The Meaning of Life

The full value of life

The rising sun

If you can find a reliable path to enlightenment and follow it faithfully, you will greatly expand the meaning of your life.

As the sun rises in the sky and the clouds are chased away, so will your inner peace, happiness and joy rise in your life and doubts about the meaning of life will disappear.

The sageandthelotus.com is here to help.

Questions on the meaning of life

Do you have questions on the meaning of life? Perhaps questions like these:

• What is the meaning of my life?
• How can I experience it to the full?
• What do I have to do?

• Is intelligence important? Why?
• Are there different kinds of intelligence?
• Is there a cosmic value of intelligence?

• Can an intelligent machine ever be conscious?
• What’s the difference between intelligence and consciousness?
• Is consciousness just to do with my brain?
• Can my consciousness be developed? How?

• What is Higher Consciousness? Why would I want it?

• Is Wholeness the same as Spirituality?
• How does Wholeness relate to the meaning of life?
• Is spiritual growth the same as the development of consciousness?
• What’s the difference between spirituality and religion?

• Is Vedic wisdom only for Hindus?
• Why should I be interested?

On these pages you will find articles that ask and discuss all the interesting questions about the meaning of life and how to find it for yourself. We'll also provide links to other useful resources.

We aim to bring you the wisdom of the Vedic Masters in manageable doses!

Maharishi, the Sage

A very detailed and complete account of the meaning of life was given by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a sage from the Vedic Tradition. Maharishi began teaching in 1955 and continued until he passed away in 2008.

In those 53 years of teaching around the world, Maharishi unfolded a full and precise knowledge of consciousness, taken from the ancient Vedic Tradition of India. He gained this knowledge through devotion to his own teacher, his beloved Guru Dev.

Guru Dev the Master

Guru Dev (1868 - 1953) had occupied a traditional seat within the Vedic tradition (as Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math). He became widely known as a great saint and exponent of Vedanta, the Vedic subject that deals with the wholeness of life. Maharishi studied with him for 13 years at the monastery of Jyotir Math in the Himalayan region of India .

Maharishi claimed that the most complete and valuable meaning of the Vedic literature had been lost for centuries. He said that, if correctly interpreted, these works taken together present a complete knowledge of human consciousness and its development towards enlightenment.

This once secret knowledge is relevant to anyone, regardless of race, religion or belief system.

From this ancient tradition comes a range of methods for purifying the mind and for discovering the treasures that lie within. 

Books, buildings, courses and teachers

Most of Maharish's adult life was set on making this knowledge widely known and applied. He argued that human life can be transformed away from misery and suffering towards peace, happiness and the full meaning of life for everyone.

He has left a legacy of books, buildings, schools, colleges, video lectures, courses, 40,000 trained teachers and an estimated  300,000 advanced practitioners of his TM-Sidhi Program.

Millions of people have been taught Transcendental Meditation and gained a foothold on the ladder for extending the meaning of life for themselves.

Maharishi's teaching is the main source of reference for thesageandthelotus.com

We pay our respects to all other teachers of spiritual truth, wherever they may be found and from whatever tradition of spiritual knowledge they come from.

The lotus on the lake

The lotus is an ancient and beautiful symbol of both knowledge and consciousness. It has been used within the Vedic Tradition for centuries as a poetic and yet technically useful way of illustrating the structure and meaning of life.

It is structured in layers; each layer has many petals; the center is golden; the flower is whole; the lotus flower stands above the quiet surface of the lake while its roots lie deep below the surface, embedded as if in the silence of absolute Being.

The Sage and the Lotus project explores the meaning of life by combining the teachings of Maharishi with the symbol of the Lotus on the Lake.

Consciousness, knowledge and Self

Let's take a quick look at some of the important things to know before diving deeper into the meaning of life on other pages.

According to Maharishi, "knowledge is structured in consciousness" and "knowledge is different in different states of consciousness".

We all know that our daily lives flow through three different states - waking, dreaming and sleeping. There is, however, a fourth state of consciousness - a state of silent wakefulness which transcends and underpins those three and which is realized through Transcendental Meditation.

Actually, the goal of enlightenment can be achieved through a number of ways which may seem very different at first. For example, the different approaches to Yoga: Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Raja Yoga etc..

Or through the timeless methods of deep prayer and devotion.

Nevertheless, the general principles are the same. These general principles have been laid out in the well-known Vedic work, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The work however, requires careful interpretation and many mistakes can be made.

The conscious capacity of the mind can be expanded and refined through correct application of these general principles, under the tutelage of a competent teacher. Correct teaching leads to experiences within higher states of consciousness on the chosen path to enlightenment. As proficiency in the experience of inner silence develops, the silence becomes filled with celestial light. Hence the term "Enlightenment".

In those higher states of consciousness, the meaning of life is transformed. From a life bound by surface values of experience to a life lived in joyful waves of activity anchored in silence to a life lived in freedom in the light of God.

In order to fully understand this deeper meaning of life we will have to consider different kinds of knowledge structured in different modes and states of consciousness. We will explore these ideas in more detail on their own pages. 

Meanwhile, let's take a quick look at the meaning of "wholeness".

Wholeness of Life

Life extends beyond each individual body, mind and spirit to include family and social life, human culture, the environment, the biosphere and the celestial objects - Sun, Moon, planets and stars. There is an inter-connectedness between these different parts of life - not only on the obvious surface level of existence but also on those celestial and transcendental levels of life first experienced in the deep silence within our own minds. 

It is this great wholeness that creates the spiritual aspect of life. Our own individual consciousness, the light of life within each one of us, is intimately connected with this larger whole.

We can choose to consciously explore and enliven this connection in our own lives, to make real for ourselves the cosmic or spiritual value of the meaning of life.

The full meaning of life lies not only in developing our own consciousness towards higher states. We can work with others in the direction of greater happiness for all, bringing added layers of fulfillment.

thesageandthelotus.com explores the meaning of life from this perspective of wholeness and brings you the ancient wisdom from the Vedic Masters to apply in your own life. 

Read on for more!

Return to top of page