Living life with purpose
Is the animal world filled with so many problems like ours?
We know animals express fear, and they struggle and fight. They also express their love, affection and loyalty. But, one can speak with absolute conformity that no animal would have such problems as man has. Why do animals suffer fewer problems than humans?
What should the corporate people learn from the animal world? No one can say that animals are not intelligent. Evolution has never been a partial process wherein some were created ‘as always winners’, and some as ‘always victims’. No one can deny the fact that animals do not possess these feelings. They do possess, but never seem to be a victim to one or a combination of these emotions. Why is it so?
It is extremely easy to answer the above question by saying that animals are primitive, whereas human beings are highly evolved. It has nothing to do with evolution rather. It has something to do with the “need” and “purpose” of life. When one lives for a need, or lives with a need, one tends to suffer the most. Whereas, when one lives with a “purpose”, such sufferings do not affect one. The need is like the waves in the sea. Let us look at it from another angle. Needs are expressions of the desires. Our desires keep on coming like the waves in the ocean. Waves are created by the breeze in the atmosphere, which is nothing but our social conditioning. But if one lives with a purpose, then the purpose comes out of commitment; desires come out of fancy. The brain of human beings has always used desires and needs rather than pure commitment. Man has commitment, but it is muddled with multiple needs and hence he is in chaos.
Another reason animals have less emotional trauma is because of the Zebra effect. Let us say a Zebra is attacked and it escapes. It does not carry the pain with its thoughts. It knows how to end the past and not to continue with it. For man, however, the past pain continues to haunt him because he does not know how to end the past.
When one need is accomplished, the second one appears and so on. Waves in the sea will never settle, and neither will the needs of human life.
Animals in general live with a purpose in life. It may be difficult to accept, but that is the truth. Be it a hunter or a grazer, you can always see that animals live with a purpose. They seldom give too much attention to the future. They always live in the present. Very rarely do they reminisce about their past. They never get jealous of other animals, as they are highly focused and sharp.
Corporate employees must introspect and ask themselves whether they are after a need or a purpose. The need is the extension of the past into the present, and is going to cause tension and worry. On the contrary, purpose is truly an independent emotion; it does not carry any past, and also does not have any expectations from the future. By-products of needs are compromise, beggary, expectation and sycophancy. On the contrary, purpose gives birth to passion, freedom, courage and strength. Corporate employees should quickly discover their purpose and work on it, failing which they will have to live a miserable life. Beckon success with your purpose and not with your need.
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Swami Sukhabodhananda is an international management, spiritual & corporate guru.