Purpose of this life

In considering the effect of obedience to the laws (of Bahá'u'lláh) on individual lives, one must remember that the purpose of this life is to prepare the soul for the next. Here one must learn to control and direct, one's animal impulses, not to be a slave to them. Life in this world is a succession of tests and achievements, of falling short and of making new spiritual advances. Sometimes the course may seem very hard, but one can witness, again and again, that the soul who steadfastly obeys the law of Bahá'u'lláh, however hard it may seem, grows spiritually, while the one who compromises with the law for the sake of his own apparent happiness is seen to have been following a chimera: he does not attain the happiness he sought, he retards his spiritual advance and often brings new problems upon himself. (The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, p. 232)