Ultimate Goal of Life - an essential subject

The ultimate goal of life is pure, unalloyed and unmotivated devotional service full of love to the Lord. By achieving so, we receive self realization and pure love of godhead, Krishna-prema, which are also the ultimate goal of life. That love makes the Brahman realization as valuable as a drop of water in the desert. However, in order to achieve the ultimate goal of life, we need a spiritual master, who is like our eternal father, and who can lead us in the right direction in our spiritual life so we can successfully achieve our ultimate goal of life.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Ultimate Goal of Life category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 10 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		If we forget the purpose of human life and simply take supplies from the agents of the Lord for sense gratification and become more and more entangled in material existence, which is not the purpose of creation, certainly we become thieves, and therefore we are punished by the laws of material nature. A society of thieves can never be happy, because they have no aim in life. The gross materialist thieves have no ultimate goal of life. They are simply directed to sense gratification; nor do they have knowledge of how to perform yajñas. Lord Caitanya, however, inaugurated the easiest performance of yajña, namely the saṅkīrtana-yajña, which can be performed by anyone in the world who accepts the principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (Bhagavad-gītā 3.12)



vanipedia.org 		The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. (Bhagavad-gītā 16.11-12)



vanipedia.org 		The path of karma-kāṇḍa is very difficult and risky.Foolish persons accept the difficult path of karma-kāṇḍa for the sake of sense enjoyment, and those who are too much attached to sense enjoyment are called mūḍhas (rascals). It is very difficult for a mūḍha to understand the ultimate goal of life. In the propagation of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we actually see that many people are not attracted because they are mūḍhas engaged in fruitive activity. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.25.9)



vanipedia.org 		Māyā enchants the entire world. Indeed, people have forgotten the ultimate goal of life because of the dazzling attractions of the material world.But this dazzling attraction, especially the attractive beauty of a woman, is meant for persons who are not surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā 3.250)



vanipedia.org 		A Vaiṣṇava is one who has taken the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the ultimate goal of life, but if one is not pure and still has motives, then he is not a Vaiṣṇava of the first order of good character. One may offer his respects to such a Vaiṣṇava because he has accepted the Supreme Lord as the ultimate goal of life, but one should not keep company with a Vaiṣṇava who is in the mode of ignorance. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.8)



vanipedia.org 		The real purpose of philosophical research is to find the ultimate goal of life. Since the ultimate goal of life is self-realization, there is no difference between the conclusions reached by the two processes. By Sāṅkhya philosophical research one comes to the conclusion that a living entity is not a part and parcel of the material world but of the supreme spirit whole. (Bhagavad-gītā 5.5)



vanipedia.org 		In every chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses that devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life. This same point is summarized in the Eighteenth Chapter as the most confidential path of knowledge. (Bhagavad-gītā 18.1)



vanipedia.org 		When one is absorbed in temporary, conditioned existence, he hankers after sense gratification and liberation. But love of Godhead is the eternal nature of the soul; it is unchangeable, without beginning or end. Therefore neither temporary sense gratification nor liberation can compare with the transcendental nature of love of God. Love of God is the fifth and ultimate goal of human life. Compared with the ocean of transcendental pleasure that is love of God, the conception of impersonal Brahman is no more significant than a drop of water. (Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 19)



vanipedia.org 		The father and mother of the material body are so only in one birth, and in the next birth the father and mother may be a different couple. But the bona fide spiritual master, as the representative of the Lord, is the eternal father because the spiritual master has the responsibility to lead the disciple to spiritual salvation, or the ultimate goal of life. Therefore, a civilized man must be twice-born, otherwise he is no more than the lower animals. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.5.7)



vanipedia.org 		All rituals, all performances of sacrifices, and everything that is put into the Vedas, including all direction for material activities, are meant for understanding Kṛṣṇa, who is the ultimate goal of life. But because the conditioned souls do not know anything beyond sense gratification, they study the Vedas to that end. (Bhagavad-gītā 3.26)


Ultimate Goal of Life - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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