The Phenomenon and the Noumenon
You must be affectionate, kind and compassionate, serviceful, and charitable, they say. All this is very, very important indeed, but there is something more important than all these things, which is the destiny of the soul of the human individual – what happens, finally.
This world shall vanish one day, with all its humanity. If it had a beginning, it shall have an end, also. In this mysterious universe even when something appears to be enduring for some time, we do not know for how long it will endure.
What is the aim behind all this drama? Why and what are we busy about?
There must be something towards which the whole universe seems to be gravitating, without the acceptance of which, all that we do in this world would look meaningless. If there is meaning in life, it cannot be on the basis of what we see with our eyes, because it is passing.
We think in total opposition to the facts. On the one hand, something tells us that everything is insecure, and no one can say what will happen the next moment. At the same time, we feel that nothing will happen – everything is OK. How is it possible for us to entertain a false assumption, which is entertained by everybody in the world?
There is eternity masquerading in this mortal frame of the human individual. We belong to two worlds at the same time, as it were – the mortal and the immortal. Our involvement in the body, in the space-time complex, in human society, in anything that is external, is the mortal aspect of our personality. Everything shall perish, that which is spatio-temporal (causally bound), yet, there is something in us which is not so bound.
We are not mortals basically and the immortal in us summons us every moment of time. That is why, if the whole earth and all of the sky is to be presented to us or is under our possession, we shall not feel secure. Endless is our longing. Infinity is our asking, eternity is our desire. Even if one is an emperor of the whole world, taking for granted that such a thing is practicable, would that person like to live for only three minutes more? No, if it is only for a few minutes that is of no use. It has to also be eternal. Space and time should blend together in fullness. You may call this the Absolute, if you like.
The realisation of this in actual life, the attainment of cosmic universality, which is identical with spiritual Selfhood, is the ultimate aim of life, for which purpose we are finally busy in this world. All these services that we are rendering, all the work that we do, in any capacity whatsoever, is a preparatory process for the realisation of this universal Selfhood – you may call it God-realisation. This is, in brief, the aim and object of this ashram of Swami Sivananda.
Continue to read:
“The
Purpose of Life” by Swami Sivananda
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