What are we here for? What is the meaning of life? There are of course many answers to this question. Here are a few, culled at random from the collective:

• To become the best and highest version of yourself.
• To seek happiness.
• To reproduce.
• To learn as much as you can learn.
• To help others, to give of oneself.
• To know God.
• To achieve unity with God.
• To achieve spiritual enlightenment.
• To find true love.
• To have fun.
• To win.
• To become all-powerful.
• To rule the world (or some part of it).
• There is no meaning other than what you bring to it.
• And, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, the answer to life, the universe and everything is '42.'

Interestingly enough, meditation will help us regardless of which of these paths we may pursue, for stress always is a component if we are failing to achieve our full potential in any field, and therefore release of stress by definition will be a help. Also, by meditating our path may begin to shift. Letting go of our stresses and settling into a deeper experience of Self we may find a more true answer for ourselves among the possibilities. We may find ourselves with completely new priorities.

The Veda would answer the question this way:

Before the beginning of time, there was only a vast, boundless unmanifest, a perfectly symmetrical oneness that comprised all space-time and no space-time--a singularity. To put it in human terms, this oneness became bored with itself. If there is only one thing, there can be no interaction, there can be no movement, there can be no travel from one point to another, there can be no passage of time, all of which require something more than oneness. After an eternity of time, or after no time, the universe decided to do something about this and it gave itself the supreme gift of forgetfulness. It allowed itself to forget its oneness, and in that moment of forgetting, all the relative world was born. The world of multiplicity exploded from the point of oneness, spreading itself into infinite space (and even now still expanding) so that the unity of all things became hidden under the complexity of all things. The universe (the One Song) forgetting its oneness for one reason: in order that it may experience the joy of reuniting with itself. Self finding Self, again and again, through all of life, what we humans call love. Self looks into the eyes of another and recognizes Self and unity occurs. 

'I love you,' we say to one another. 'Namaste,' we say, and we bow. The Self in me recognizes and acknowledges and bows down to the Self in you.

We learn to love, and we learn to be loved.

In time, all of this universe will have remembered itSelf as one thing, and in that moment the universe again will collapse into the singularity and all of it will happen again.

So how can I best help the universe today? I can love. No matter what, no matter who. I can know that love is what I'm shooting for. And I will make a point to recognize it in others regardless of how clumsy their expression of it.

Today I will look beyond the 'shortcomings' in those around me until I can see in their eyes evidence of Self.