(This is an excerpt from the book, “Essence of the Bhagavad Gita for Modern Minds“.)
To understand the goal of life, let us look at it in a very impersonal and rational manner. The Universe as we see today formed out of the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago. Several billion years after, our solar system emerged, and our Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. The first primitive life on earth formed about 3.7 billion years ago.
The most primitive life forms are unicellular. Then they evolved into multicellular organisms. Then came the vertebrates with brain and spinal cord. As life evolves, it becomes increasingly complex, till it reaches human beings, which is the most complex of all living beings.
We can take clues from this biological evolution to form an intelligent guess on what Nature has intended as the Goal of life for human beings.
The primitive life forms have only two goals – survive and multiply. If we think what success would mean for a fish, it would be to survive till adulthood and have a good number of healthy children. To enable this, Nature has endowed a fish with hunger, fear, sleep, lust, greed, etc. To survive and multiply is a good goal of life for a fish, or a virus or bacteria, but not for a human being.
With further evolution, animals started living in groups, like a herd of elephants or a pride of lions. What would success in life mean for an elephant? Beyond its own survival and multiplication, it must have contributed to the herd. It must have protected the herd from external aggressors and predators. It must have taken care of other members of the herd. To enable this, the highest manifestation of life for an elephant are emotions like love, anger, pride, loyalty, courage, aggression, anxiety, parenthood, etc. Nature has given various triggers of pleasure in the reward centres in the brain to enable these instincts in these animals. Even a dog or a bird has the natural instinct to take care of its young ones.
When we go still higher up in the evolutionary ladder, we come to human beings. Human beings live by ideologies that are voluntarily picked up. In animal societies, the strong dominate the weak. In human societies, the strong protect the weak. That is why we have affirmative action, reservation, etc. Animal societies are all about competition. Human societies are about cooperation and collaboration. Animal societies are about exploitation. Human societies are about conservation. Human societies are dominated by art and poetry in everything from food, dress, dwelling, language, sound, etc. It is these that separate humans from animals.
You may say that people also feel emotions like lust, greed, jealousy, anger, etc. These are evolutionary remnants. We have several useless evolutionary remnants in the body called vestigial organs like appendix, second eyelid, and ear muscles. Similarly, these are vestigial emotions. These try to pin us down at the animal level and it is a human struggle to rise above their influence to manifest our human nature. For example, the emotion of anger is absolutely of no use to a human being. No problem or situation can be addressed with anger. It is an evolutionary remnant. It is a vestigial emotion. Similarly, lust, jealousy, hatred, etc. are vestigial emotions. They are animal emotions and have no use for a human being. Being a proper human being means outgrowing these emotions.
Self-discipline is another distinguishing factor in human beings. Animals eat when they are hungry and sleep when they are tired. It is humans who voluntarily regulate these. Humans fast voluntarily for health (like intermittent fasting) or religious reasons (like Ekādasi, Lent, and Ramzān). Most humans have breakfast only after taking a bath in the morning. No animal would keep awake because it is Shivarātri. Animals start reproduction when they attain puberty. Human beings wait till they form stable families. Also, some people take to monastic life and live as celibates. These cannot be found in animals.
There are three parts in the brain. The lower animals have only the reptilian brain well developed. This is the seat of survival instincts. The higher animals have limbic system well developed. This is the seat of emotions. Only human beings have well developed neocortex. This is the seat of mirror neurons which help us to think from other’s point of view and be empathetic. This is the source of our value systems. Thus, the whole Universe is evolving through living beings along this hierarchy of goals.
The next development is the spiritual goal. Fortunately, no additional biological evolution is needed. Every human being is endowed with the necessary biology to pursue the final spiritual goal. The hardware is already sufficient. We only need a software upgrade. We need to learn to become introvert, develop a deep understanding of some concepts, and train to thinking clearly by following discipline and practicing meditation.
Just as animals find happiness in survival and sense pleasures, humans find pleasure in higher and nobler pursuits. The happiness thus got is also much higher.
Still, even this happiness is conditional and temporary. If we ask a person, “when do you want to be happy? Sunday or Monday? January or February? Morning or evening?”, the answer will be, “always”. If we ask, “Where? At home or work or road?”, the answer will be, “everywhere”. If we ask under what conditions, the answer will be “unconditionally”. If we ask how much, the answer will be “maximum”. Thus, we all want unconditional, eternal infinite happiness everywhere. Now, if such happiness is possible, it must be available here and now, everywhere and always. But, we are sad sometimes. Does that mean that it is not possible? Vedanta promises us freedom from all sorrow. Then why are we not able to avail it? Vedanta says, “ignorance of our true nature”. Thus, the final goal is to discover our intrinsic unconditional happiness by the knowledge of our true nature.
Swāmi Vivekānanda says, “Sense-happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom (Jnâna) is the goal of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys its senses; and we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature even more than his rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge. With this knowledge will come bliss.” [Complete Works of Swāmi Vivekānanda, Vol 3 pg 4]
Thus, we need to evolve from our animal nature to human nature, and from human nature to divine nature. This is the goal of not only individual life. Even the whole Universe sees its fulfilment when a human being reaches this goal. Thus, a human being reaching the goal gives meaning to the billions of years of evolution of the Universe. This possibility is there only in human beings, because the other animals have not evolved a complex enough brain for this.
Thus, the goal of life that is pointed to by Vedanta is what the whole Universe is evolving towards. These four stages of the goal are what is referred to as:
- artha – security
- kāma – pleasure
- dharma – virtue
- moksha – freedom
These are called caturvidha purushārthāh – four pursuits of human beings. The lower living organisms are driven predominantly by “artha”. The next higher living organisms are driven by “kāma”. Human beings live by “dharma”. The next step in this evolution is “moksha” – freedom from all sorrow by means of the right knowledge.
This is what is indicated in the three colours of the Indian National Flag. The green indicates artha and kāma, prosperity. The white indicates “dharma” with the dharma chakra. The saffron indicates “moksha”. The order indicates the evolution of one above the other.
This is the hierarchy of goals.
In the Gospel, Sri Rāmakrishṇa repeatedly asks spiritual aspirants to renounce kāma (lust or seeking pleasure) and kāncana (greed or seeking wealth). Swāmi Vivekānanda has coined the motto of the Rāmakrishṇa Math as ātmano mokshārtham jagat hitāya ca (for the liberation of the self and welfare of the world). Thus, Sri Rāmakrishṇa asks us to renounce artha and kāma. Swāmi Vivekānanda asks us to pursue dharma and moksha. Put together, they teach us what our attitude towards the four human goals should be.
Out of the trillions and trillions of living beings on Earth, human beings are only about seven or eight billion. Thus, human life is very rare on Earth. We, having got this human life, if we have artha and kāma as primary goals, it is a misuse and abuse of the opportunity. It is a disappointing betrayal of billions of years of evolution. The Kena Upanishad calls it, “mahati vinashti” – “great calamity”. [Kena Upanishad 2.5] So, we need to identify the animal and human propensities, and strive our best to manifest our human qualities (like love, kindness, cooperation, patience, self-discipline, knowledge, and dispassion) and outgrow our animal qualities (like lust, greed, anger, arrogance, jealousy, fear, and licentiousness). Every time we choose to be patient and not shout in anger, we are doing a service to the Universe and to humanity. We are helping the Universe and all the human beings evolve one step ahead. Every time we succumb to lower animal instincts like lust, greed, anger, jealousy, and hatred, we are betraying the billions of years of evolution. We are dragging the Universe back from its evolution and doing a disservice.
The purpose of life is to become a better human being and manifest our higher nature. All situations in life provide opportunities for this growth. By manifesting our higher nature, we are helping the Universe and Nature to evolve further. This itself is a great contribution to the Universe. This is a contribution that can be made even when on the deathbed. It does not need any physical energy or resources. Becoming a better person is the true and lifelong goal for every human being. We need to break out of the evolutionary remnants of seeking security and pleasure in the world. We need to grow out of narrow ideas of individuality and self-centeredness. We can see this very clearly from evolutionary biology and neuroscience.