If everything in life is temporary, what is the real purpose of being alive?

 The real purpose is to differentiate between what is temporary and what is eternal. That can’t be done empirically because that which is eternal - the spirit soul - is invisible. But by understanding that the spirit soul is the source of life and consciousness in a body, it’s existence can be inferred by empirically observing the existence of life and consciousness.

Although it’s some solace that difficult times will pass, we are generally frustrated by the temporary nature of life in this world.

One solution is to accept everything is temporary and too bad. Nothing we can do about it so learn to live with it.

Another possibility is to question why we are frustrated by the temporariness of this life. Why would we be frustrated unless there is the idea that it could be some other way. If there is zero possibility of an alternative, and never has been, why contemplate it and why be disturbed by what appears to be reality? If we want an alternative to this reality, where did the idea come from and why does it persist?

I suggest that it’s because the spirit soul is inherently eternal and belongs in an eternal world far from this temporary one. This is based on what Sri Krishna explains in Bhagavad Gita.

So the frustrations come from wanting what is inherently ours, while material nature runs interference from us experiencing what is rightfully ours. The various manifestations of material nature are temporary so an exhausted person may conclude, “what’s the point?”

That’s a mistake, because the obstacles to what is ours can be removed, and that’s the purpose of life here. To recognize that we are constitutionally eternal and presently situated in a temporary world where we don’t belong.

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. Bg 2.20.

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. Bg 8.16

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