All avatars, prophets, messengers of God and true saints have realized that a human’s purpose is to liberate from the bondage of flesh, mind, intellect and ego, the combination of which forms the “jiva.” This liberation, known as Self Realization, is realizing that we are Atman, a part and parcel of Paramatman, or that the “Kingdom of Heaven is within us.”

The search for this liberation is our purpose. It entails sacrificing the temporary joys and love of life for something more eternal. It means leaving the chaff behind to cling to the kernel. Our purpose is to achieve true freedom from passions, lust, greed, desire for name and fame, jealousy, selfishness and other vices born from our ignorance. Gitaji shows us how to remove our ignorance. She builds our character, which will manifest itself into eternal love, compassion, peace and joy.

In Uddhava Gita, Shree Krishna says:

“The wise or discriminative man, after many births (sufferings), having obtained this extremely rare human body, which though frail is conducive to man's supreme welfare, moksha or liberation, should quickly strive for liberation, before the body which is always subject to death chances to fall; for sense enjoyments are obtainable in any body as animals, birds, worms or germs, but Self Realization is obtainable only in the human body.”

Further, Shree Krishna vividly portrays the wretched condition of the worldly, or sansari, man as follows:

“Tongue attracts the worldly man in one direction, and his thirst another; his sex impulse drags him somewhere and his skin, stomach and ears in the other quarters or directions; his nose attracts him in one direction; his restive eyes elsewhere, while the tendency for work draws him to something else -- all these undermine the man like many wives (in the form of organs or senses) of a householder.”

In Vivekchudamani, Shree Shankaracharya says:

"Three events are rare indeed and are due to the grace of God, namely, a human birth, the longing for liberation and the protecting care of a perfected sage. If people who, by some means, having obtained a human birth and understanding of scriptures (Spiritual knowledge) are foolish enough not to exert themselves for self-liberation, they verily commit suicide, for they kill  themselves by clinging to unreal, temporary things: relatives, friends, wealth and desire for name and fame.”

We will learn how we can pursue this goal with the tools we’ve been given. If we sincerely live our lives according to Gita’s principles, the Ultimate Joy will be ours.

--Swami Radhanandaji