Have you experienced it directly, without the intermission of a Guru?
I have felt moments of sheer elevation, akin to a form of spiritual solace which I would not credit myself for. I could not have believed that I could experience it but I did. Yet they are far too sporadic and I have not been able to extend their momentary bliss.
Also, I am equally convinced that in spite of all this understanding, there is, even if joyous, a futility to our lives. We are born and we die. In between we may achieve. But when we seem besieged by life’s normal problems, we should step out and look at the sky. For a moment we see the infinity of the universe, the galaxies, millions of light years away; we realize the infinitesimal irrelevance of our own little world. And that is also a source of solace, because it suddenly changes our perspective.

As a Chinese philosopher said, “nothing matters to the man who says nothing matters”. We need that daily therapy in our lives. The most unacceptable and pathetic phenomenon is the way people take themselves so seriously. So one form of spirituality is humour. I consider that person closest to being a sage who can laugh freely, including at himself. I thereafter often do laughter therapy. Because it really corrects my perspective.

Still, is there a certain purpose to us being here?
If there is, I did not manage to figure it out. I believe one of the reasons we cling on to the belief in the afterlife is because we are unable to accept the finality of death. In a sense, it is a solace structure built for us. For me, because of the great opportunity of solace, transcendence, peace, joy and tranquillity that it can promise in THIS life, the spiritual field is in THIS life, between birth and death. No one can change those coordinates, and no one has ever fully answered the question of why I was born, why I die, what is the purpose of my life.

... contd.