There is the path of wisdom and the path of ignorance.

All the spiritual teachers off humanity have told us this same thing, the purpose of life on earth is to achieve union with our fundamental, enlightened nature. The " Task" for which the "King" has send us into this strange, dark country is to realise and embody our true being. There is only one way to do this, and that is to undertake the spiritual journey, with all the ardor and intelligence, courage and resolve for transformation that we can muster.

As death says to Nachiketa in the katho Upanishad:

There is the path of wisdom and the path of ignorance. They are far apart and lead to different ends...Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go in aimlessly hither and thither like the blind led by the blind. What lies beyond life shines not to those who are childish, or careless, or diluted by wealth

At other times in the other civilisations, this path of spiritual transformation was confined to a relatively select number of people, now, however, a large proportion of the human race must seek the path of wisdom if the world is to be preserved from the internal and external dangers that threaten it. In this time of violence and disintegration, spiritual vision is not an elitist luxury but vital to our survival.

To follow this path of wisdom has never been more urgent or more difficult. Our society is dedicated almost entirely to the celebration of ego,  with all its sad fantasies about successes and power, it celebrates those very forces of greed and ignorance. That are destroying the planet. It has never been more difficult to hear the unflattering voice of the truth, and never more difficult, once having heard it, to follow it: because there is nothing in the world around us that supports our choice, and the entire society in which we live seems to negate every idea of sacredness and external meaning.  So at the time of our most acute danger, when our very future is in doubt, we as human beings find ourselves at our most bewildered, and trapped in a nightmare of our own creation.