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This Is The Point.

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by HariLakhera, Aug 9, 2020.

  1. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    WHAT IS THE POINT ?

    Recent successive alleged suicides by actors SS Rajput and S Sharma in Bollywood has prompted me to do this rumbling. What prompted them to commit suicide? What prompts people to say what is the point?

    Mr X backed out just a day before his wedding. His close friend talks to him and is surprised to find that the would-be groom finds everything pointless-the wedding-then children- then responsibilities-then children taking to their wings-and loneliness and helplessness. What is the point?

    He is not alone. The very thought of helplessness, everything that we have done or will do seem to be pointless. It may be about education, job, marriage, children, property, relationships and so on. What is the point?

    High-end education did help in having a good-paying job but beyond that it was pointless. It did not make us good human beings. It did not help us understand life and worse it did not help us understand death. All it did was make us selfish, materialistic and self-centered. It did not help us prepare us for the end and enjoy the departure. It did nothing to eradicate the fear of death. What was the point? Even without any formal education, we would have met the same end. What is the point?

    Marriage provoked passion, passion brought children and both brought responsibilities. Both evoked the need for property, more property, selfishness, and more selfishness, attachments and more attachments but did help stop the ultimate. All put together increased the fear of death and desire to live more, a few days more. What was the point?

    Thousands of saffron-clad sadhus all over the religious places in the country seem to be advocating the point. None of them seem to be in search of the truth. Most of them are there because they could not fit anywhere else. They evaded the ups and downs of life for fear of failure. They took the easy way out, or that is what they thought. They did not realize that life, any life demands some commitment. Some of them returned to normal life but almost none of them were happy with the life they were living. This is like being 'na ghar ke na ghat ke'. (Neither here nor there). What is the point?

    The point is humans are made to live in the company of other fellow humans and that is what satisfies them. Marriage is one such option where the spouse is a partner in good and bad, success and failure. They are supportive of each other like a co-pilot. They are two wheels of the family vehicle. Children complement and supplement this process. Friends and relatives are also needed because without them the journey will be incomplete. If nothing else they help on the last journey.

    THIS IS THE POINT.
     
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  2. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Hariji,
    Only the last paragraph has a point. Rest of the snippet?????
    Syamala
     
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  3. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    Syamala Ji,
    Thanks for your feedback. All said and done, this world is good place, or should I say only place, to live. These guys should have understood that. They forgot they were leaving grieving families behind.
     
  4. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Hari Sir,

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts and it is extremely well thought out and well-written snippet.

    The scriptural advice to us is to seek bliss which is permanent happiness and pursuing happiness in the real-world will not satisfy us. But our goal is to seek happiness and every one of us works towards that single goal. What doesn't get us that happiness doesn't satisfy us, be it prosperity, wealth, health, name, fame, etc., which is why they are considered transient or impermanent happiness. However, I believe seeking happiness is a habit and I teach that to the children in my moral classes. I tell them that they should never pledge their happiness for any reason and they should never depend on someone for their happiness. But before they do that, they need to understand what is happiness. They have a right to be happy and anything that blocks their happiness needs to be carefully evaluated and dispensed with, if necessary. Removing imperfection inside of us eventually leads to happiness. Death doesn't bother if life is experienced with a great sense of fulfillment.
     
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  5. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    There is a point in your essay.You want to know the point.
    Life, in general, has a point. There has to be a reason why I’m here and why you’re here. You just have to find it.
    All human action has as its end goal the achievement of a state of happiness.

    The smarter and smarter you are, the easier and easier it is to get happy and stay that way.

    Let me put it this way: Are you smarter now than you were ten years ago? One year ago? One week ago? When you go to bed at night, are you a little bit smarter than when you woke up that morning?

    See how this works? What an automatic process this is?

    "We were created with a purpose -- to love God and others around us, and to make a difference in their lives for good, with the resources and limited time that we have on earth. Joy come from loving and from being loved, and in finding and fulfilling the purpose for which we were created and for which you are called."

    Life is pointless only when you think so. Life meaningful only when you think so. Pointless or meaningful, good or bad, is just a state of mind. There is only life, nothing beyond it.

    Who we “think” we are- it can be devastating, because the thinker is restless, wanting, controlling, needy, victimising, holier than, competitive, divided.

    Thinking, believing in a me and my story, my purpose, what impact I will have, what difference I can make in the world, what I can do to make it better..no matter how altruistic it appears…. This sense of self, of me, has an inherent feeling of lack or missing to it, that all the purpose in the world can not fill. Why?

    Just like the irritating grain of sand to the oyster, that the oyster coats to try to alleviate the irritance of it, and fails, so too does the personal sense of self irritate itself with itself.. It is driven to find purpose because the self itself has no purpose other than to irritate, like a grain of sand to an oyster. The apparent Self is needed because the suffering of the self and its endless search in the relief from itself (one example is finding purpose) eventually has the self stop in its tracks, turn 360 degrees inside out and awareness looks back into what's being looked from..

    Put the phone down, close your eyes and be the stillness of this.. Do you feel the goodness?
    Yes,this is the purpose and point in life.
    First believe there is a point. The point will turn into eventful life events.
    jayasala42
     
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  6. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Shri Viswa,
    Thanks for your considered opinion. As you said, seeking happiness is a habit and our right as humans. Sometimes, because of high expectations from life can lead to depression. We have to be prepared to face failures, disappointments and build our future actions on that. But then it is easy said than done.
    There comes a situation where the futility of these efforts lead to the state-What is the point? It is probably not the fear of death but death being the solution of the problems that leads to suicides. Thousands people commit suicide for no good reason.
     
  7. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera Platinum IL'ite

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    Very thoughtful and motivating. Even if we do not go by the theory that we are here for a reason, there is still need to survive. It is difficult for many to understand the 'purpose' of life. In reality, the purpose is to spend our time happily on the planet. For some it may be living a materialistic life, have family and fun and simply fade away. For others, it may be to leave a footprint behind for others to follow. In the end both have to go. So, if the going away is certain, we either face it with with a smile or keep on worrying about this or that.
    But for those, who do not want to think this way, have only one thought-What is the point?
    It is also true that almost 99.999999% humans do not really care. For them, living the given life is paramount. Like or not, they have to perform 'Karma' to survive. Like it or not, they go to bed in the night only to wake up in the morning and start that 'karma' again. The cycle keeps rolling. And this is the point.
     
  8. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    :hello:Kudos to your pov.

    Point is dimensionless.

    2. So there is no need at all to ponder about discovering purpose of life or obsessed with the questions “why am here? For what? Is it worth slogging” - just strive to be happy. Still better not to pursue to attain happiness nor take sadness to heart either like true monks of yore. Craving for happiness will make one to seek more and more.

    3. Barring a few - presumably in their sunset years, a vast majority of humanity seemingly pursue comfort joy happiness and eventually land just getting the opposite.

    4. The moment one gives to thinking about ultimate “point of living” or ultimate “point of working” he or she is not going to get ever any answers.

    5. We are seemed to have born just to enjoy the journey of life - sit by window watch the distant Landscape of life passing by lest obsessed with “ point” person may get depressed. Some might advise that we are supposed to think of Lord and seek His Or Her feet 24x7. We do not know for sure what happened those stalwarts who sat like that 24 x 7.

    Thanks and Regards.
     
  9. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Smt. Jayasala:

    Very well said. Bhavaroga is the root cause of our sufferings. Once we begin the process of knowing what is true knowledge, what can place us in permanent happiness, the oneness of all beings, cleansing of everything we are not, we will begin to see the subtle point in living life as you rightly said. We are infected by Ragha and Dvesha, excessive indulgence in pleasure and pain, desires and attachments, I and mine, etc. forever. Inquiry reveals that we are the ultimate Truth we were looking for in life and we end up living thinking we are the body, mind and intellect, the tools that were given to realize the pure and unsullied Sat-Chit-Ananda.
     
  10. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    This is exactly what Bhagvan Ramana Maharishi emphasise in his works written in tamil and or Sanskrit ullathu narpadhu / atsharamanamalai. To get this type of Gyana one has to remain just watch and let go thoughts. It is not meditation. It is not yoga. It is not Bhakthi. It is just just be.this axiom can be appreciated by mere Listening to justbe Sathsang u tube video in live chat 7p.m. IST.

    Thanks & Regards.
     
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