SOME THING TO LIVE FOR

After the incident of the burning of the house of lac  and during the exile in the forest the Pandavas  encountered different situations... some trying testing and some that taught them  lessons.
One such incident was with, Citraratha Gandharava. He narrated many stories to the Pandavas....
Once he narrated  the story of Vashishta, who was unnecessarily being harassed by Vishwamitra.(before he became a Rishi).
Vashishta's sons were devoured by a human turned demon, who was instigated by Vishwamitra. In this situtation after the loss of his sons Vashistha did not find  any reason  to live. He wanted to give up his life, and he tried to end his life many times.Every time he tried, some how or other destiny would not allow him to die. Even death was not willing to show him any mercy.
As he was walking back to his ashram, despondent, finding no reason to live, and being unable to die,he saw his daughter in law, who was carrying the grand son of Vashishta Rishi, in her womb-- Parashara.
Vashishta changed his mind about ending his life ,instead he took a vow  to  live to raise his grand son into a great rishi  even greater than himself.

This Parashara was none other than the father of the great Vyasadeva, the compiler of all the vedic literature. Earlier Vashishta had found it futile  to live, as he was not contributing to some one in life. As soon as he found a purpose his zeal to live increased.

People need to find a purpose for their life, other wise life  becomes burdensome. Someone has said, "those who are suffering for a long time need to pick up their confidence by doing something  that they feel will benefit someone or something.
Something  as small as seeing a plant which they are watering  grow and has the potential to become a large tree is also a purpose"

Interestingly Vyasadeva compared the Kuru family and Pandava's family to a tree. One was a good tree and one was the tree of anger. Both had a purpose to grow, one wanted to grow to destroy the other,  the other tree wanted to grow to give shade to everyone else. When the purpose  of one tree was useless and destructive, it had to come down.  Lord Krishna orchestrated the tree of evil to come down.
Without a purpose one does not want to live, and with a wrong purpose we make other’s lives meaningless as Vishwamitra did for Vashishta. on the other hand people like  the Pandavas become a tree which makes other small plants find their purpose and grow and further gives a chance to many other plants to find a real and meaningful purpose in  life.

What  kind of tree are we?  Life producing....
Life generating..or making others lives lifeless?