The Purpose of Life

One man's quest to find the purpose of life, if there is any at all.

Once upon a time, in the most magnificent city of one of the world’s greatest kingdoms, there lived a young man of great endowments and renown, who was said to have the answers to all the questions of humanity. He was a philosopher, astronomer, jurist, mathematician, architect and virtually everything that a learned man could be. The people of the kingdom, both the royalty and the subjects, worshipped him as the god of knowledge.

    One day, this venerated person received a visit. The visitor was an old man who claimed to have a question that the young god could not answer. ‘Pray tell me, what is the purpose of life?’ asked the withered octogenarian.

    The young man leaned forward in his chair and rested his chin on his interlocked fingers. His gaze was intense, his countenance unfaltering, his intellect unparalleled. Yet his brow was furrowed. He found that he had no answer.

    In a million years this question probably would not have occurred to him, if the old man had not put if forth. For the years after the said meeting, the young man endeavored to find the answer. At first, he assumed that the answer could be found by logical thinking, the purest form of science, which his mind was accustomed to. He reasoned that the purpose of life was self-fulfillment. But the fate of a society where everyone sought this end was inevitable corruption and eventual destruction. So this could not be a justified purpose of life. No amount of reasoning from an armchair would yield a satisfying answer for the young man. Dismayed by the lack of usefulness of his immense knowledge, he decided to travel.

    Half a decade later, walking by a farmstead, he spied an aged farmer in great difficulty. The farmer was trying to move a log of wood, but it was too heavy for him. The young man rushed forward to assist. After he had helped to carry the log into a cabin, the farmer thanked him profusely, and asked why a man of such princely appearance was out in the country traveling by foot.

    ‘I am looking for the answer to a question,’ the young man replied. ‘I want to know what the purpose of life is.’

    The old farmer nodded wisely. ‘The purpose of life,’ he said, smiling, ‘is to keep looking for the purpose, and the invaluable things that you pick up along the way.’

    It was a moment of revelation for the young man. In his heart he knew that the farmer had spoken the truth. Suddenly his life seemed like a journey which stretched onwards into the future, where the discovery of a greater purpose awaited him. This is the path I should follow without rest or respite, he thought. It made his life seem meaningful, something which all of his scholarly labors had failed to do.

    Thanking the farmer for this piece of wisdom, the young man stepped out of the cabin. The road ahead beckoned him.

 

Reviews

[Reeti]

the purpose of life is something philosophy tries to unravel, but it's always individual for every person. life is bounteous around us, however, it has to be observed from singular vantage point of each person. but, we mostly are never satisfied to the fullest extent. we keep desiring more. the answer given by the farmer is ironically a component of the question brought forward by the young man (whom may be another interesting but quite different version of Buddha? heh heh). Baffling, it is, yet it can fulfill what each person needs to know. in many cases, we have to question ourselves personally what we seek for to define the purpose of life at each of its stages.