"Nobody had dared, ever, to ask, What is the meaning of life?

"Even the atheists who had denied God, who had denied the afterlife, who had denied the existence of the soul – even they had never asked what the meaning of life is. They said, Eat, drink and be merry – that is the meaning of life.' It was clear to them that these joys – 'eat, drink, be merry' – were what life is all about.

"But Soren Kierkegaard went very deeply into the question. He created, unknowingly, a movement: existentialism. Then followed the four other names: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, and the last but not the least important – in fact the most important– Jean-Paul Sartre. These five people went on hammering on the whole intelligentsia of the world: that life is meaningless.

"Now, anybody who has some kind of intelligence is bound to come across this question, and he has to find some way to encounter it.

"I do not agree with these five great philosophers, but I give them the respect that they deserve. They were courageous, because once you take meaning out of life, religion disappears, because religion up to now has been nothing but an effort to give meaning to your life: to fill it so that you don't feel empty; to surround you with God and angels so that you don't feel lonely. You have not been going to the church, the synagogue, and the temple without any reason.

"For thousands of years man has not been bowing down to the priests without any reason. He was gaining something. Of course they were exploiting him, but even in their exploitation man was finding a certain consolation. He was not alone, he was being looked after. Life was not futile, it had tremendous meaning, spiritual, esoteric, profoundso high and so deep that your intellect could not comprehend it.

"Still the majority of people, ninety-nine percent, are not bothered by the question. How can they be bothered? They easily find consolation from the dead past. To them it is not a dead past.

"I have told you about Bishop Jenkins of England who declared that there was no resurrection, that it is a myth; that there was no virgin birth, it is an absolute lie, and that there is no need for anybody to believe in all these mythologies to become a Christian."