Meaning and purpose make life worthwhile
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The Rg Veda is ancient, dated to over 3000 years ago. It contains a beautiful passage, called the Nāsadīya Sūkta. That section ponders the fundamental question, “How did this universe arise?” It does not reference any particular god or deity. It does not even come to any definitive conclusion, leaving the answer open-ended instead. It presents an inquiry into the mysteries of the universe for us to wonder about.
As humans, we are driven to investigate these deep questions. We are curious. We seek growth and purpose. We want our lives to be meaningful. This deeper search drives the quest for both science and spirituality in our lives.
Purpose in our lives can come from various directions. Material success—accumulating money, possessions, or position—is a pursuit that can give a type of purpose to one’s life. But that purpose does not necessarily grant lasting or deep satisfaction, or the feeling that the attainment was worth something beyond its mundane nature.
This is partly because the goals listed above (money, possessions, or power) do not reciprocate. They are not living beings that respond to us. We own or control them, but they have no feelings or autonomy of their own. My dollar bill does not talk to me, telling me how glad it is to be in my wallet. My car does not express satisfaction that I washed it. A position may grant satisfaction in the abstract, but what we do with it matters, rather than the title itself.
This is not to say these are meaningless pursuits, but in themselves, they are limited. You can see in your own life experience that the greatest meaning in life usually comes from two areas: our connection with people (or other living beings in general) and what we create, the ideas we generate.
The first category—other people or living beings—reciprocate. They have feelings and agency of their own. Their responses enrich our own internal states and we feel we have made a difference in the world that cannot be undone. The person that you made happy can be unhappy for some other reason later—but the happiness they felt because of you was real, and so is the memory of it that they will carry. Power used to create such change is more meaningful than power we use to attain more possessions or change inanimate things.
The second category, ideas, are not a “thing” and they do not reciprocate, either. But they have a life of their own when transmitted or implemented. The power of an idea is that stays in the world long beyond us. An idea, and what we create and build on its foundations, can change the world positively, change people for the better, and it will continue to do that as long as it is useful.
This is yet another reason why benefiting people is meaningful: as living beings, they carry a legacy of that influence with them in an ever-widening circle, passing on the positivity they feel to others.
Meaningful connection and relationships are vital to a good life. May we all have more of that.