy. There is no subjectivity as such. Subjectivity is a set of complex objectivities that we have no tool, knowledge and time to determine individually. The fluidity, beauty and magic of poetry is nothing but biophysics at the end of the day. Some day in future when we will have sophisticated brain scanner, we will able to watch a movie of Nepe's (or Nepe's grand grandson's) brain writing a ghazal and next day one critique analyzing the influence of another poets in his works by using digital fingerprints of poetrying of the other poet ! I know this version of life sounds boring as compared to the one of who believes in the existence of a higher consciousness independent of life and our potential to communicate with that power. But until the day I find reason to step in that version of the world, I will have to keep on living in my boring world and keep wondering what the purpose of my life should be or should have been. _______________________