Purpose Summary

Read more about Purpose from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

What Is the Purpose of Life?

The true aim of life is to find the Divine's Presence deep inside oneself and to surrender to It so that It takes the lead of the life, all the feelings and all the actions of the body.

To know our souls and to be our selves, which must be the foundation of our true way of being, is a secret that escapes us when one is preoccupied with an external learning, an external construction of knowledge, the achievement of an external action, an external delight and pleasure. The spiritual man is one who has discovered his soul: he has found his self and lives in that, is conscious of it, has the joy of it; he needs nothing external for his completeness of existence.

Ego-centric impulses, ambition, desire of power and greatness, motives of self-assertion do not help us to go inward. One must lose one's little lower self to find the greater self.

Why We Need to Move Towards our Purpose?

Aligning Ourselves with Earth’s Purpose

The universe is the evolutionary fulfilment of the truth of the universal Being. But for this truth to be fulfilled it must necessarily contain a plan, that is, it must know what it wants to do and must have the will to do it.

It must necessarily be admitted that there is a plan in the universe, that it is not something that comes about by chance, and that there is a Will to fulfil this plan, otherwise nothing could happen. The earth is a kind of symbolic crystallisation of universal life, a reduction, a concentration, so that the work of evolution may be easier to do and follow. And if we see the history of the earth, we can understand why the universe has been created. It is the Supreme growing aware of himself in an eternal Becoming; and the goal is the union of the created with the Creator, a union that is conscious, willing and free, in the Manifestation.

Earthly life is the place for progress. It is here, on earth, that progress is possible, during the period of earthly existence.

One must align oneself with the true purpose for which the earth has manifested.

To Find Our True Self

To transform oneself integrally, it is to have a single aim in life.

The aim should be in Yoga to develop (if one has it not already) a strong central being and harmonise under it all the rest, changing what has to be changed. If this central being is the psychic, there is no great difficulty.

How to Move Towards Our Purpose?

By Concentration

When you have a little time, whether it is one hour or a few minutes, tell yourself, "At last, I have some time to concentrate, to collect myself, to relive the purpose of my life, to offer myself to the True and the Eternal." If you took care to do this each time you are not harassed by outer circumstances, you would find out that you were advancing very quickly on the path. It is better to be moderate, balanced, patient, quiet, but never to lose an opportunity that is given to you, that is to say, to utilise for the true purpose the unoccupied moment before you.

By Discovering the Psychic Being

The psychic being can at first exercise only a concealed and partial and indirect action through the mind, the life and the body. It is missioned to lead man in the Ignorance towards the light of the Divine Consciousness. It is this secret psychic entity which points always towards Truth and Right and Beauty, towards Love and Harmony and all that is a divine possibility in us.

By Perfection

To work for one’s perfection, the first step is to become conscious of oneself, of the different parts of one’s being and their respective activities. One must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur,the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drives one to action. For if one truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of one’s being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then one must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.

By Uniting with the Divine

To be constantly the true flame that burns like an offering. That intense joy of existing only by the Divine and for the Divine and feeling that without Him nothing exists, that life has no longer any meaning, nothing has any purpose, nothing has any value, nothing has any interest, unless it is this call, this aspiration, this opening to the supreme Truth, to all that we call the Divine, the only reason for the existence of the universe.

Content curated by Kushal Agarwal

Read more about Purpose from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.