Life Is Precious-Part II

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The first step towards gathering the precious life-diamonds is to wake up to the fact that life is precious, because it has a precious destiny. Human beings are not born without an inherent higher purpose. Whatever be the childhood or early youth experience, human life has a purpose. This is an important realization, in fact, the most important realization.

Our lives are not purposeless events to be spent chasing greedy pursuits and sensual pleasures. "Unfortunately, in this life," writes Swami Vivekananda, "the vast majority of persons are groping through this dark life without any ideal at all." Instead of groping, therefore, through a dark life, we must accept and commit ourselves to a nobler, higher ideal in life. In fact, according to Vedanta, no human being can be satisfied fully without accepting and giving oneself to the highest ideal of Self-realization. Accepting the ideal of Self-realization in itself is a salutary act.

This needs a little explanation. Man (this term includes woman as well) is essentially divine. This essential divinity is of the nature of eternity, of eternal Existence, eternal Knowledge and eternal Bliss. This being our true nature or real Self, how can we be satisfied with anything short of the 'Infinite?' Only 'Infinite' can satisfy the 'Infinite'. All our pleasures of senses are finite. They have a beginning and an end. This need no advice, no counsel from anyone; a little thinking and analysis will reveal this truth. In other words, they are limited and small.

To reach the Infinite, one has to transcend the finite, the limited. This is an important fact to remember Human life is precious because it is an opportunity to realize this real nature of man. "Well," people may protest, "how many people can really attain this realization?" To this, the simple answer lies not in how many succeed in realizing it but how many attempt to do it. How can success come unless there is any attempt! The Bhagavad Gita, too, agrees to this fact that "only one among the thousand reaches this spiritual perfection," But to become that "one among thousands," this first step is to become a part of those fortunate thousands!

About the author

This article is written by Swami Atmashraddhananda for the 'Vedanta Vani' magazine of Chinmaya Mission.