The real goal of human life is to attain Absolute Freedom, called Moksha (Liberation).
Freedom or Liberation from what?
From Bandhana meaning Bondage.
According to Advaita Vedanta, we all act as if we are in Bondage due to our Avidya (ignorance) though in reality we are never in Bondage. So the purpose of human life is to use our well endowed intellect to gain Vidya (Knowledge), come out of Avidya (ignorance) and gain Moksha (Liberation) which is the final of the Chaturvidha Purusharthas (four-fold human goals).
No we shall see how to achieve the goal of human life by closely examining what kind of bondage we are in and how to get out of it.
Let us say we are having a dream and in that dream world we find ourselves in huge danger. At that moment the dream experience seems very real to us and sometimes due to the intense fear of the situation we might wake up only to realise that it was just a dream and feel relieved. Though there was no reality to the incident, the experience of fear was real, the racing of the heart and the profuse sweating was real.
When we read a well written gripping novel it might bring out several different emotions in us. But later those emotions no longer affect us as we know that we are only reading a novel and the emotions we experienced are not real.
Let us say we are watching an engrossing movie and we might undergo a real experience of emotions such as rejoicing, crying, getting frightened, surprised, awed, etc. Once the movie is over we become normal as we realise that it was just a movie.
In the above examples of dreaming, reading a novel and watching a movie why we do not continue to experience those emotions? That's because the experience was not real. What is meant by not real? The dream, the novel and the movie were imaginations of human mind and hence not real.
- The dream was an imagination of our own mind.
- The novel was an imagination of the mind of the author.
- The movie was the imaginations of the minds of several people such as the original author, script writer, director, etc.
Whenever something is an imagination of one or more human minds as the word implies it is only an imagination and hence not real.
This is a very important conclusion which we all must take time to ponder and come to a complete agreement that whenever it is an imagination of human mind it is not real. Hence attaching importance to those imaginations and taking them as real is considered silly, foolish and utter stupidity.
Now let us closely examine our own life starting from the beginning of our life.
• We learnt to speak, read and write.
• We are taught several things such as civility, respect, morality, dress sense, behaviour etc.
• We were sent to school to have basic education.
• Then we continue our education into middle school, high school, college, etc.
• Later we pursue some profession so that we start earning to have our living.
The list goes on. I want to call this list as Civilized List.
Now the question is who decided this list? The society. These are the norms thought by several human minds, have been accepted as fair, reasonable and essential by one and all. Hence these thoughts are called ideas and have been passed from one generation to another over several centuries, have been accepted by present society that includes, parents, teachers, elders, thinkers and also by the modern science.
The important thing to note is that this Civilized List of norms are also imaginations of human minds, created, altered, maintained and accepted by the society. We all have already concluded that when something is a product of imagination then it is certainly not real. But this Civilized List is very much needed for efficient, coordinated, harmonious living just like we need traffic lights for proper coordination, harmonious driving and to avoid chaos. Hence though the Civilized List is a product of human mind it is called ideas and because of their rationality they are accepted by everybody.
Vedanta says Liberation is adhering to this Civilized List which is called Dharma (righteousness and duty) and wholeheartedly pursue one's interest which is called Swadharma. Pursuing one's interest is given paramount importance and everything else come later including progeny, wealth, comfort, etc.
Now let us consider another list of norms made by human minds that determine several pairs of opposites such as success and failure, happiness and unhappiness, etc.
• Being rich is considered success and being poor is considered failure.
• Owning vast amount of property is considered success.
• Having an extravagant living and indulging in all kinds of pleasures is desired.
• Indulgence in wearing costly dress and showing off precious jewellery and other expensive possessions.
• Imposing our thoughts, language, religion, belief, etc. over others overtly or covertly makes our ego feel good and superior.
• Being acknowledged, appreciated and respected by others is desired.
• Being popular, famous, powerful and influential is highly desired.
You get the drift. The list goes on. I want to call this list as Egoistic List.
But important thing to note is that this list too is a figment of imagination of human mind. We unambiguously and unequivocally concluded that imagination can never be a reality. But yet each one of us are caught in this trap of imaginary list as we attach extreme importance to it as if it is real. This is what is called as imaginary bondage by Advaita Vedanta. Using the power of our intellect, Vedanta is urging us to do the critical thinking called Viveka, get out of this imaginary bondage by letting go of attachment to this imaginary Egoistic List and attain absolute freedom and liberation.
Unfortunately Eat, Drink and Be Merry seems to be the only motto. For that no amount of earning and accumulation of wealth seems to be enough.
After the desire for the carnal pleasures then comes the deadly desire which is to wield power and authority over as many people around as possible. Then if possible one tries to extend the sphere of power over community, state, nation and if possible over the entire world. Yet the ego remains insatiable. All these tendencies put together have made us endure untold miseries and calamities due to communalism, massacres, genocides, fascism, nazism, barbarism, dictatorships, colonialism, slavery, etc.
Which animal indulges in slavery, subjugation, ill-treatment of its own species? As human beings being endowed with so called well developed intellect we have been involved in this kind of despicable living for not just several centuries, but several millennia.
Coming back to the point, all these endless desires of the ego make up the Egoistic List. The key is to realise that this Egoistic List is nothing but an imagination of the mind, which means to realise that they are unreal and hence stop fanning and fuelling those desires and become free. This is what Buddha conveyed by saying "Desire is the root cause of all evil".
How can one not have any desires? Is it wrong to have ambition in life?
This is not what is meant. One can and should have some ambition in life which is to pursue one's interest fully which could be in arts, sports, science, medicine, astronomy, social service, education, etc. It could be any field, just pursue one's own interest which Advaita calls it as Swadharma meaning something one is naturally inclined and interested towards. If one enjoys what one is doing then money, name, fame, etc. become byproducts, not of primary focus but would automatically follow depending on the expertise attained in pursuing one's own interests.
When the Egoistic List is clearly recognised as the imagination of the mind and hence understood as not real we lose interest in that list, mind becomes free from the barrage of incessant thoughts, tendencies to accumulate, hoard, etc. evaporate as the desires dry up. This is called Vairagya meaning dispassion and disinterest in mundane materialistic things. The great philosopher Socrates, though poverty-stricken while striding through the city’s busy central marketplace, looking at the mass of several things for sale, he would harrumph provocatively, “How many things I have no need of!!“. That’s the sign of the wise who have developed Vairagya (dispassion).
We need to get convinced that what we have been conditioned to regard “Success” as, is nothing but the imagination of the mind that persistently goads us to continuously hanker for one worldly thing after another. This is what is conveyed by great master of Advaita, Sankara who said "Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya" meaning that the Brahman, Atman, Self, the Life Energy alone is Real. Jagat meaning the world and the worldly things are Mithya meaning they are temporary, illusory, figment of imagination of the mind and hence unreal. Sankara said realise this, become free which is Moksha and start enjoying the life without anymore stress or anxiety. This is called Self-Realisation.
When we follow the advice of Advaita we become free, impartial, dispassionate and non-judgemental witness to all the happenings around us. We get to notice that it's a Mad, Mad, Mad, World and people are in serious pursuit, frantically scurrying hither and thither to desperately fulfil the current immediate desire that has arisen to the surface. We can clearly notice that everybody is continuously under the iron grip of one desire or another without any letup and as we observe keenly we find that this world around us in one helluva live entertainment theatre. This is the Truth which Shakespeare tried to convey when he said "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women are merely players".
The key is to recognise that we should never become a participant in the magnificent stage thinking that it is real, instead be a wise, carefree, every happy witness and sharp dispassionate observer of the great live grand play that unfolds around us every single moment.
According to Advaita this tension-free freedom is called Moksha and understanding, realising and actualising it is the real goal of human life.
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