I remember watching the movie 'Gandhi' that was released in 1980 (I think). I was too young to watch it then so I just rented it on DVD about a year ago.

For those of you who don't know who he was, Gandhi was born in the mid 1800's and lived until he was murdered in the early-mid 1900's. I think he was shot in the 1940's, according to the movie.

He had tremendous influence over his country as a spiritual leader. He didn't plan on becoming a leader to over 300 million Indians at the time. It just turned out that way as he grew older, matured, and his influence spread throughout the country during its tumultuous time of civil uprisings and revolts.

Without going into personal opinions and discussions about 'passive resistance' and all that, I was most struck by and remember most vividly one aspect of his life that, to me, will forever change my view of existence.

Here we have a man that was incredibly influential, and to this day has changed the lives of several hundred million, if not over a billion, people's lives through his existing on this plane.

One would think that a person of this stature who could just about walk on water most certainly had incredibly important business to attend throughout the days of his existence as a spiritual leader of his country, right?

But do you know what Gandhi did during his spare time, according to the movie, when he wasn't leading the passive revolt movement?

Was he attending meetings with the country's political leaders to hammer out an agreement to end the differences in the leading parties and stop the civil uprisings?

Was he travelling throughout the world, teaching spiritual leaders and other influential world leaders, how to end their civil wars through passive revolution?

Was he writing books, giving lectures, teaching his 'followers' and in general becoming a spiritual guru of his time?

No. None of the above.

What DID he do?...

...He sat around and spun wool.

That's it.

Now, think about that. This man...this incredibly influential, passively powerful human being, who was amazingly small in stature yet struck awe and fear in many others, spun wool in his 'spare time'.

What does that tell you about 'existence' and one's purpose for living?

What does that tell you about what we can do with our lives, no matter if we're a Gandhi, Buddha, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or Jimmy Stewart? Or Martha Stewart for that matter.

We can go out and earn all the millions, or billions, of dollars that we can.

We can go and influence the lives of billions of people around the world through revolutionary technology, or being seen on every television set or movie theater around the world.

Or we can live as a human being who espouses principles that the world wants to adhere to and admires enough to follow for centuries to come.

But in the end, even if we do that, we still -- in our own way -- are only left with sitting on a mat, in a building, and spinning wool to bide our existence away.

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It's all pretty simple isn't it?

But at the same time I find it rather disturbing.

I guess because, like most of us, I've lived my life thinking that there must be something vitally important for us to do with our life. You know the old line - 'find your purpose in life', right?

You've also heard the cry 'Set goals or you'll get nowhere in life.'

'Have a gameplan!' others espouse to the masses.

Well, with my recent insights into all this life/existence stuff...none of that works for me.

How can one think that setting goals and having a 'life purpose' is going to fulfill them?

Ever wonder why so many business executives don't live too long after retirement? Because their 'life's purpose' - their work, didn't exist for them anymore.

They had reached the golden carrot. And they found they couldn't eat it.

The man who founded UPS when he was a teenager and was actively involved with the company until he 'retired' in his early '90's died only a few months after he retired. Did HE lose his purpose for living? Curious.

But, getting back to the title of this article - Why Live?

Why do we live? Why do we exist? Why are we here as individual human beings?

Why are there so many more questions that are begged than answers that are provided?

Perhaps I'm at the age now where I'm realizing that life is not going to be blindly fulfilled by 'activities' and 'functions' throughout one's day. And days. And years, decades, and life.

Perhaps I'm realizing that the only purpose, the one true purpose, in life is to enjoy one's existence as one walks along their own path of existence.

Awake.

Aware.

Alive.

Hmmmm....

More to come on this as the words continue to accumulate in the 'ol gray matter at the top of this vessel called me.

Stay tuned.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

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