The purpose of life

What is the purpose of our Life??

This question haunts each one of us at some point in our lives. When I was a child I too would ask my parents if we all have to die then why did God send us to this world? Different people will have different answers to this question influenced by their religious, social, cultural beliefs and also by their inherent characteristics and thoughts. My father’s reply to the question used to be a bit poetic. He would respond by saying “dard -e- dil key waastey paida kia insaan ko”. How true and relevant it is!!

The purpose of one’s life should be to serve the mankind. Just a glance at the world around and all you see is people suffering in so many varied forms. A few examples are poverty, children dying due to malnutrition, child labour, female infanticide, diseases, murders, accidents, terrorism, human rights violation, migration so on and so forth, the list is just unending. I believe the true essence of life is to help others, wherever there is suffering we should offer ourselves to serve and help. Now a question arises can one individual put an end to entire  human suffering? Not at all, but we can definitely do our bit by lending helping hand to others, no matter how small our contribution is. As parents we often say that we want our children to be happy and successful. Do we ever say that we want our children to lead a purposeful life spent in helping others? In the present competitive and equally turbulent times are we teaching our children the essence of being helpful? Are we ourselves helpful?

In  Times of India there was a news of a business consultant killed by a speeding Mercedes. The incident recorded on a nearby CCTV camera shows one eye witness picking his bag and leaving it on the footpath and the vehicles slowing down to check but none of the drivers stopped their car for help. Later on a gentleman took him to a hospital where he died after sometime. Could he had been saved by timely help? There can be no justified reason for ‘not’ helping a dying man. We all need to sit down and ponder over it.

The purpose of life is summed up in this line by Albert Schweitzer; “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others”.