Praying Only for Knowledge

SUFFERING is a concomitant of growth. Rehabilitation combines the essence of both as every regenerated alcoholic knows. Du Nouy, in his classic Human Destiny, revealed to the discerning eye that the purpose of evolution--the sole purpose--is the creation of a perfect life form, and that man is the evolutive branch destined to become the perfect creature. Every sage, every saint that ever trod the earth, said in one way or another that the sole reason for man's existence is to become one with his Creator; not in some future life, on some other plane of existence, but here and now. Huxley, in his Perennial Philosophy, says that man's final end is union with God through the unitive love-knowledge of the Godhead. What, if anything, has this to do with the problem of alcoholism and recovery from drunkenness?