The Purpose of Life - Maharaj Charan Singh

The Lord, when he made the creation, divided it into eighty-four lakh categories of life forms. The sages of ancient India accounted for the categories as follows: Thirty lakh kinds of plants in the plant kingdom; twenty-seven lakh kinds of insects and reptiles; fourteen lakh kinds of birds; nine lakh kinds of creatures living in water; and four lakh kinds of animals, gods, goddesses, ethereal beings and human beings.

We are all prisoners in the vast prison of this world because of our karmas. We can escape from it only when our soul realizes the Lord. The gift of human life has been granted to us to enable us to escape from the cycle of recurring births and deaths. It is only in the human form that one has the unique distinction and honor of meeting the Lord. Guru Arjan says, "The Lord created the eighty-four lakh categories of life forms, and he made man the highest. Whosoever falls from this rung of the ladder will suffer pain and misery as he comes and goes in the cycle of births and deaths¹."

Life as a human being is the top rung of the ladder. If we try hard when we have the human body, we can step off the ladder and onto the roof; but if we slip we will fall headlong into the prison of this world again. Guru Arjan says:

Many lives have I had as

insects and worms,

And many lives as elephants

and fish and deer;

In many lives I have been a 

snake or a bird,

And then again I have been a tree

For lives unnumbered.

After countless ages I have

been graced

With this human life.

And now it is high time to find the Lord 2!

For endless ages we have been moving from one form of life to another. We have been plants and vegetables, insects and reptiles, fish and other water creatures, birds and animals. After a long, long time, we now have the human form and all of us should take advantage of this human body to start on the path that leads to God-realization. Maulana Rum says:

From minerals I became a plant

And then to a higher form did go:

Four hundred thousand lives have I passed

And each was better than the last 3

It is only after many ages

That one gets the human form;

If once you slip,

You never know when you will get it again⁴.

It is for this reason that the sages and seekers of India call the human body nar naraayaani deh (the body which God has made, in which he himself dwells, and in which alone he can be met). Muslim saints have called it ashraf-ul-makhlukat (the topf of the creation). Jewish holy men say that God made man in his own image. Kabir Sahib says:

1. Adi Granth, Guru Nanak, p. 466.

2. Adi Granth, Guru Angad, p. 466.

3. Adi Granth, Guru Nank, p. 1009.

4. Adi Granth, Guru Amar Das, p. 123.

© "The Path" by Maharaj Charan Singh, published (2000) by Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, Punjab 143 204. Reprinted with permission.

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