I do what I like, what gives me satisfaction and what I think is right. Because I am a living being. That’s it.

Q: How can someone find meaning without believing in a god? Do you personally subscribe to nihilism or absurdism?

Krishna: Meaning of what? Life?

You just need a critical thinking mind for the right analyses. When you rationally and scientifically think, you will find that there is no need to have a “god” to find meaning.

In fact a blind belief in something leads to motivated reasoning which distracts your thinking process and takes you the wrong way.

You have to find things as they are and not as you want them to be.

All of us are subject to the psychological forces at play when it comes to choosing between facts and beliefs when they do not mesh. In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be.
The path of evolutionary enlightenment is one of ego-transcendence that is a means to a higher end, to open up some space within the self – space for evolution to occur. Being inspired by the idea of conscious evolution is one thing, while actually engaging in the process of evolution is something else altogether. But within themselves people are not free. They are trapped in psychological hang-ups and attachments, with little or no space for that which is new. Their minds are not liberated, and their choices and actions are still being shaped by unconscious adherence to values and perspectives that have nothing to do with being a liberated vessel for the evolution of consciousness and culture. Merely being inspired by the potential for conscious revolution does not automatically give us access to the fearless inner freedom to actualize that potential. In order to find that freedom, to open up that space for new, it is essential that you liberate yourself to a significant degree from your personal fears and desires and your culturally conditioned values. This inner freedom is not different from the goal of traditional enlightenment where freedom is an end itself. Ideally, freedom becomes the foundation from which to engage in conscious evolution. You must disentangle yourself, free yourself from your deeds, your history, culture that is entangled in beliefs and personal ego.
That empty space or a clean slate will become the ultimate source and wellspring of new awakening thoughts, their evolution which finally leads to enlightenment. (1)

Whatever actions and reactions occurred in the initial stages of Earth formation and evolution lead to life.

The culmination of evolution leads to human beings. As we have a very evolved brain, we can achieve several things if we use it correctly and efficiently and make life on Earth very comfortable, pleasurable and meaningful at the same time.

But right now most human beings are not using this evolved brain very efficiently and correctly . That is why this suffering.

All life forms share at least one essential purpose: survival. This is even more important than another key purpose for life, reproduction. Plenty of organisms, after all, are alive but do not reproduce. To be alive is more than passing genes along to the next generation. To be alive is to want to remain alive. This is an essential difference between living creatures and other complex but non-living forms of material organization such as stars or rocks. These non-living material forms simply exist. They passively undergo the unfolding of the physical processes that shape them. For rocks, this is a give-and-take with erosion; for stars, it is about countering gravitational implosion while there is enough nuclear fuel to fuse in their cores. There is no strategy to any of this, and no action can be taken to delay what is inevitable.

The essential difference between the living and the non-living is the urge for preservation. Life is a form of material organization that strives to perpetuate itself. Life has autonomous intentionality.

The question of whether life has a purpose becomes confusing when we consider the stunning diversity of living forms on this planet. There is no controversy in saying that a single organism wants to remain alive.

Once that purpose is served, you can think as many as other ones your brain allows! (2)

From a scientific view point, life is a very natural thing, which emerged simply to satisfy basic physical laws. Our “purpose,” so to speak, is to redistribute energy on the Earth, which is in between a huge potential energy difference caused by the hot Sun and cold space. Organisms evolve via natural selection, but at the most basic level, natural selection is driven by the same thermodynamic principle: increasing entropy and decreasing energy differences. The natural processes from which life emerged, then, are the same processes that keep life going – and they operate on all timescales.(2)

According to thermodynamics, there was no striking moment or no single specific locus for life to originate, but the natural process has been advancing by a long sequence of steps via numerous mechanisms so far reaching a specific meaning – life (2)

Scientific purpose of life: Organisms have goals. The short-term goal is to self-generate and self-maintain in a given environmental context. The long-term goal is to pass genome copies on to offspring, a goal that succeeds only if self-generation and self-maintenance succeed.

But a deep analysis makes you think both the universe and life lack inherent purpose because all these things I mentioned above look like short term goals.

You have a very evolved brain. It can reveal both the purpose of your life and alleviate your suffering if you think the right way.

And human beings give so many ‘meanings and purposes’ of life. But who does what doesn't count in the universe's book of happenings.

Individual achievements or failures have no meaning in its cycles.

Still the universe runs unstoppable with infinite energy.

What matters or doesn't matter to human beings is based on their different perceptions and interpretations but immaterial to this universe!

If a thing is alive it has to adhere to these definitions in order to survive and flourish:

Responsiveness: Living things can respond to external stimuli

Growth: Living things can grow

Metabolism: Living things can metabolize

Reproduction: Living things can reproduce

Homeostasis: Living things have the capacity for homeostasis

Organization: Living things are highly organized and contain specialized, coordinated parts

Adaptation: Living things can adapt

A living being can skip some of these things because of some pulls and pushes of life but can still ‘survive’ for some time.

If the thing is not alive the environment and its interaction with it dictates what route it should follow.

Unless you have a highly controlled and stable mind when you reach adulthood, you are like a non-living entity subjected to various pulls and pushes of your circumstances ,

What can just a piece of paper blowing in the wind do about it and except for your immediate surroundings, who or what cares about it?

Even life or death doesn't have much meaning in the universe's view point.

People come and go, rocks form, get plateaued, erode and disappear. But this universe doesn't care who is coming and going and which mass of matter is doing what or becoming what.

All that matters is just in your mind, in your little world, not in the biggest picture of this universe (3).

But  if I can relieve someone’s pain and suffering to some extent that shows a happy feeling on their faces and if I see that feeling I too feel satisfied. If I can give a solution to somebody’s problem, that gives me a ‘fulfilled’ emotion. That is why I do what I do.

I get a high when I am in the knowledge zone. That is why I stay there.

Whether there is any meaning in it or not, I don’t care. Whether the universe cares about it or not I don’t care.

God or any entity doesn’t come into this picture at all.

Big words like nihilism or absurdism have no place in this world of mine.

Who cares about meanings or some entities in the sky, heaven or hell or some illusionary pictures?

I do what I like, what gives me satisfaction and what I think is right. Because I am a living being.
That’s it.

Footnotes:

1. Science and Spirituality
2. You have a very evolved brain. It can reveal both the purpose of yo...
3. What matters in the end?