Just my perspective. I grew in a normal religious Nepali family and used to follow the routines, rituals as told by the family, society(eg: going to specific gods temple on specific days. etc etc). Sometimes during my mid 20's I went through some life's hardship (nothing more or less than what everyone goes through), but those moments made me question why I was going through these troubles despite doing the right things in life and what the purpose of my life was ? Right around that time 2015 earthquake happened lots of innocent people died. My friend lost her entire family(of 4), only surviving member being her. She survived due to her not being home that day, It made me think how can god be so cruel ?. She now has to live her life knowing she will never see them again. I know such cruel, sad incidents happen everyday but as humans we tend to care more if it happens to people we know personally. I pretty much stopped believing in god, religion after that as it did not make sense to me. Going back to purpose of life, the way I see only things that have been created have purpose. example;Humans made vehicles to get from point A to Point B so a vehicle has a purpose. So to answer the question regarding purpose of life, I don't think there is a purpose of life. In order for our life to have a purpose somebody must have created us ? Who created us god ? I don't believe in god. Again this is just my perspective based on the experience I have had in life to this point and don't expect others to agree with me. It might change it might not. Having said that, I think we should pursue to do things that fulfill us which does not come at the detriment of others. Depending on who you are it might be making lots of money, dating lots girls, buying fancy cars.. etc etc. Last edited: 07-Jan-22 01:30 PM

Taco Burrito Salsa · Jan 7, 2022 1:27 PM

I feel like Taco Burrito Salsa stole my words! Very well said. We only live once. I don’t think there is any purpose to our lives. We are no different than animals or insects. We just got lucky by having more intelligence than other beings and were able to survive and thrive at the expense of others. It is absolutely true what you said about how can there be god when there is so much cruelty in the world? Take the example of your friend or those innocents who are dying every day in Yemen, Syria etc. Now some religious pundit will come along and talk some nonsense about “purba janma” and paying the price now and all that cr*p. But they don’t have any evidence and just reference religious skripts  written thousands of years ago when rich walked around semi naked and rode in chariots. There are seven billion people in the world and who has a good life and who suffers is based on a complex combination of their own actions, the theory of probability, where they are located and their individual situations. So the purpose to life is just live the way you want with all its good and bad consequences for your actions. Just be mindful of at least not hurting others as much as you can even if you cannot help them. Last edited: 07-Jan-22 08:09 PM

chicagoan · Jan 7, 2022 8:08 PM

myth of sisyphus

bairaghi · Jan 8, 2022 10:42 AM

One of my co-worker retired after working in the industry for over 40 years. I just started my career and I guess I am a bit concerned about monotonous life. Yes, I go on vacations, I don't over work and I try to enjoy during the weekend. But when I think about the big picture(if there is any), is this what I am supposed to do? Is this what I want to do? Have you guys ever had similar feeling? And its not that I do not like my job. I love the work as it is challenging and makes my brain do some thinking. Based on what you guys said, I guess it is my choice. If I want to live my life like this, then that is the way to go. Am I going through quarter-life crisis? Looks like it!

Ketofarar · Jan 8, 2022 2:12 PM

@Ketofarar,Most of the times, we do not get to do what we really want to do in life. I had thought so much too concerning my career and all, but now doing something completely different. Had to work against the grain, well. The words, 'believe in yourself', they sound too good to be true, but they do not apply to every one of us. The only virtue I cherish in people is 'perseverance'. That's all! I am okay with the work I do, as it pays my bills and some of my bigger desires that I could not fulfill when I was working menial jobs. Job satisfaction may not be there, but my life is not some Hollywood movie you know! I am quite submissive now. I used to dream big but no more, since USA showed me some bitter realities the hard way, Regarding the first topic, while in Nepal, we used to have Moral Science Class or Values class, where the teacher would talk about such matters like you brought up here. Yeah, we were made to think even then itself, about the meaning of our life, our existence. Why are you here for? Jokes apart, these questions kept coming back to me for quite a long time. Then this book called 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho made news. I have not read it yet (my apologies) but I will tell you what my friends used to say. As per them it was about finding a calling in your life. I think that idea resonated well with the questions we were posed to so early on while at school. You have to find a calling in your life. For a while I thought I did find my calling ala 'passion' in my life and pursued it like crazy and yes I did succeed in my reaching the destination, but when I reach there, I found out that there are elements there who would not appreciate your hard work or passion to reach there, your journey becomes just a commonplace and nothing else. I became so disillusioned after meeting up with this unexpected vacuum, so finding a calling in life is not applicable to me personally. Maybe there are people who can say they have found their calling in their lives through the work they are or have been doing, but not me. Am I still looking for a calling in my life as of now? I do not know! @Tacoo Burrito Salsa Before I say something, I would like to make it clear that you do not have to really buy what I say, but still I will appreciate it if you would read my lines. These are just some random opinions of mine. I feel the problems arise when we expect too much from Gods we worship. Also because we have been following them, offering them money food and what not. This culture always bring expectations and pain if they are not fulfilled. The earthquakes in 2015 killed many people, but we expected that since they had been devout followers of their Gods, they were not supposed to go through this all. Isn't that a little too much? I remember learning a lot about Jews in my class, 'World religions'. I was completely ignorant about them before but then I came to know how much suffering they went through, how many places they kept on moving and how many people were against them. I forgot a lot but I will tell you the gist of my learning. Have a look at their faith, or religion they follow, they kept going, but did not lose their hope, their sanctity. It is still hard for regular Americans to marry Jews people, some may even think they are weird, whatever. Give it a thought, they went through so much in their lineage, they could have said, 'oh our God did not take care of us, we are not going to believe or follow Him from now on', but they didn't and in turn this made them look pristine or special! I will always remember this sentence while learning about Jews, 'The sufferings the Jews went through made them look good', and I was like what does that even mean? My teacher gave an example of a rose plant, how a gardener would cut the unwanted leaves, dead flowers so that the plant overall look appealing to everybody. The plant, yes goes through all sufferings, pain but at the end it looks good to eyes, to us, and everybody wants to be near the plant. I ain't going to tell you to re-establish your faith but I would recommend you to do some reading about other religions. There is an apt saying in Nepali, 'sabailaai aafno dukh sarhai thulo lagcha', maybe this is stopping you to look outside and do some soul-searching. Last edited: 08-Jan-22 07:43 PM

Bennedict · Jan 8, 2022 7:33 PM

Lord Rama once asked Maharishi Vashistha - Who am I? Maharishi Vashistha remained silent. Everybody in the assembly was astounded. Then Lord Rama asked Maharishi Vasistha -- Oh Ocean of Mercy, there is nothing in this world that you do not know the answer of. Then Maharishi Vasistha replied - O Rama, I remained silent not because of I do not know the answer. I remained silent because "silent" was the only answer for your question !

ujl · Jan 8, 2022 8:12 PM

Purpose of life .. More than purpose of life I want to initially focus on the reason first. What is the reason of life? The answer is not very divine nor appealing as most of the time the reason for life is simply a side effect of pleasure. Nature is amazing, most people mistake the powers of God for the power of nature. Nature, the cosmos itself is god. It is limitless, it creates life, it nurtures life, it creates the fundamental grounds where life can sustain itself. So why are human beings so gung ho about a personified god? God itself is a human construct. In animals you see an innate trait of fear, but as human beings have a more developed brain they had a need to channel this fear towards a tangible entity. During the evolution of man from neanderthal stage, there had to be an onset of rush to ordain oneself as the alpha male or let's say a more powerful group among the community. And that position was attained by channeling man's innate sense of fear. The fear of losing life, the fear of pain, the fear of the unknown. These were the fear experienced daily and the thinking man needed a reasonable and logical explanation. The lack of any explanation was capitalized by a group of smart individuals who attributed an unknown force as the answers to everything. Thus God was born out of our need to quantify and explain the unknown. The concept of God became stronger as the group soliciting the God concept started holding higher positions in their respective communities. This was not only in one part of civilization. This happened in multiple parts of the world as neanderthals started developing into more advanced humans. Thus the existence of multiple religions can be explained. As many philosophers have pointed out the truth lies within and so is God. What you seek outside in the unknown territory has a very simple explanation and as I mentioned earlier, god is nothing but nature, the cosmos that we are part of. We are one with god we are one with nature. Nature creates and destroys. Nature has existed from time immortal, science can only suggest and make educated conjectures but truth can be far from the powers of science because the nature, the cosmos is unfathomable and infinite. So let's get back to the purpose of life. What is a purpose? Purpose is the reason for which something is done or created. There is purpose for something that is done or created by design. Life for example, the purpose of a bus is to transport people. It was created for that purpose. Purpose of iphone is to allow people to communicate and be entertained. Purpose of pans is to cook food. Hence purpose is only there for things which are created by design or done to meet a specific goal. In the forest the seeds of a plant falls all over land and new plants bloom all over. Is there a purpose for a seed germinating into a plant? We can use different plants for different things or we can grow specific plants with a purpose in mind, but life itself does not have a purpose. Once we have life, we can make our own purpose out of it, but it does not come with a purpose. Maybe some parents really want to have a child to love and care for and they try to create life and become successful. So you could say the purpose of life was to fulful the goals of the parents to have a child, but once the new life is born, it does not come with any purpose. It is just there to grow like a plant. To withstand storms, rains, sunshine, gather experience and bend to the whims of nature and then procreate and become one with nature from start to end. Just like us. So we can perhaps say that the purpose of life is to continue to be part of nature while during the lifespan enjoy nature and it's offering in its infinite glory. Last edited: 09-Jan-22 10:22 AM

independent · Jan 9, 2022 10:22 AM

थोड़े फूल हैं काँटे हैं जो तक़दीर ने बाँटे हैं हम को इन में से हिस्सा हमारा मिल जायेगा Last edited: 09-Jan-22 02:49 PM

Sanaklaal · Jan 9, 2022 2:48 PM

So Benedict, for you and your teacher, the Jews that died during Spanish Inquisition, many other pogroms in Europe and Ottoman Empire, the holocaust, and almost for “the Doctor’s plot” (luckily Stalin died at the right moment so that several million Jews were spared the purge), are just unwanted leaves and dead flowers while the perpetrators are the gardeners? Wow, you and your teacher have some serious issues.

chicagoan · Jan 9, 2022 2:57 PM

@chicagoanThat analogy was meant to highlight the fact that Jews were so resilient, whenever we talk about notable human sufferings in the past, people will keep talking about Jews and admire their perseverance and audacity to spring back. The lesson of resiliency is something that a rose plant which is pruned and groomed teaches us as well. It is no way to hint that the unwanted leaves and the dead flowers are the Jews who died or got killed or that the gardeners are the offenders as such. We go through tough times and those times test us, our belief structures, our grit. Here when I read Tacoo's or your comments about the diminishing faith in our ideologies, I sensed a need to broaden a horizon a bit. You have this earthquake in 2015, so many people died, and your Gods did not come to save them so from now on, you going to alienate yourself from them? To me, It sounds nothing more than an impulsive decision really. Nepal saw so many earthquakes in its history, another biggest being in 90 saal, 46 saal (I can only talk about from the pictures I have seen) and many others. So going by the reason presented, Nepalese people should have lost their faith from way early on. Right? Like I said previously, our culture is like that give and take, we give offerings in the form of 'ransom' and expect that we be taken care of when need be, but this expectation bearing mindset is always prone to bringing pain to ourselves. I feel sorry for the loss of lives of Tacoo's friend. Deaths are never easy, but to hold vindictiveness against God and then saying religions, Gods do not make sense anymore, because He did not spare the ones I know is a bit too much and needs some re-evaluation. The example of Jews was a hint to look around the world. There have been or are still so many miseries prevailing. Maybe our problems are not that big of a size as we might have imagined them out to be.

Bennedict · Jan 9, 2022 6:39 PM

@independent"...the reason for life is simply a side effect of pleasure...." I would put it another way, maybe the reason for life is to procreate, and for the living beings to be interested in procreating there has to be some carrot at the end of the tunnel, and maybe it is that 'pleasure' factor that they want it again and again. Life itself may not have a purpose other then follow the norms of nature, but creating a purpose and working for it is what makes a life worth living for. This again goes back to the question posed by the OP as to why are we here for.

Bennedict · Jan 9, 2022 7:15 PM

I still feel your analogy of Jewish suffering to trimming of a flower plant, perverse. Thanks for trying to broaden our horizon for expecting too much from god. But you are wrong there. We don’t expect anything from god because we believe god does not even exist. The events that happen in the universe are random and trying to make sense/predict them brings superstition. Superstitions then become religion. Multiple religions get created and then there is this human ego of my religion is better than yours. Then there are wars and invasions and most of the time innocents suffer. So it is quite ironic that religions which are supposed to “reward” good people cause great pain and suffering to these same people. About randomness of events: take the example of Prachanda. He caused at least 17 thousand deaths and untold amount of suffering to the living but he is one of the most powerful persons in Nepal if not THE most powerful. Now someone might come and say, “but there is some kind of justice, he got punished by losing his son.” Now, a lot of regular people also lost their children in Prachanda’s war. Why were they punished? Now the same “bujruks” might say, “oh it is their actions from prior lives” as if these “bujruks” know how exactly how their prior lives had been. So again, trying to make sense of the random events is silliness bordering on insanity.

chicagoan · Jan 10, 2022 8:02 AM

Why are we blaming God because he didn't save people's lives in 2015 Earthquake? Was he supposed to save lives of those who died? Last edited: 10-Jan-22 01:01 PM

ujl · Jan 10, 2022 12:53 PM

@Bennedict, I read and appreciate your input. Let me start off by saying I was not intending to make this thread about religion/god or lack of. I was just giving my reasoning as to why for me there is no such thing as purpose of life and how I got to that conclusion. I think I also should make it clear just because I don't see the logic or the need of religion in my life does not mean others should do the same, I am not attacking someone else's belief. If believing in god makes you a good human being and makes you contribute positively to the society I am all for it. It's ironic but I remember taking world religion class in 06 and learning about the suffering of the jewish people, it actually planted the seeds of doubt for me. But, If the Jews despite what they have gone through believe in their faith Kudos to them, I respect it. All I am saying is the belief/logic I have now has made me content, happy and focus on things that are under my control.

Taco Burrito Salsa · Jan 10, 2022 1:55 PM

Ujl, no one is blaming god. We are just saying we don’t believe he/she/it exists. We all have our own life experiences and our own understanding of this complex world. Not to believe is our prerogative. If you believe, that is your prerogative.

chicagoan · Jan 10, 2022 2:09 PM

@independent "So you could say the purpose of life was to fulful the goals of the parents to have a child, but once the new life is born, it does not come with any purpose. It is just there to grow like a plant. To withstand storms, rains, sunshine, gather experience and bend to the whims of nature and then procreate and become one with nature from start to end. Just like us. So we can perhaps say that the purpose of life is to continue to be part of nature while during the lifespan enjoy nature and it's offering in its infinite glory." I really liked what you said. @Bennedict I actually have read the book The Alchemist and I have heard that a lot of people being inspired by it. One of my friends told me about how he started to look at the world completely differently after reading The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I didn't feel that way.

Ketofarar · Jan 10, 2022 11:07 PM