This is a difficult question and I guess everybody has their own definition provided they think about it. Most people are too engrossed in day-to-day living that they do not think about it. However, I feel that in everybody’s life sooner or later this thought arises which makes them ponder over it. 

The answer also varies with age and in my case certainly has. At this ripe old age of 74 years, I somehow feel that the purpose of life is for each one of us to aid in the human evolution. In fact, everybody knowingly or unknowingly helps along the process anyway.

One of the best ways to assist human evolution is to first create a powerful and happy mind; use this mind to produce wealth and knowledge and then share it for common good and human evolution. That according to me is the purpose of life.  

Creating a happy mind

Happiness is a state of mind and when the whole mind concentrates on a single object or a subject for a considerable amount of time, we get a sense of well-being.  This is called samadhi according to Patanjali Yoga Sutras.  I am sure each one of us has personally experienced episodes of happiness when we get completely engrossed in our work or do creative work which requires deep concentration.  During this process, we even lose the concept of time.  All great inventors and creative people have often said that they were so immersed in their work that they lost all notion of time and space.

Why does the whole mind concentrating on a single positive thought give us a sense of well-being?  Part of the reason could be that with huge processing power the brain can resolve most of the mental conflicts so that we are at peace with ourselves.  Another reason could be that it is a mind-expanding exercise where our minds get connected to the Universal Consciousness.  Thus, all of us, when concentrating on a positive thought or idea have knowingly or unknowingly connected to the Universal Mind resulting in happiness.

Once we have a powerful and satisfied mind then it helps us to share experience and knowledge with others and this also brings happiness and contentment. I therefore feel that our real purpose in life is to first make our minds powerful and strong and then to give back the knowledge gained to others.                       

Sharing knowledge

This can be done by sharing the knowledge gained during a lifetime in any sphere and making it available freely to as large an audience as possible.

Thus, writing and disseminating the experiences helps in the process. Any large or small input is a contribution. The main thing is to document them in any form. People do write blogs, memoirs, self-help columns, recipes, make podcasts, etc. These are all part of the documentation process.

The history of the world is the history of writing. Knowing history makes us richer intellectually and helps in the evolution of mankind since the information transfer takes place (one of the key tenets of evolution).  Thus each of our writings is a baby step towards writing the history of the world. 

Too often I have been told by people that since I share freely all my writings, experiences, podcasts, etc., this is a showoff. But I guess people read and listen to my writings, videos and podcasts and it helps them to shape their thinking. So, knowledge transfer takes place, and every bit adds to the evolution. If everybody does that, it will add to the knowledge and history of mankind.  Lot of it is fragmented but the search engines and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools help to find the relevant information and sometimes consolidate it.  

Some of us have this arrogance to think that we have found the truth.  It may be so.  After all mankind is enriched by such experiences and thus inventions, discoveries, the creation of great music, etc., are all part of this process.  Sharing it freely also helps us in finding whether it is really the truth, or fake knowledge or delusion.

All human experiences follow the bell curve with greatness and evil as outliers. Average day to day life is what most people experience which is defined by the process of birth, procreation and death. Nevertheless this also helps mankind’s evolution since the genetic material is propagated via procreation and the experiences are also passed through the epigenetic process.

However, there are other experiences which connect us to the beauty of nature by making us aware of the infinite forces which shape this world.  That is when we are connected to the divine and become a part of Universal Consciousness. Thus, God or Universal Consciousness is nothing else but this beautiful Universe and the forces which shape it.                   

It is these divine experiences which give a quantum jump to the evolution of mankind since it allows us to jump from the terrestrial to the galactic both in terms of thought and physically. That is the leap of faith, the essence of living and the purpose of life.

Inspiring children 

However, this idea of connecting each one of us to Universal Consciousness needs to take root in our minds very early in our life. So how does one teach the children to achieve this lofty goal?

The most important thing is to make children dream and not suppress their curiosity. When they are curious and ask lots of questions it makes their brain expand and this helps them to find their own purpose in life. A gentle guidance to make them think and become aware of higher things, knowledge of nature and how things work will go a long way in awakening in them the awe and love for natural world.   

It is the nature of the human brain that when we go deeper into anything then we all discover the truth and beauty in this world, and this process helps us understand the purpose of our existence and life.   

(The writer, an IIT and US-educated Indian engineer,  a 2022 Padma Shri award winner, is the Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra.)