MAN, KNOW THYSELF — Purpose of Life

it. It is that inward human-being at work which, far from altering with bodily transformation, survives countless physical changes absolutely intact. This proves that the word “Homo sapiens”, rather than being a label attached to a certain physical form, which is erased with its death, is a separate entity which remains intact even after the diffusion of the body’s composite parts. The fact that the body alters whereas the soul does not, is conclusive proof of the transitional nature of the body and the eternal nature of the soul. Some misguided people consider life and death to be the accumulation and subsequent diffusion of multitudinous particles of matter. This theory has been expounded by an Urdu poet, Chakbast, in the following words: What is life? Elements arranging themselves in order, And death? Their diffusion. This, however, is a statement which is not borne out by fact. If life were simply “Elements arranging themselves in order”, then it follows that it should survive only so long as this orderliness endured, and it should conversely be possible for an expert scientist to create life by an accumulation of these elements; obviously, both these propositions are ludicrous. He who is concerned with consolidation of his worldly position at the expense of the afterlife is like the young man who does not care to save up for his old age. We observe that it is not only those who have been torn limb from limb in some accident, who die. In every condition and at every age people are passing away. Sometimes perfectly healthy human beings suffer sudden heart-failure and no doctor can provide an explanation. We may regard a corpse as an “Orderly, elemental manifestation”, but the soul which inhabited it has departed. All elements are arranged in the same order as they were a few minutes beforehand, but they are utterly lifeless. This shows that the organization of elemental matter does not create life, rather life is an entirely separate entity. A live human being cannot be produced in a laboratory, though such