What is the Meaning of Life? As per Bhagavad Gita

The meaning of life is to enjoy unbounded, eternal happiness.

We are spiritual by nature, and spirit is eternal. We belong in the spiritual world where everything is spiritual. In the spiritual world we have an eternal loving relationship with Krishna without any of the problems of this material world. There is no birth, death, disease and old age. There is no time that causes the decay and destruction of everything. There is no lust, anger or greed; no envy, jealously or hatred. That is where we belong, and that is from where we came. Why we left is another question, but we are here now as the result of a bad choice and are stuck here with many undesirable qualities that we would like to be free from, and many desires that we would like to indulge.

Those baser qualities and material desires are what keep us in this world birth after birth.

This material world is a correctional facility that allows us to indulge our own perverse material desires separate from Krishna, and encourages us to behave better and control our lower desires.

It is run on laws of cause and effect. Our actions produce reactions, each perfectly tailored to the individual and their consciousness. There is an amazing variety of births, some much higher than human, and some much lower, and every living entity will take birth in different species according to their previous activities, and suffer and enjoy accordingly under the modes of nature which control everything.

We get to fulfill our desires, and we get to enjoy or suffer the fruits of those desires in the form of reactions. But at some point, because we suffer the results of poor choices, we ask, "Why am I suffering? Who am I?"

At that point we can begin to understand our real spiritual nature and re-connect with God once again in a loving mood.

This is a rare occurrence, but the Supreme Lord encourages anyone who takes this step and gradually by His mercy we see the world for what it is, an amazingly complex machine that rewards and punishes living entities as per their desires and actions and in so doing creates pain and suffering as well as happiness and enjoyment. But whatever the degree of happiness you may attain, it is useless in the long run because it is temporary and ends with the body. Therefore Krishna says this material world is a place of suffering, and we should return to Him.

Bhagavad Gita 8.16
From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.

Having adopted this view we see the world in a new light…..a jail house that we should leave. The purpose of the human form of life is to take advantage of this opportunity to leave. All the unpleasantness that abounds on this planet, in this age, serves to remind us of the meaning of life,and pushes us forward to get serious, and get out and return to where we belong.

The best process is by chanting Hare Krishna mahamantra, and studying Bhagavad Gita As It Is.




Related post:

What is Dharma according to Bhagavad Gita?


The Significance of Chapter 1 in the Bhagwad Gita


What does Lord Krishna says about death in Bhagwad Gita?


Karma, Vikarma, Karma Yoga, Akarma in the Bhagavad Gita


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