The Journey called Life
By Choice, Fate or through a calling of the higher-order, we are here in this earthly existence. If we are lucky, we get to understand the purpose of our existence and work towards making some meaning out of it. Else, like an opportunity lost in a school to move to a higher grade, we tend to come back to the same classroom, may be with a different set of subject, teachers and co-travellers.
The Voyage or Journey called Life is in-explicable indeed. There is a famous saying in Tamil which paraphrases as follows, “Those who have seen don’t talk; those who talk haven’t seen”.
Out of the Billions who are the current Earthly travellers, how many know the importance of a purpose or a Goal? There is a recent survey which says that less than 2% of the world population have some purpose or goal which they pursue in their life-times whereas others just journey through the process called “Life”. Surprisingly, this 2% constitute those who hog everything that comes the world’s way, in terms of riches. Even in this 2%, a fraction of a % have aspirational purpose or goals, the rest settling for materialistic goals or accomplishments. They are happy accumulating wealth, to meet there and the next few generations’ needs, not aiming for something bigger.
In this context, the question that assumes significance is “Birth and Death being certain, what is worth aiming for in the Journey called Life”? This is a question which has kept the seers and Masters of the past pretty busy. Many of them found their own answers and some of them passed on their learnings to the next generations, of course, the whole learnings getting solidified as “Religion” and losing its potency on the way.
Science is pretty busy with inventions and creating things, which in some way, make life more enriching and rewarding to live, at least at a material plane. One area Science has consciously or otherwise kept out is the “God” spectrum. Though they search for the “God” particle, they are not sure if the pursuit of “God” is a worthy pursue! There are several questions which can’t be scientifically answered, for example, the topic of “Belief or Faith”. The “How” of faith is partly explainable through Science but the “Why” is still a distance away from Scientific Studies or Research. While Science is vastly fascinated by the outer space, they are yet to focus to turn their attention towards the inner space, which, according to spiritual literature is immeasurable. Can something be bigger than Infinity? If something can be, indeed it is the Inner Space as compared to the Outer Space. After all, Scientists theorise that the Universe is still expanding since its existence 15 Billion Years ago and it will take a while before the expansion stops and the contraction starts. In a way, this means that the Universe is still measurable and hence not “Infinity” by itself. Whereas, the Inner Universe, which exists within each one of God’s or Nature’s creation is immeasurable. Is it the absence of scientific tools that stop Science from fully peeping into this Infinite Inner Universe?.
Whether it be the Vedic Literature or the Religious and Spiritual Literature from rest of the world, the songs in praise of this Inner Universe, the measure of which, when we attain is equivalent to the Creator’s Measure itself.
Hence, what Science can’t address needs to be addressed through other means. Even to expect one faculty of human intelligence to address all our existential issues is itself a wrong premise. This is where the Seers or Masters or Messiahs or whatever you want to call them, had their “Beyond Science” approach helping them to find the larger purpose of the Journey called Life.
Each one codified their learnings or inner discoveries in vast amounts of religious or spiritual literature. Since a name had to be given, they got termed as “Spiritual Literature”. Let us treat it as a place-holder for such literature and not bother too much about what “Spiritual Literature” might or should mean. Simply put, it is a set of “Reference Manuals” to help us find the purpose of life and find a way to live the same.
After studying loads of such literature, one gets a feeling that all these are documentations of travellers, who were searching for “Where they are and Where they need to go”. Lost voyagers, who found their inner compass to show the way to the HOME and shared their discoveries to humanity. Each found interesting and workable ways, suiting the time at which these discoveries happened, and chronicled their “Maps of the Journey back Home”. It might be an oversimplification but Science went on to document the “How” of the Outer Universe, whereas Spirituality went on to document the “Why” of the Inner Universe and even the “How” of reaching the other end, culminating in reaching the Original Home!
Many of the Inner Travelers, invariably, found the “Why” as the need to get back to our Original Homes and the “How” to be MEDITATION. By quietening the mind, listening to the heart, they were able to listen to the calling from “Within” and re-focus their inner compass on their journey back home. The biggest challenge they found while sharing these learnings with their followers was that this concept was found to be too “Abstract”. Hence, an understanding of spiritual literature will tell us that they chose Human values to drive home their points. These included Ten Commandments, Love & Compassion, Brotherhood and many more such human facets which humanity (of respective times) could relate, accept and follow. Unfortunate, though, is that the “How” got missed or diluted in the process. The path of values became the destiny itself for many and the followers were happy with the values or rituals rather than be inspired by the Goal.
In the last few decades though, substantial Spiritual research on Scientific basis (proving the “Experiential Aspect of the Spiritual Path or Meditation” through measurable, experiential scientific means) has taken place and the need for developing each one’s inner compass is slowly dawning upon humanity, one such successful experiment being “Heartfulness” movement. Through a repeatable and experiential scientific approach to Meditation, such movements are able to guide the “Earthly Travelers” towards the “Real Goal of Life”.
How one wishes that the entire humanity takes to this which would bring them closer to their “True purpose of Existence, in this Journey called Life”.