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What is the purpose of life? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Acharya Prashant
7.2K views
6 years ago
Purpose of Life
Conditioning
Intelligence
Presence
Evolution
Time
Cause and Effect
Brain
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that the human mind's tendency to seek a 'purpose' in life is a result of its evolutionary conditioning. The brain is a product of time and evolution, functioning through the principle of cause and effect. Because the brain has learned that actions lead to results in the future, it projects the idea that life itself must have a final result or purpose. This search for purpose is essentially the conditioned mind seeking its own continuation and the repetition of past experiences, which it perceives as safe and pleasurable. He clarifies that all projections of the future, including ambitions and dreams, are merely stale repetitions of the past stored in the DNA and memory. He further explains that space and time are not independent external realities but properties of the mind, similar to how a computer's output depends on its internal software or base system. While the brain operates in the past and future, intelligence operates only in the present. Acharya Prashant emphasizes that there is no inherent purpose to life other than 'presence'—being fully immersed and attentive in the current moment. He argues that any purpose one defines, whether religious, patriotic, or personal, is simply a reflection of one's specific conditioning and attachments. True intelligence lies in living in the present without being distracted by the brain's fearful need to escape into imaginations or future goals.