Sadhguru speaks: Seeking purpose in existence

• Eastern Eye
• 10 February, 2024

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By: Eastern Eye

QUESTIONS such as “What is the purpose of life?” and “Why did god put us here?” keep coming up again and again.

Fundamentally, what you are asking is: why creation? The same question keeps coming up in so many different ways. When it comes to creation, you never ask why, because you are just a tiny speck in this creation. In the arrangements that you have made as a human being – in terms of family, social structures, financial securities, education, qualifications and positions that you have taken in the society – you slowly started assuming that, in many ways, you are the centre of the universe. But that is not the truth. You are just a tiny speck in the existence. Rest assured, if you disappear tomorrow morning, nobody will miss you.

So, this tiny speck asking the question, “Why creation,” does not make sense – because the question does not come from the right context. This question comes up because somewhere the experience of life has not become blissful. If the experience of life had become blissful, you would not ask. The struggles, the pain of existing here, are there somewhere in you.

You might have created so many comforts, so much security, but still the inherent struggle of it, the inherent pain of the day-to-day tensions – you have to drag your feet and do many things, isn’t it? You fill yourself with enthusiasm, you find new reasons for yourself to do this and that. But somewhere inside there is something which constantly struggles in every human being, unless he attains a certain inner grace. Till then, it is a struggle. Some people have become aware of it. Most people are yet to even become aware of it. They just keep themselves busy, never to face that inner struggle.

The reason why people are keeping themselves so busy, keeping themselves so entangled in life, is not because they have fallen in love with life. It is just to avoid the inner struggle. Many of them, if they don’t get married, if they don’t produce children, if they don’t start businesses and don’t get into all the mess that they are getting into on a dayto-day basis, they would just be lost within themselves.

Just to keep a certain semblance of sanity, they keep all this activity going. If they merely sit quietly for two days in one place, they will become aware of the inner struggle that is there in every being trapped in this limited body. It is always there. Some become aware. Once they become aware, they start looking. That is when we say somebody is on the spiritual path, because he has become aware of the inner struggle. No matter what you do, something is struggling all the time. But others are still too busy.

So, the question comes up because there is an inner struggle. Maybe you are not hundred per cent aware of the struggle, but here and there it touches you. So now, the more intelligent question for you would be: How do I get be[1]yond this struggling state? If you ask how, I have a way. If you ask why, then I have to tell you a story. One day, Shiva had nothing to do and he was playing marbles – nobody else, no company. One marble fell this way and it became planet earth. Another one shot up and it became the sun. I can go on like this. You will not believe this ridiculous story. But if I make the story more elaborate and if the story was not told today, but a thousand years ago, you would believe it.

But stories don’t liberate you. Stories just equip you to speak with some sense of authority at the next dinner party you are invited to. So, when it comes to existence, don’t waste your life asking the question, “Why?” Because if you sit here for the rest of your life and go on thinking “why,” or consult every other man on this planet, all you will get is more and more fairy tales. You will not get a solution. But if you ask “how,” then we open up the path. We give you the method.

Ranked among the 50 most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. He was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian award, in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.