Purpose of Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
21 August 2011, part 3

Question: What is the purpose of life?

The purpose of life is that you are born to serve the Lord. Every jiva soul—even trees, flowers, etc.—takes birth for the service to the Lord, but not every jiva soul can do it on their own. Everything must be used for the service of the Lord, but only human life can use all jiva souls for this purpose.

There are different types of consciousness, or chetan sakti—achchhadita-chetan (fully covered consciousness), sankuchita-chetan (closed, subdued consciousness), mukulita-chetan (budding consciousness), vikachita-chetan (blooming consciousness), and purna-vikachita-chetan (fully blossomed consciousness). You can go, for example, to a Jamalpur fair and see that there is a million of goats there standing in a line—they cut one goat after another in less than one minute, perhaps fifteen-twenty seconds per goat, and while a goat is killed, the goat standing next in line is eating grass. Or you can go to a market and see that people kill one hen after another, and while one hen is being killed, another one is standing nearby and eating. They have no feeling that, "Oh, next is my turn. I am going to die now." But if it was a human body, we would think, "Oh, I am going to die next!" or if the government gives someone death sentence and they are to be punished by hanging, people often fast and eat nothing for the whole month—they keep thinking, "I have to die next month!" That is why, humans have a good sense, their chetan sakti (power of consciousness) is very strong. Trees also have a strong chetan sakti, but it is achalita chetan, covered. For example, when you take out a tree's bark, the tree is crying but you cannot even think it is crying, but if somebody takes my skin out, then I will feel pain in my body. The tree also has some sensation, it also feels pain. Even the science says that everybody possesses consciousness, but humans' consciousness is strong.

Then, what have we got this human body for? We have got sumedha, some good intelligence, and good association, therefore we can realise what we have got this human body for and we can realise that everybody and everything is meant to be used for service. Only a human body can use other species like trees, flower plants, etc. in service. For example, you collect or buy some flowers today and use it for the service of the Lord—that flower comes from a plant and the plant gets sukriti in this way. It is Janmastami tomorrow, and many devotees will come and offer mango, jackfruit and other fruit, they will keep it in the temple—all that fruit is very fortunate. Not every fruit has got good fortune. There are many flowers, many kinds of fruit in the market, there are many trees, but devotees always use everything for the service to the Lord. This is what we are born for.

You know, when we were in the womb of our mothers, we cried so much—there is a song that says, "Janani-jathare, chhilama yakhana, visama bhandana-pase (জননী-জঠরে ছিলাম যখন, বিষম বন্ধন-পাশে)"—when I was in the womb of my mother, I suffered so much; insects, worms, etc. were biting me and I cried out at that time, and Krishna showed His form to me in my mother's womb. I said to Him, "I cannot tolerate it, I want to go out!" and Krishna said, "When you come out, you will forget Me..."

ভজিব বলিয়া এসে সংসার-ভিতরে ।
ভুলিয়া রহিলে তুমি অবিদ্যার ভরে ॥

bhajiba baliya ese samsara-bhitare
bhuliya rahile tumi avidyara bhare

"You came into this world saying, 'O Lord, I will serve You', but, having forgotten this promise, you have remained in ignorance."

At that time, I promised, "No, No, I will not forget You," but actually when we were born, the illusory environment attacked us and we forgot our Lord, we forgot our father, forgot our real home. After that, "brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva..."—we came and went, came and went, came and went, and at some point a guru comes to us: we have a guru in our hearts (it is called chaitya guru), and that guru takes us to the mahanta guru, a real guru, my spiritual master. Then, we get some advice from our spiritual master and we get to know the real way. In this way, we get some good association, we practise properly—we practise sravanam and kirtanam.

This is how we get to be practising now that real path, the real way.

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