What is life??

A few days back my room-mate and school friend Nishikant was kind of atheist. We did not use to pray even a single time during the whole year. A few days back, he went to his native place, Patna. We thought that he would have prepared there for his CAT exam, but he did not. He actually spent time there on different ghats. He met a few sadhus there. His thinking made a complete turn. He became spiritual.
Earlier he used to discuss on these topics only a few times. The last I remember was our discussion on William Dalrymple's Nine Lives: in Search of the Sacred in Modern India. I was just thinking as to how a person like him can have such a sudden change of thinking about life and can start thinking in a totally different way. If he, then there could be many more who have gone through a similar situation. There could be many more who don't have the courage to change their way of thinking like Nishikant.
What is the True Way? What is the Right Path? What actually is the Real Meaning of Life??