No less significant are the disturbances and temptations that arose at the grave of Father Zosima, according to another story, according to the masterful story of F.M. Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, which is filled with the most lively truth. Fr. Zosima was a holy man both in his actual inner mood and in the opinion, or faith, of the majority of those who knew him, although he had many enemies among the monastic brethren. In extreme old age, surrounded by the love of many thousands of believers, Fr. Zosima died a beautiful death as a righteous man. And soon, even suddenly after his death, an impatient expectation of the miraculous power began to be revealed both in the monastic brethren and in the laity. Unanimously, as many as thousands had one question about this miraculous power at the grave of the deceased – the question arose both among the enemies and among the admirers of the deceased. For the former, it was a direct question about the sanctity of the deceased elder; the majority of believers expected this power as an undoubted consequence and reward of holiness. Many from the city brought the sick to the grave, apparently hoping for the immediate power of healing. At the same time, of course, the expectation of decay and a pernicious spirit from the body of the deceased was considered absurd, and the opposite seemed certain. But then, so unexpectedly for everyone, a pernicious spirit began to emanate from the coffin. The news of this instantly spread throughout the skete, penetrated into the monastery, and quickly reached the city. And suddenly behind this event there was such a temptation, rudely unbridled, that it is difficult to imagine. This pernicious spirit, so natural, not only extinguished faith in the holiness of the departed elder, but in it they saw God's deliberate indication of the sinfulness of the deceased. His enemies raised their heads proudly, and all those who loved him were suddenly terribly frightened of something, and when they met each other, they timidly only looked into each other's eyes. Even Alyosha wavered in his faith. "I do not rebel against my God, but I do not accept His peace," he repeated, grinning wryly, the words of his brother.

If, therefore, the pursuit of happiness and perfection and the desire for heaven cannot be combined in their immediately given character, then either it is possible to recognize the goal of human life in the pursuit of happiness and perfection with complete disregard for the other pursuit, with a complete rejection of religion; or else it may be seen in religion as a sufficient basis for human happiness and perfection, with the recognition of the natural means for the attainment of the good as they are as unsuitable as they are superfluous, and the very striving for the attainment of happiness and perfection by natural means as a painful deception from which true religion frees; or, finally, it is necessary to find a higher synthesis of both strivings, to indicate such a goal of life as would reconcile the unsatisfied strivings for happiness and perfection with the divine content of life...

First of all, we must consider whether happiness and perfection can be recognized as the goal of human life.

CHAPTER TWO. Criticism of eudaimonism

I

The goal of life is understood as the final result that determines the entire chain of unconscious phenomena of life and conscious actions of a person. The unconscious phenomena of life are determined by this result because it is already presented to the creative mind at the moment of creation, and therefore objectively it is the cause of the origin and process of these phenomena. In the proper sense, the final result serves as the goal for conscious actions of a person, which are determined by the consciousness of the final result. The consciousness of the final result is the idea of the goal (the idea of happiness, the idea of perfection, the idea of the glory of God). This consciousness can be directed either to the final result itself, as to something completed and expected at the end of the life process, which gives the ideal of life, or to the laws and ways of realizing the ideal in the process of life, which gives the concept of purpose. The concept of purpose is the meaning of life.

Истинная цель жизни — не только как общая цель в отличие от частных целей, руководящих тою или другою областью человеческой деятельности, но, главным образом, в противоположность ложно понимаемым целям — определяется с формальной стороны следующими тремя признаками.

Истинная цель имеет основания в действительной жизни, так как она служит причиною бессознательных явлений жизни и всего ее естественного течения. Если не постигнуть, то, по крайней мере, обосновать высшую цель можно эмпирически, путем наблюдения и изучения биологического и исторического прошлого.