The Need for Purpose In Life

Should there be a purpose to life? Should we all spend time thinking about that special reason why we are here?


I enjoy my life as it unrolls each day. Each day brings in carried forward bucket of joys and sorrows from my yesteryears. I also keep doing enough things right or wrong to add to this bucket. All said and done, I guess I live a full life every day. I believe that at some levels my life reflects lives of this multitude I share space with.


When I look into the lives of my parent or their parent I am inclined to believe that their lives never had any special, out of the world purpose ( the kind which will find mention in history books). But then I look at my sister whom I love so much, I look at myself and then I look at my Grandma and then I look no further. Most relatives who knew my grandfather fondly looks at me and sees him in me. My favorite pastime of chewing country paan with betel leaves and areca nut coming from our own courtyard, my passion to farming and planting, and my love for the routine are all traits that missed a generation, my dad’s generation. So when my grandma looks at me, I am sure she sees a little bit of Grandpa in me. Should I seek a greater purpose in her life than the fact that I owe my life to her and all those unsung generations who went by?


Not all of us will end up being a Ratan Tata (my all time hit idol) or an Abdul Kalaam, or even, a Bajpai, some of us will remain Rajesh Kumar and Rajeshwari Kumari’s of this world. We too will fill space; we too will do our bit. I now believe that we are all born with special little purposes in life, the greatest of all being to propagate life itself.


This does not mean that I do not have aspirations; this does not mean that I don’t want to leave behind a legacy which will be fondly remembered. For some time I have been thinking of either starting a Laundromat service of a Constituency Services firm, someday I might do that too. But these are my aspirations; they are not the special purposes in my life.


So I guess I have figured out that the special purposes of our lives are best understood in hindsight and never in foresight. Life indeed is a Johnny Walker advertisement, LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD…KEEP WALKING.