We all have been given a hard and a soft problem to solve in our lives. The hard problem is finding the purpose of life and the soft problem is finding the way out to achieve that. The first problem is like choosing a tourist destination. The second problem is deciding how to get there. Unfortunately, most of us hardly contemplate the first problem and keep spending almost the whole of our lives on the second problem without realizing that if we choose a bad destination, even if we do our best to plan the trip, our experience will be bad.
As a parent, we hardly encourage kids to think of the purpose of life. The society takes the purpose of life for granted for everybody. Everybody has to get an education, find a good job, earn money, buy properties, marry someone, have kids, hand over the properties to the kids, have some fun and entertainment in parties, dance, and social get-togethers, and RIP. Most people spend their lives either doing these things or struggling to earn money to do all these things. Since almost everybody in society considers the purpose of life to be like that, there is no occasion for most of us to have a different thought. Most of us, since our childhood, take the purpose of life for granted.
We have the tradition of Gurukuls in India where the young kids used to live in Gurukuls, and the Gurus used to teach them Vedas and Upanishads. The Vedas and Upanishads are the philosophy of life. They teach us the deepest secrets of nature and develop an attitude to search for truth within ourselves and also outside. I often wonder about the profoundness of Yoga Vashistha. When Rama, as a young child, developed Vairagya and disinterest in this world, his father did not force the rulership of the kingdom on him. He carefully listened to his doubts of Rama and when he found himself unable to answer his questions, he contacted Vashstha and Vishwamitra to answer Rama's questions. Had Dashratha told Rama forcefully that the purpose of life is to have fun and enjoy the kingdom, I wonder how Rama would have reacted when Kaikayi asked her for two boons from Dashratha.
Aren't we bringing up our kids the way Duryodhana was brought up by Dhritrashtra? Telling them that they are born here to earn money, and have fun. We keep fulfilling their undue desires during their childhood and then expect them to be generous. How is that possible? There is hardly any guidance available to the kids on the purpose of life. There is no time available with either the parents or the children to think about the purpose of life and that is the reason why almost all of us pass through a mid-life crisis. There are so many psychological disorders among adults and surprisingly among kids also.
Parents are busy planning the trips. They want to book the best transportation (education and degrees), the best hotels (organizations to work with), the best picnic spots (fun, and entertainment), and plan everything else in the best possible manner. They fail to realize that staying in the best of hotels and traveling by the best of transportation to a bad place is no joy. I understand that the hard problem is not easy to solve especially when the entire society is so sure of its stupidity. However, we have so many scriptures to guide us. More than anything else, we have been blessed with the capability to stay aware. The moment we observe, without any bias, just staying aware, we can not close our nose to the foul smell everywhere around. The stinking accumulation of wealth, poisonous spending to cover up deep inferiority complexes, foul power play, and disgusting wastage of life in shallowness. The moment we realize that the hotel we are staying in for a long is stinking, at least, we become open to re-examining our purpose in life. Such awareness allows us to examine the purpose of life. If we stay aware, we will not try to find another tourist destination. Rather, we will develop an understanding that this entire world is a tourist place and we are here for a short duration, and with that attitude, we keep moving and exploring rather than aiming at permanent settlement in this world. We realize that it is not expensive transportation and hotels that give us happiness, rather it is awareness of our true nature that frees us from all the suffering. Happiness is and will always remain our true nature.
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