Letter # 38: “The Meaning of Life? - A Brief Answer”

My student in psychiatry, Dr. Khokhar, asked me recently, “Sir, can you write something on the meaning of life?”
Remember Rajneesh, also known as Osho? He said that the Western mind cannot understand that creation is purposeless, and cannot appreciate that it is this very purposeless quality that make it beautiful and divine. Osho is wonderful and bold. He might be easily comprehensible to those who can put themselves in either of the Eastern or Western camps but a coconut like me could get confused [coconut = brown on the outside, coming from India, and white inside, speaking Scottish-tongue]. And the mix gets muddier when you add in Punjabi-tongue, and an overly rich blend of ideas from West and East. My parents give me Eastern divine blessings, my siblings give awesome respect, my Western teachers spur improvement, my Eastern Teachers direct my soul, my lovers showered me with love and pointed out my faults, my children make me young and hopeful, my students teach me how to teach, literature expands my mind, music plucks my heartstrings, poetry melts me down, science satisfies my curiosity but increases hunger for even more knowledge, the law keeps me from becoming unruly, Freud taught me to accept the reality in between the Id and the Superego, geography induces an awe of nature, history reminds of the human struggles for power and survival, philosophy exercises my mind, Jung enhanced my massaged my rigid notions on culture, adversity and illness remind me of the truth about the transience of life, my work gives me the satisfaction of helping those who are suffering as well as giving me the means by which to acquire services and good. Life is rich but also a battlefield. It requires courage to face that battle. Where does the courage come from? In the Bhagavad Gita, documented over 5,000 years ago, Lord Krishna spoke of this topic on a battlefield in the setting of a civil war. More recently, Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, wrote a book called “Man’s Search For Meaning”. He found that, in the concentration camps of the last war, those inmates who survived the best had a spiritual outlook to life. So the answer is in the timeless message of accepting and trusting a Higher Power. If we do this, we might not find the meaning of life but we can certainly give meaning to our lives.


God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.
Jas Bhopal
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“Practicing goodwill makes for a good life."
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References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" (As translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" by Srila Prabhupada (ISBN 0-89213-268-X); "I Am That" Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.