Life's Purpose

A question that dwells behind the corner of every human being’s mind is all summed up in one word: purpose. These eight letters put together blankets all aspects of life and has a significant affect on what we do every single day. What is our purpose in life? Are we all here on earth to serve a higher power? Are we bound to a foretold destination called fate? We at one time or another all have pondered in this gray area more than once. Some are fortunate enough to be enlightened as where their purpose may lie. Some spend much of their lives just to find some enlightenment. All to make sense of the assignment we are dealt with in life.

A good example of how purpose relates to life is a question that every one has more than once been asked at a young age, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Though I had different answers at different times of my life, I was never really sure of where my decisions will bestow me in life. From as young as I can remember, I had always been intrigue with becoming a Comic Artist. I can remember drawing as young as five years old. I would trace and draw everything I had owned from comics, action hero toys, posters, and things that I have seen in movie scenes and other comic books. I would draw my own version of how the story would start and end and this was what I believed at the time I was going to be.

However life sometimes throws curve balls and it so happened that I ended up discovering that I wanted to do something else. As it turns out I am now studying to be a Manufacturing Engineer/ Technologist. What enlighten me was a new hobby that I have picked up while in high school making modification to almost everything electrical to mechanical I had own; from my home stereo, car stereo, car engine modification, lawn mower modification, almost anything that I own that I can change or modify I would. This gave me a sense of direction and/or enlightenment. Maybe this change is all part of a divine assignment that I am soon to discover.

Jasmine, the main character from Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine, also discovered the same enlightment. Growing up in Punjab she was born into a very strict culture. Her choices in life are bound by a culture that has been practiced for thousands of years. Choosing where her fate lies is a realization she know she has to overcome. Jasmine’s life was defined from the very beginning of the novel, “Lifetimes ago, under a banyan tree in the village of Hasnapur, an astrologer cupped his ears- his satellite dish to the stars- and foretold my widowhood and exile.” (Mukherjee 1). Wanting to rewrite her own destination she gained enlightenment and rediscover herself through the multiple identities she came to adopt.

Through these identities and the different choices she has made, she made them in belief that it is all part of the plan of a higher power. “The Lord lends us a body, gives us an assignment, and sends us down. When we get the job done, the Lord calls us home again for the next assignment.” (Mukherjee 59). Jasmine believes that human purpose in life is all interrelated. One’s assignment may be as small as and simple as leading a person into a room at that point in time.

In the novel, Jasmine gives a brief explanation of the ‘assignments’ given. In relation to the death of her father Pitaji, who died a sudden death, she explains that though it was sad, there is a bigger significance behind it. She states, “Perhaps Pitaji’s life assignment was merely to crush one small piece of gravel as he jumped out of the bus that morning, and once he did it, perhaps God took the form of a maddened bull, or God took the form of nettles that caused a perfectly harmless bull enough pain to charge. Perhaps my father’s assignment was to be just that: my father; to die in a freakish accident before he could marry me off so that I could be free to fall in love with Prakash.” (Mukherjee 59).

Jasmine’s nostalgic conversation with her ex- husband made her realize that these assignments from a higher power may even allow her to reach enlightment. She came to a realization that purpose and fate are intertwined. Jasmine states, “Enlightenment meant seeing through the third eye and sensing designs in history’s muddles.” (Mukherjee 60).

    Like me, Jasmine’s reflection in life allowed her to gather a better understanding of how fate has lead her to the point she is at. The choices that her father made, ‘assignments’, allow her to escape from the binding boundaries of her culture. As a result, she re-defined herself and gained a better grasp on her purpose in life through the choices she’s free to make.