Purpose of Life

[satay]

namaste brothers and sisters,

Is the only purpose of life to know God?

I would like to propose that the only purpose of life for a man is to follow his dharma. 'knowing God' just happens automatically or unconciously.

[yajvan]

Hari Om
~~~~~

namaste brothers and sisters,

Is the only purpose of life to know God?
I would like to propose that the only purpose of life for a man is to follow his dharma. 'knowing God' just happens automatically or unconciously.

Namaste satay,
For me, I ask what is the purpose of all this ( creation), which the family of man is a part. My teacher informs me again and again, it is the expansion of happiness. For man to participate in this expanision, knowing Him and therefore participating in this expansion is dharma at it's fullest.
Now what of this Dhama? its root meaning is that which upholds. Upholds what? Cosmic intent/universal law. And that law? the expansion of happiness. Now, some say bliss. I have never experienced bliss, yet I have experienced happiness, more specifically , delight. It comes and goes in this state of consciousness I possess. Fleeting, yet pointing the way.

There is also a concept that I subscribe to ... this universe is driven and composed of pure consciousness ( confirmed by Vasistha again and again). This consciousness naturally is pure intelligence. IT chooses to create us ( the family of man) so it can know more about and delight in ITself and discover more of ITself as it expands.

NOw do I know and live these concepts discussed above? No, I am just a sishya of life, reading, learning and hopefully contributing to some of this expansion ( random acts of kindness!)... until I am living this Bhuma ( fullness) I can only look to the wisdom of the rishi's that talk from thier experience and guidence. That is, I know very little and am humbled by the past muni's that can talk from their direct experience...to them I am grateful and to the tradition of masters (starting with Narayan) that wish to pass this knowledge down though the ages. May I alway be 'awake' to accept the comprehend their knowledge:

Yo vai bhuma tat sukham, nalpe sukham asti, bhumaiva sukham,
Bhuma tveva viijnasitavya iti, bhumanam, bagavah, vijivnasa iti.
Happiness is bhuma, fullness, pleunum, finite things do not contain happiness, Happiness is the totality, happiness is the absolute

pranams,

[Zardozi]

namaste brothers and sisters,

Is the only purpose of life to know God?

I would like to propose that the only purpose of life for a man is to follow his dharma. 'knowing God' just happens automatically or unconciously.

Namaste Satay,
A definition of hindu Dharma is an obligation with respect to caste, social custom, civil law, and sacred law. The purpose of my obligation is to live a morally ethical life with that respect. Nowhere, in my purpose is there a reason to "know" god on a personal basis, since I have already accepted its being as morally ethical supreme personality.

Maste Nam,
Zardozi

[saidevo]

Namaste Satay.



Is the only purpose of life to know God?

I would like to propose that the only purpose of life for a man is to follow his dharma. 'knowing God' just happens automatically or unconciously.


In the current spiritual level, I 'know God', intellectually, as a HIM and an IT who/which is within and without me as mySelf*, but I haven't experienced or realized it and made such revelation part of mySelf. Therefore, the purpose is to be on the path to such realization.

The path can only be the path of dharma, which at a personal level means doing things that help develop the sheaths or bodies of my soul. MySelf is going to acquire these bodies again and again for many more births; the more I refine them in a birth the more developed will be my future bodies that would make my Self Realization progressively easier.

Thus the path of dharma to Self Realization is highly individual, lonely and perhaps selfish (?) to every soul. Thus, God as the end and Dharma as the means is, I think is the purpose of human life. From this, I think it follows that the purpose per se is only to know God, and when this is set firmly, dharma happens automatically and unconsciously.
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*The Tamil language has a beautiful term kadavuL to refer to God. It is made of two roots kada meaning transcend and uL meaning inside. Thus kadavuL that which transcends everything and still remains immanent in everything. Parimelazhagar, who wrote one of the first commentaries on TirukkuraL, explained the term kadavuL as one that transcends human mind, word and body and remains fixed both within and without them.