Purpose of Life

By Brig Neeraj Gosain, India, Ser No 23

1. What in your view is the Purpose of Life?

We as human beings are born with the ability to think rationally and analyse and are
considered the most superior and intelligent of all the living things in this world. We
seem to be blessed with many qualities including highly developed brain and a
resultant capacity for articulate speech and abstract reasoning. God has created us
definitely for a purpose – What is that?

The present day life has become very complex both externally and internally and we
find ourselves existing rather than living – without an aim. Every human being is
different and we have been sent here for some purpose. Various purposes of life can
be just to be happy or to find happiness, to leave a legacy for the coming
generations – leading by example or to love your family, friends and humanity, or to
create your own meaning, or to make a positive change in your surroundings, or to
have variety of experiences, or to evolve to next level etc, etc.

The purpose of life consists of the central motivating aim of your life – the reason
why we wake up in the morning each day. There are different stages in life and the
aim or purpose keeps changing as we go through the time of life span. We have
hardly any or no life purpose when we are born, may be just to survive by being fed;
when we are growing up our purpose is to enjoy and play; when in school our
purpose becomes to study hard; when in college it becomes to get a good job; when
we get married, it is to keep the family happy and achieve your goals and finally
when you retire and become old the purpose becomes to live healthy and happy and
recollect life gone by and die peacefully.

2. What do you think to be the purpose of your life and why is it so?

I was born in a respectable family and had was lucky to get all basic needs. I too
had various purposes of life as I went through the journey of life. In the early
childhood my purpose was to play and enjoy, then as I joined the Army the purpose
was to be a good officer and a gentle man, thereafter as I got married the
responsibilities increased and the purpose was to make my family happy and content
in addition to being a good officer and a gentleman. As I walk through my journey of
life I find myself evolving. The purpose of my life has been to make people happy
and help others as much as I can. My upbringing has been such and seeing my
parents and wife being so considerate and kind, the sole purpose today is making
everyone happy – everyone in general and family in particular. I go out of my way to
help others and be kind to them. I find so much of sadness and disparity amongst
various segments of people and feel very lucky to be blessed with almost everything.
Hence I find my purpose and am quite focussed on it naturally. I find the more
happiness and kindness you spread, the more is returned to you in various forms. As
days go by and years roll down my life I have started realising that the real purpose
is to be happy, make everyone happy and be kind to all. All other things fall into
place. Life in the middle age becomes so fast and complex with various issues that
you actually start existing rather than living and as we become old and mature we
find that we could have done so much more for the ultimate purpose of life - that is to
being happy. Happiness to me is defined by my family, elders, friends and all others
whom you can touch, being happy. I go out of my way to make others feel happy.
The happiness of my family and people gives me happiness. As days pass by I
evolve into a better person and that remains the purpose of my life. My purpose of
life is to be the reason someone believes in Good people.