Purpose in Life

Purpose in life


Vijay Gopichandran


I have been questioning the purpose of life for the past couple of weeks. I would like to start with the analogy of the compass and the map, which was told to me almost 5 years ago (it is strange that I don't remember who told it). "A map shows you the exact destination where you have to reach. It is like the goal of your life. If one wants to go to the movie theatre, they type it on the mobile application that shows the map and it tells them exactly which road to take, which turns to take and how to go to reach the movie theatre. However, if the same person is lost in the forest, and generally knows that he/she has to travel northwards to reach the city, then a compass helps the person. The compass only shows direction. It does not show the destination. While the goals in our life are like maps, purpose in life is the compass. Having a purpose in life is like navigating the journey with a compass. The purpose in life gives direction, it does not tell the destination". I have found this analogy and explanation very useful. The past two weeks have been difficult in many ways in the workplace. So I have been questioning the meaning and purpose of my work there. "What am I doing here? Is what I am doing meaningful?", I have been asking.


In this background, I had a short meeting with a student yesterday. She came to say goodbye as she is leaving the city to go back to her home town. We were discussing career options. She made an interesting comment. She said, "My decisions in the past have gone along with the flow. Somehow they have all worked out well. One should not unnecessarily stress oneself out over these decisions. I am going to let things go with the flow this time around too. I trust things will work out this time as well" These were profound statements, way more mature than I could have fathomed when I was her age. From this, we moved on to a discussion about the importance of stupidity in science. She showed me a very interesting article. Read here (https://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771). The author of the article highlighted how important it is to be productively stupid by choice. He mentions that one needs to seek out those situations where one feels ignorant and stupid because it is from these situations that one learns, finds answers. Such situations of "productive stupidity" can be highly stressful. My student quoted the example of how some of her friends become super agitated if they don't know the answer to some questions asked by the teacher, while she cherishes these questions because she doesn't know the answers to them. The difference is that they see it as a personal failure not to know the answers, whereas she sees it as an opportunity to learn something new. I liked this and I could relate to it. But something was not right and I was feeling a strange sense of discomfort from the conversation. By telling myself that it is ok to 'not know' am I saying, "It is ok to not know. I do not need to bother myself about these major decisions, about 'not knowing' the answers. Life has a way of sorting itself out." I was not feeling comfortable with this line of thinking. One could argue that this is not what is written in the article that we are referring to, nor is it the meaning of what my student said. But I would like to consider this line of thinking and present some arguments for why I disagree with it.


In support of this discussion my student also showed me a very interesting video clip Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. View Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO5FwsblpT8). In this video Carl Sagan paints a narrative picture of the vastness of the cosmos and awakens us to the reality that the earth is but a small and insignificant speck in the vast universe, and all the war, hatred, conceit and crime that we perpetrate on the earth are meaningless when looking at what a small and insignificant speck we are compared to the vast cosmos. The statement is powerful to listen to and it makes us think about our purpose in life. This seemed to support some the same line of thought as my student and I had been discussing over the past hour or so. It seemed to imply, "It is ok to 'not know'. Things will sort out themselves. All our efforts are futile anyway as it doesn't mean anything in the large cosmos. Our individual actions have no meaning in the way the cosmos works" I was becoming increasingly disturbed. When we listen to Carl Sagan carefully, we know this is not what he meant. He meant that we should not show hatred, covet other's property, steal from others, have greed for power, etc. as all that is insignificant and small in the large scheme of things. But if all these vices are not worthy of having in the large scheme of things, so are the virtues. One could turn back to Carl Sagan and ask the question, "If, in the vastness of the universe, all human actions are insignificant, aren't the kind actions also insignificant? If indeed kind actions are also insignificant, why bother about them? Why not just act randomly?"


Then I realized that this conversation with my student actually was giving me answers to my own existential questions about my purpose in life. I discovered that Carl Sagan's view of the meaning of human emotions, actions in the vast universe is biased by the fact that he was an astrophysicist, who was looking at the way the universe functions in the physical world. Similarly, Martin A. Schwartz who wrote about the importance of being stupid is a microbiologist and a basic scientist working in a science world. His view is also biased by the 'need to discover an objective reality'. The truth is that many times there is no single objective reality out there to find. I discovered for myself, the importance and value of each human being, their actions, their decisions and their roles in the universe during this conversation.


While I disagree that "not knowing answers, accepting it and allowing life to take its course" is ok, I strongly feel that being stupid can only be meaningful when it leads to restlessness and action that will remedy the stupidity. Allowing life to take its course means dismissing the value of human actions to steer the course of life in the direction we want. Conscious decisions and intentional human action can have a deep and lasting impact on the cosmos. I disagree with Carl Sagan that human actions are insignificant. Each human being is a tiny universe in itself.  So every little action of theirs will disturb the delicate balance in the universe. Einstein was restless to understand the nature of the universe. They kept asking questions, conceptualizing ideas, doing experiments, developing theories and that lead to a better understanding of the world.  After his proposal of the theory of relativity, the paradigm shifted and we had a new way of understanding the world. A bearded lanky Jewish man walked the streets of Jerusalem and preached love and kindness. It completely transformed the way religion is practiced in the world. Another bearded Jewish man, Charles Darwin proposed that humans evolved from monkeys and after him, the study of biology was completely transformed. These are paradigm-shifting moments in the history of human life. Such huge impacts have not happened on their own without human effort. They have not happened by an acceptance of stupidity. They have not happened by dismissing the value of human activity on the 'pale blue dot'. They happened because these humans were intent on fulfilling their purpose in life.



I learned a very important lesson for myself. Sometimes, I do meaningful things that nobody notices or acknowledges. Sometimes I feel stupid and incompetent, and that makes me restless and I start working on remedying it. Despite intense efforts, some of the things I do just do not seem to bear fruit. This lack of acknowledgment, lack of results and lack of any meaningful immediate change frustrates me and makes me question the purpose of my life. I learned that the purpose of life is a compass. It may never lead to success. But it will ensure that I never lose my way. My stupidity is good, and my agitation and restlessness about it are also good, because they lead to action, action leads to answers and slowly dissipates the stupidity. Continuing to do these small but seemingly insignificant deeds is purposeful because I am a tiny universe in myself, and my little actions can have a meaningful impact on the macro universe. I felt good after the conversation with the student. At least for the next few months, I will not question my purpose in life. I will now read this blog every time I stumble on the same existential question.