GOAL OF LIFE

                                                                                                  

Life is real! Life is earnest!

                                                                                                  

And the grave is not its goal.

                                                                                                  

Dust thou art, to dust returnest

                                                                                                  

Was not spoken to the soul.

Life is a journey which we lead with joy, happiness, guilt, fear but the first and foremost thing is a GOAL. Goal to put it simply is a powerful desire that impels one to fight and strive for his glory, or for the glory of his society, and the nation. Everyone has their goal in life which can be good as well as bad depending on the ideology of the person. Whether a goal is good or bad depends on its motive and objective, but a goal to accomplish a bad objective is bad. Thus in William Shakespeare's  'Macbeth', the goal that urged Macbeth from murder to murder, and crime to crime was evil as the objective was self-aggrandizement. But those of Mahatma Gandhiji to get independence for India was good.

The Goal which one desire can be selfish, or that are abnormal, is undesirable for human society. We have numerous examples from history, that bear testimony to the immense evil wrought on the world, by the ambitious men like Napoleon and Hitler. They were just ordinary men, who wanted to achieve great power which brought the downfall of their country. On the other hand, a goal that gives satisfaction, peace and a sense of achievement to the individual are good for him and the society. It is this that inspires the engineer to build better bridges, the painter to rival the old masters and the students to study hard for their overall development.

One needs to have such a goal in life that their dreams come true. For a man without any goal will achieve nothing in life. Simply one can say, "if we aim at nothing we will hit nothing". A goal, however, should be something above the ordinary. Only then can it inspire us to work hard in life, so that on finally achieving it we can get happiness and contentment.

"Hitch your wagon to a star" is an adage, that reminds us to have a good and high goal. This would give a direction to our life, making it more meaningful and satisfying. Thus on departing from the world, we would have the satisfaction of leaving it better than we had inherited it.