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Purpose

Across spiritual traditions, purpose refers to a person's reason for being or direction in life. Many traditions converge on the idea that discovering one's purpose is essential to a fulfilling life. However, they diverge on the methods for finding purpose and its relationship to the individual and the world.

6,832 quotes

Across traditions

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Quotes

The sages, united with pure reason, renounce the results of their actions and, liberated from the cycle of birth, they attain a state of bliss.
Swami Sivananda
HinduScriptureAttainmentLiberation
Practice of Karma Yoga, p. 29
United with pure reason, one lets go of both good and bad actions. Therefore, embrace yoga, for yoga is skill in action.
Swami Sivananda
HinduScriptureOnenessPurpose
Practice of Karma Yoga, p. 28
The true objective of life is to return to the source from which we originated.
Swami Sivananda
HinduTeachingPurposeTruth
Bliss Divine, p. 281
Why do you seek outside what is inside you - salvation?
Boethius
ChristianPoetryPurposeVision
Meister Eckhart Sermons, p. 23
Every being harvests what they have sown. They profit from their actions and suffer from them as well. This is the law of Karma, which is the result of our actions and the natural energy that drives us. It gives our existence, nature, character, and actions a meaning that is lacking in other theories of life.
Sri Aurobindo
HinduTeachingKarmaPurpose
The Life Divine, p. 854
One can see God's form when all limitations and reasoning disappear, and a person becomes speechless and enters a state of deep meditation.
Ramakrishna Paramhamsa
HinduTeachingGod RealisationMeditation
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 697
This is why saints always live in God's bliss and constantly praise Him.
Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji
UniversalTeachingPurposeSaint
The Master Speaks, p. 10
Human life has been determined and treated as superior to all others. Then, its objective, its purpose should also be the noblest. His importance is there only when he establishes his relationship with God. This is what has been accepted as the real aim of human life.
Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji
UniversalTeachingGod RealisationPurpose
Stream of Thoughts 22
They said, 'A man should speak only of the purpose for which he has come. You are at present studying the Vaishvanara Self; tell us of that very thing.'
HinduParableKnowledgePurposeSanskrit
Chandogya Upanishad 5.11.6
O Goddess, devotion to the Guru is the supreme place of pilgrimage; all other sacred sites are meaningless without it. All places of pilgrimage find their refuge in the big toe of the Guru's foot.
HinduScriptureAttainmentDevotionSanskrit
Guru Gita 174
And don't interfere with forms, meditations, and imaginings, or any kind of reasoning, lest your soul becomes disturbed and loses its contentment and peace, leading to feelings of dislike and aversion.
St. John of the Cross
ChristianTeachingBenevolenceContentment
Ascent of Mount Carmel, p. 172
If we ask why only our actions, whether good or bad, have consequences, it can be said that our thoughts, feelings, and actions all have corresponding outcomes. However, since actions make up the majority of our lives and are a reflection of our values, and because we are not always in control of our thoughts and feelings, we must be held accountable for our actions.
Sri Aurobindo
HinduTeachingMindMorality
The Life Divine, p. 855
This human birth has come to us after a very long journey. To squander it in vain is a great sin. To attain this great form of life again is very difficult. Therefore, in this very life one should come to know the one Lord, the Bestower, and then through devotion to Him make this birth fruitful.
Baba Hardev Singh Ji
UniversalTeachingDevotionGod RealisationHindi
Gurudev Hardev Part 2 GH2.364
A real saint or spiritually enlightened person understands that this world is only a temporary halting place where, after taking birth, our real purpose is to know God as the Super Soul, of which the human soul is only a part.
Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji
UniversalTeachingPurposeSoul
Stream of Thoughts 151
Houses are meant for men. If we start thinking the other way round, give priority to houses or consider that men are meant for houses, it will be our mistake. Shoes are meant for the feet; not that the feet are meant for the shoes. We must give top priority to this God, to know it, to hold it.
Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji
UniversalPoetryGod RealisationMaterialism
Stream of Thoughts 8
In the same way, for the benefit of the devotee, the Lord of the Raghus removes his ego. Tulasidasa says, after renouncing all errors, why should one not worship such a lord?
Tulsidas
HinduTeachingDevoteeDevotionSanskrit
Ramcharitmanas — Uttar Kand Part 2 (verses 1023–1101), p. 6
Death does not strike anyone with a raised rod; it simply deprives the person of their piety, strength, reason, and discernment.
Tulsidas
HinduTeachingDevotionPurposeSanskrit
Ramcharitmanas — Lanka Kand Part 1 (verses 805–889), p. 41
Oh my soul, why don't you worship Rama, who has the indivisible Time for His bow and the various divisions of time such as a Paramāṇu, a twinkling, a moment, a year, an age, and a cycle for His fierce arrows?
Tulsidas
HinduTeachingDevotionDifferencesSanskrit
Ramcharitmanas — Lanka Kand Part 1 (verses 805–889), p. 2
I bow to the Supreme Lord, who dispels fear and is the destroyer of time, the king of yogis, and the storehouse of good qualities. He is beyond the realm of Maya, the Lord of the celestials, intent on killing evil-doers, and the only protector of the Brahmins.
Tulsidas
HinduTeachingHumilityPurposeSanskrit
Ramcharitmanas — Lanka Kand Part 1 (verses 805–889), p. 1
The sense of ownership grows when a woman, representing the end of winter, appears. For those consumed by sin, a woman is a delightful, dark night. Just as reason, strength, virtue, and truth are like fish, a woman is like a hook to catch them, as the wise declare.
Tulsidas
HinduTeachingHappinessMoralitySanskrit
Ramcharitmanas — Aranya Kand (verses 647–710), p. 61