About the book: 2015 / We are glad to present you this small but very valuable book, which contains an answer to The most exciting question for every person is: “What is the meaning of my life, why do I live in this world?” It is especially valuable that the answer to this question is given not just by a philosopher, or a wise person, but by that person whose words his very life speaks of as true. Moreover, St. Seraphim, speaking with Nikolai Motovilov in the conversation itself, claims that the secret so clearly revealed to him is predetermined to be open “to the whole world”: “it was not given to you alone to understand this, but through you to the whole world.” Precious notes recording this conversation were found by S. A. Nilus in the papers of Motovilov’s wife. We got them through Nilus’ niece Elena Yurievna Kontsevich. Until 1917, several editions of this conversation were published, from which all its foreign reprints were reprinted. But on the eve of the revolution, S. A. Nilus, having finally examined the manuscript, published a definitive text of 1917, which was published by our brotherhood of “Reverend Herman of Alaska” in 1968 and republished in the Russian Pilgrim magazine. We publish this text unchanged with a foreword by S. A. Nilus.