Purposeful life, or purposeless?

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner: You advise us to have a purposeless, aimless life. But if we will not aim for anything, then how will I crack my exams? In your younger days, you too prepared for exams like MBA, IIT JEE, Civil services, etc. But now you say having aims is no good. Aren’t you contradicting yourself?

Acharya Prashant: Living an aimless, purposeless life is the ultimate thing, that’s the goal. However, given we are, we can’t realize that goal instantaneously. If it could be done, if instantaneous liberation is possible at this moment, wonderful, have it. Go right away for it. So, purposelessness is the ultimate state beyond all states that one aspires for. But here is the contradiction. What is the state one aspires for? A state in which there is no purpose, no aim, and therefore, no aspiration. So what’s your aspiration? To come to the point of freedom from aspirations. What’s the desire then you must have? To reach a point where you have exceeded all desires. What is the aim you must carry? To set aims in a way that you come to the point of aimlessness.

There is a difference between ends and means. Purposelessness is the end, Purposefulness is the means. Thoughtlessness is the end, thoughtfulness is the means. Desirelessness is the end, right desire is the…