What is the Purpose of Our Life?

Imagine a life where we were told to do tasks but were not given the purpose of those tasks. A spouse asked the other half to make a spread of dishes for 10 people but refused to give the reason for the request. A child demanded for $100 but declined to give the explanation for the need. A manager asked to work on a random tedious task but found it not important to tell the objective of the task. How would we feel doing task after task not knowing its purpose and achievement? Would we be enthusiastic about doing without knowing? My life felt like that many times because I was driving aimlessly, switching lanes randomly, without being fully aware where did I want to reach?

I never really had thought about the purpose of my life because I was very busy taking care of many things and doing things that were fun. My life was not bad, but it was aimless, all over the place, and there was no consistency in experience or inner stability. Little did I know that a higher purpose in life is needed to drive our energy and efforts in the right direction. At Brahma Kumaris I was taught to be very smart about choosing a purpose that meets the following criteria:

1. It is attainable
2. Meeting it automatically brings benefit to every sphere of life
3. We can meet the purpose on our own, independently.

In the past, I had many purposes or a long to-do list. I would be torn apart between different responsibilities and in the end feel exhausted. The exhaustion was because many times the purpose was not attainable because I had to rely on others to meet it. For example, I had the aim of having a healthy body. I exercised and ate healthy food to meet that goal. Inspite of me trying sincerely, many times my body would not be healthy. It would generally have something or the other going on. If I met the goal of keeping it healthy for sometime, that did not automatically mean that all my other goals at work or home would meet. I had to put in extra effort and time for other goals in life. I was taught to keep in my awareness a higher purpose in life, to be content. Indeed we all have many short term and long term goals due to the various roles and responsibilities in life. The key is to have the aim of being content in an emerged manner while doing everything. Else, it is very hard to meet if we are not attentive about it.
An analogy of a tree helps in understanding why it is important to keep a higher purpose in life. Let’s say that the root of the tree is ‘us’ the emotional being, and the branches are various aspects of life that we are responsible for (like body, relations, and finances). Each branch has many leaves, and let's say that these leaves represent tasks we have to perform like taking care of physical health, meeting project deadlines, or cooking for kids. Let's ask ourselves this question, how much time do we spend taking care of the emotional being when compared to taking care of various aspects of our life?

Can a tree be healthy if roots are weak?

Gazillion goals in the external world were created mainly to experience peace and happiness. Then, are we experiencing it? Can a tree be healthy when water is poured only to its leaves? We are also using ineffective method by putting energy in making each and every aspect of our life (let my children be healthy, let me be successful at work, etc) green so that we the emotional being can be green. We should check and see if this method of working so hard on each and every leaf is giving us the attainments we are desiring. Most of the time we do not experience attainments and other times there is just an experience of momentary pleasure. Can a momentary experience satisfy us? Sometimes the leaves of physical health stays okay, but other leaves of work or relations starts to rotten. At one moment we experience satisfaction that our body is doing okay, and in the  next moment our relations cause us dissatisfaction. We eventually get very tired, frustrated, and disheartened using this method of watering just the leaves and failing to take care of the roots (emotional being).
How can we consistently be aware of our higher purpose in life?

We need a new strategy to experience what we really want from life. That strategy is to consciously keep the higher purpose of life in our awareness. When we have only one purpose, we automatically become focused. We have a clear vision on what needs to be done as there are no distractions that come by having  hundreds of goals. It requires a lot of practice as this is a new way of living. Rajayoga meditation comes in handy here as it is all about educating the mind to think differently, creatively and positively. In Raja Yoga meditation, we consciously create elevated and powerful thoughts. Our thoughts are the source (seed) of all our feelings and actions, and we need to change the source so that everything becomes positive. We tend to focus on making external changes, like we will not say or do certain things. We still end up saying or doing things against our wishes inspite of making many resolves. Why? It is because we did not change our thoughts that are the roots from which the branches of words and actions emerge. Feelings, attitude, words, and action will automatically change when we put effort in changing the thoughts. Just like the body stays healthy when it is given nourishing food and is exercised regularly. Similarly  mind will stay healthy and create positive thoughts if it gets healthy food of Spiritual knowledge and is exercised through meditation. Once the mind becomes healthy, it will automatically have positive impact on the physical health, relationships, and emotional health. The simplicity of Raja Yoga is that it can be done anytime, as powerful thoughts can be created while driving, cleaning, or laundry. Even during meetings at work when we are not active participants, we can silently create pure thoughts. The practice of Raja Yoga meditation throughout the day not only makes us experience peace, but helps us accumulate treasures of peace within us. The storehouse of internal peace allows us to easily face any challenges that come from the outside world. Are you ready to practice Raja Yoga meditation and calmly face the storms of life?
Tips for taking care of the emotional being
Practice Rajayoga Meditation atleast 10 mins early in the morning and few times throughout the day while eating, drinking, or driving.
Meditation Commentaries
Letting Go
Healing the Heart
Power to Change