Why are we living why do we live

Query: Why are we living? Why do we live? What is the essence of life?

Vijay Kumar:

Your query primarily relates to, "why do we live", "why are we living", "What is the essence of life" etc... In reality every human being experiences all what you have said at some point of time. These experiences confirm one fact that body is not the essence of life. We invariably come to an understanding that within our body exists a higher form of life we call our soul atman!

The relationship between the body and the atman soul must be clearly understood. Our body is meant to live an average life of about 70 to 80 years whereas our atman the soul within is on its cosmic journey of 8.4 million manifestations altogether. It is a long journey indeed for the total journey would require approximately 96.4 million earthly years.

Now one thing must be clearly understood... our atman soul (the inner self existing within us) is the real essence of life. It cannot be destroyed or eliminated by any means. It is our atman soul which has manifested the body and never otherwise. Our body is not capable enough to manifest an atman soul.

This atman the soul within our body is a miniscule form of God Almighty. It is a source of energy which cannot be seen but only felt. Whenever we tend to go wrong in the journey of life... the sweet small inner voice of our atman soul always tries to prompt us from within on the right path. Whether we follow it or not is our absolute prerogative.

Having understood the crux of life that our true inner self (our atman the soul within) residing in our heart is finally governing... we need to understand why our atman soul required manifesting a body... the physical self of us! and once this concept is clear to us many questions which arise in your mind cease to exist.

Having born a human being we tend to rejoice within the confines of available comforts of life. Our body governed by the five senses and the mind makes us do that. The wanton tendencies within every human being lurches for the materialistic riches in life. But this is not the desire of atman the soul within us.

atman the soul within us on its cosmic journey desires that the body must perform as per its dictates. This is seldom followed by most human beings. The cravings within every human being make us follow the materialistic path. and this builds up stresses and tensions within every human being.

Although God Almighty has built up the cosmic system in a fashion that atman the soul within our body requires a long journey of 8.4 million manifestations, yet every atman soul desires completing the journey at the earliest. Understanding the doctrine of Bhagavad Gita by Lord Krishna makes us dive deep into the pearls of wisdom to reach the end of cosmic journey early. But to understand Bhagavad Gita is the most difficult task of all.

In the physical manifested world we experience happiness and sufferings. To shape a metal we require to heat and beat it. Similar things happen to human beings also. Unless we have the sufferings... the value of happiness can never be truly understood. If we have fire we also have water. We have day... we also have nights.

In the cosmic system the sum total of all at any given point of time must always remain zero. If we have God at plus hundred... we also have Satan at minus hundred. The senses and the mind are under the control of Satan all the time. It is the prayers addressed to God which pave way towards pure spirituality.

How we maintain a balance in our physical form of life is purely dependent upon us. We may limit our materialistic tendencies or we may let them lose is our prerogative. In the present Kali Yuga phase of life we find most do not want to control their inherent wanton desires. Everyone wants to be rich within a day. This gives rise to instability within our body. Sometimes we may feel extreme happiness and at other times the sufferings also follow.

No human being experiences only sufferings. This is just not possible. It is only in the spiritual domain that spiritual masters experience inner peace all the time. If we truly desire happiness and bliss all the time... we must proceed towards our spiritual goal of life and understand the real inner self of us.

As the true inner self of us is always governing... whenever we are lonely we find that it is not worthwhile pursuing material riches in life. But imagine a situation that there is a marriage in the family short while from now. and the marriage is also of ones younger sister or brother. The happiness one imagines on such an occasion makes us indulge in all things ephemeral. At this point of time we are far away from our spiritual goal of life.

Does this mean we were wrong in celebrating the marriage? No! Marriage is also a part of life. If we celebrate it with full zeal and vigor... we definitely have transgressed more into the material riches of life but that does not mean we have indulged in that. We must always try to perform our karma in a nishkama way.

By performing nishkama Karma... we do not bind ourselves with the karma performed. This was practiced by King Janaka all the time (father of Sita in Ramayana). King Janaka was a nishkama karma yogi par excellence. JRD Tata was able to emulate King Janaka to an extent. He lived like a true trustee always considering that nothing ever belonged to him.

It is only when one binds bodily self to the karma performed that we experience sufferings. The experience of Bhagavad Gita gives us unlimited bliss. We have to choose the path. It is the prerogative of every human being to choose the ultimate goal of present life. Unless we have a fixed goal in life... nothing much can be achieved. Rather we shall most of the time face sufferings.

Now back to the base question, as to "why our atman soul required manifesting a body?"

I shall explain this phenomenon in brief...

After the big bang occurred and all atman souls scattered all over the Cosmos... for these souls' atmans to come back to their pristine pure original form... they required to go through a chain of manifestations. Similar like the metal in the ore cannot separate the dross from within on its own. Every atman soul thus manifests one body after another to purify itself of the impurities contained within.

This need for atmans souls to manifest bodies one after another is the prime cause of creation of the cosmos. It is only thence the atmans souls will regain their pristine glory... the original pure form. Only then a human being gains moksha salvation and the soul atman goes back to the kingdom of God (called Vaikuntha in Hinduism).

God bless you.

Always there to clarify your queries (send your query),

Vijay Kumar "Atma Jnani" Vijay Kumar... The Man who Realized God in 1993 on Why are we Living. For more on why are we living- why do we live visit - why are we living

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Full text of query: I went through a phase at a younger age where I knew knowing about themselves completely is really difficult. If u really know about yourself completely, then you will never feel like being in this physical world. Might be, I was in search for what am I at that point of time. I used to ask many questions to myself and just be in search for the same. At the same time, I feel like enjoying socially with everyone in this physical world. Sometimes, I don't want to be alone. Why am I like this? Sometimes I feel what's there in this world and will feel to be in search of God and know about him and sometimes I feel there's a lot to do over here. But, I don't know what it is. Do help me understand the situation I am going through. Is it right or wrong?