This amazing person met me while I was waiting to board the plane from Pittsburgh to Chicago today. He was Christian and he took Hinduism and its teachings to his heart: he said it made more sense to him than Christianity. We had a wonderful discussion regarding spirituality and the meaning and purpose of life. I was getting along well with the conversation because I had read part of Vivekananda's works, but at some point I blanked out because he talked about more complicated things than I could understand.
What surprised me was when he said India was going up and the US was going down - there is so much hate and materialism in the US. He said that! I remember my father saying something like that from the news that India's culture was influencing the world in some way (he said this yesterday!) and I saw a living example right today!
I am glad I was thinking along the same lines as such an experienced person (he is 60) and that means I have learnt something in life from experience. What I found especially interesting was his answer to the question "What is the purpose of life?": He said God created the world and matter to experience his fullest/lowest potential. Experience and knowledge is the ultimate goal (I agree with that) and it can only be gained when there exists polarity (good or evil/right or wrong/up and down) in life. That's what the world is! We also discussed Maya (the illusion) and Advaita philosophy. It struck me today in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, when I saw a book on Einstein, that his formula E = mc^2 is a mathematical formula for the teachings of Advaita philosophy that the material world (mass/matter) is a consequence of the supreme consciousness (Energy). This totally makes sense to me! It's also fully understandable how Einstein could come up with such great thoughts just by thinking, because everything in the world is an outcome of thought and experience.
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