Posted on: 05 Jul 2023
[A question by Ms. Mahathi Jalasutram]
Swami replied:- Life is something different from inert items. Mind and intelligence are the main constituents of life. Due to mind, thoughts are generated and due to intelligence, analysis is done and correct thoughts are decided. Actually, the word ‘life’ applies to the process of respiration in which oxygen is inhaled and CO2 is exhaled. The inhaled oxygen is used to oxidise the food to liberate inert energy that is necessary for the production of awareness in birds and animals. Even plants have life because this process takes place in plants also. This is a part of inert mechanism only. When you come to birds and animals, nervous system and brain are developed, which generate awareness. Awareness consists of four parts – i) Intelligence that does logical analysis, ii) Mind that generates thoughts, iii) Basic ego which is the thought of 'I' and iv) Memory that stores the information. In birds and animals, these four exist but are not well developed. In humans, these are well developed. In more superior human beings, intelligence is very much developed so that the knowledge of God enters. In this way, we can see the development of life from inert level (plants) to advanced awareness level (humans). Therefore, life at the climax level exists in superhuman beings who are scholars of spiritual knowledge. One scholar told that spiritual knowledge is a roaring lion and all other branches of knowledge are crying foxes in a forest (Tāvat garjanti…). Hence, the real essence of life is to know the spiritual knowledge in depth and so that you can please God. Our lives are always protected while we live here and also after death in the upper energetic worlds. The purpose of human life is to please God because the Vedas says that God created this world for His entertainment. Hence, there is no better aim for human life than to please God through true devotion.