The value of our life doesn’t require anyone’s recognition not even our own Gita 16.09

Transcript

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Our life’s value doesn’t depend on anyone’s recognition, not even our own. Recently, Germany has legalized the right to commit suicide and said that if somebody wants to do that, then the government has to facilitate them in doing that. This bizarre development is actually a natural outgrowth of something that can be called as the cult of the self.
This cult is the idea that the mainstreaming of the worldview, that the individual is the reference point for deciding all things, that man is the measure of all things. And so, if people, if we human beings decide that the child in the womb is just a lump of flesh, abortion becomes legalized. If old people or their caregivers feel that there’s not much to live for, then euthanasia becomes legalized.
And now, suicide has become legalized. And thus, we have the ironic situation that on one side, the same government uses the same taxpayers’ money to prevent suicide at the counseling centers and at other centers, it will be facilitating suicide. Such absurdity is predicted in the Bhagavad Gita as the result of a rabidly materialistic worldview.
When we reject that life has any higher purpose or foundation, then we start living simply for gratifying our senses. And thus, we end up doing things that destroy the self and destroy the world. This is said in 16, 8 and 9. So, then what happens? When this happens, that there is no… So, when life doesn’t seem to provide any sensual gratification, then people start wondering what is the point of living? And thus, they end up destroying themselves.
So, if we need to understand that our life has meant for something far grander than gratifying our senses. It has eternal value, eternal purpose. That even if in the darkest of situations, when no sensual gratification is available, we can evolve spiritually and experience enrichment internally.
Thus, our life has value because we are eternal souls. We are parts of the divine and our life always has the opportunity for evolution spiritually. This is the worldview that is truly life affirming, not the cult of the self.