Philosophy Redux

An old question which bugged philosophers of all ages and places: what is the purpose of our life?

Is happiness the goal? What results in happiness? Or is there/should there be a purpose for life? Can't we just live like a cow? Is a cow happy? Or just plain dumb? Ignorance is bliss after all and cows hardly cry and seem to be at peace with themselves. Since we are humans, we seem to have a lot of desires, unlike cows.

Desire is the root-cause of all misery according to Buddha. The lack of desire should come from an actual self-realization that desire is meaningless. I suspect such a philosophy will lead to a civilization in decline, which abandons/devalues all things material. (How much of this affected India is anyone's guess!) These ideas contrast with the ideas of disinterestedness in the result of one's action (nishkama karma) but not in action itself and the importance given to all the four stages of human life - student, householder, retired and renounced - in Gita.

I believe, the purpose or meaning of life does not lie in some end goal, but lies in the pursuit/action itself. I mean there is not enough time in one human life to know all that is there to know, to do all that is there to do and to feel all that is there to feel. So experience the life.