Either life has a purpose or life does not have a purpose.
If it has a purpose, then every action of life must be evaluated on benchmark of being relevant in serving the purpose or not.
If it does not have a purpose, then there is no benchmark to judge any action to be better or worse than any other action. Whatever you do – kill, loot, rape, drink, steal – is no way wrong. And sacrifice, kindness, respect, discipline are no way right.
If eventually the life has to end in an eternal blankness, how does it matter – what we do and what we do not?
One may say that one is free to do whatever he wants to do so far he does not hurt someone else. This philosophy sounds good on paper. But it is riddled with major flaws:
A. No one can do anything without impacting others. From a breath of clean air to clothes, travel, food and luxuries – each of us is hopelessly dependent on others. The only way to not hurt someone else is to live in a spaceship in interstellar space. Even then you would be dependent on others to build you a spaceship. Knowingly or unknowingly you would have impacted innumerable lives despite being a freedom loyalists.
The chain of human dependence goes way beyond our imaginations. The world was designed for collaborative living. There is no scope for independence. You cannot even blink if you were to take permission from others.
I got hurt due to carelessness while walking down the stairs. So I sprained my leg. I could not go out. Hence the meeting I was to chair got canceled. Therefore salary of my employees got delayed. He postponed his purchases. Therefore another salesman could not meet his target and got fired. His wife got upset. There his wife’s sister got upset. She fought with her husband. Husband got agitated. He showed carelessness in driving. He hit a boy on road. The boy died. My carelessness killed a boy.
This chain can go even further. Every good or bad action has an impact on everyone else in ways we cannot imagine.
Our freedom is conditional.
B. Eventually everyone will end up in an eternal blankness if there is no purpose of life. Then how does it matter what happens to whom. The end result is decided beforehand. How is human life different from bubbles in water that eventually end into nothing? All I know is that I feel happiness and pain at this moment. So how is the urge to maximize my happiness in present wrong? Why should I bother about others who are bound to end in blankness in any case?
C. Who passed the principle that one must care for others? Was he yet another bubble in water who is no more? Why should I believe in his philosophy? Just because millions other believe so. Then millions other also get angry and tell lies. Then why is telling lie wrong?
It is clear that if one believes that certain acts are good and certain bad, then life must have a purpose. Life that ends in blankness has no relevance of good and bad.
If purpose does not exist, then there is nothing good or bad. Then the only religion of human being must be to maximize the pleasures of life – be it by killing others or fooling others or whatever.
And if purpose exists, other actions of life must also agree with the purpose. Then there is no scope of “My Life My Choice”. It always has to be “My Life Purposeful Choice”.
The question arises though – what is the purpose? Who will tell me the purpose. Well Vedas say – you may never know the purpose till you get to the climax. But you definitely can know what is NOT the purpose.
– Since we live in a hopelessly collaborative world, anything that does not bring greatest good for most is NOT the purpose.
– Anything that deviates anyone from purposeful responsible living is NOT purpose.
– Anything that aims to bring pleasures against laws of nature is NOT purpose.
– Human brain is the most plastic organ. You can mould it anyway simply through thoughts. You can do it in any age. More you practice, more the flexibility in brain. Anything that does not utilize this plasticity to become purposeful is NOT purpose.