Dear Swami Kriyananda,
I have always felt that I am in some way different. But I do not know my life purpose. After thirty-eight years here on earth! I am unhappy with this life altogether. Please help me to find that for which I seek.
Dear _______:
All people have some special purpose in life. But remember, there is no work more important or less so than any other except as it helps oneself (and others) to grow closer to God. Otherwise, to build empires or to teach multitudes turns out, once the dust has settled, to have no ultimate meaning. One’s dharma, or true, spiritual duty is that which will free one from the meshes of karma, or action. According to the tendencies one has brought over from the past, it may be one’s own true destiny to be a street sweeper, even though he has the intelligence and education to earn more money in another job.
The truest way to discover one’s own life purpose is to attune oneself to God’s will in meditation, which is to say in this case, to the silent promptings of your inner soul. Meditate first, and feel soul-peace within. Then hold the question up to that peace at the point between the eyebrows (the Christ center in your body). Even if no clear answers come to you, you will find by this practice that you will be subtly guided in the direction that you should take.
But guidance doesn’t always come if we merely wait for it, passively. Sometimes (perhaps even usually) we must take the first steps ourselves. It is then, if we try sincerely to please God, that we find our footsteps being directed in inscrutable ways, as if by some inner force.
But remember, your real life purpose is not to do “this” or “that,” but through every activity, whatever it may be, to find God. In this sense, everyone’s life purpose is the same. It is the paths only that are different. Whatever else you do, give time to seeking God in deep meditation. Therein above all lies the road to perfect fulfillment.
In divine friendship,
Swami Kriyananda
