Bhagavad Gita

Today I was walking to the library and there was a sudden gust of wind that blew my hood to my sweatshirt strangely. As I moved it, I saw some guy walking towards me. I think he thought that I was waving at him. Anyway, for whatever reason, he stopped and I was obligated to talk to him. He was wearing a large coat, a backpack, and a large burlap bag over his shoulder. He asked me if I was intelligent, and began pulling a book out of his bag. I indicated that I wasn't exceptional or anything and noticed that the book he was pulling out was a book called "Bhagavad-Gita As It Is". I really don't know much about Hinduism (except that the Bhagavad-Gita is Hindu), so this peeked piqued my interest.
-"Ohh, good. Well do you meditate?"
There are things that I do that one could call meditate, but I don't call it meditation, so I said, "Well, no not really." Maybe I should have given him more information, but I didn't.
Then he began his canvass. He explained to me how people today try to find happiness through Hedonism. Specifically he mentioned: drugs, alcohol, and sex. He showed me the pretty pictures from the book of unhappy cartoon people with turbans hoarding money. He said this was lacking because our bodies are temporary and so these things can only give us temporary happiness. He then said there was a better way. He turned to a picture of people of various ages (one a skeleton) with sunbursts over their chests and light beams connecting the sunbursts. I figured this represented souls or something. He started talking about how everyone is connected or something. Then he said, "Our souls are connected. You know about eternal souls, right?" He looked at me expectantly.
Here I should mention that when I was canvassing one of the first things that I was taught was to find common ground. Search for something that you and the person you're talking to have in common. Then branch out from there. So I'm sure he was trying to get a foothold onto me here. The only problem, is that Adventists (and I) don't believe in souls per se. Again, I could have given him more information or mentioned something else that would give him a chance to find a new foothold, but I just said, "I don't believe in an immortal soul."
He was clearly thrown aback, and was quiet for a second. He then asked, "Why not?"
This question was a bit odd to me, because it seems that for supernatural things the burden of proof is on the believer not the nonbeliever. That is, I think a better question is for me to ask "Why do you believe in a soul?" Well I instead just said, "I don't see a reason to believe in a soul."
So he said, "Well if you don't see a reason to believe in a soul then you don't see a reason not to believe in a soul." I ignored this bad logic. He then asked, "Wouldn't it be better to believe in a soul?"
WHAT?!? But I think I said, "I don't follow."
"Well a positive is better than a negative. It is a positive to believe in something and a negative to disbelieve."
I thought about this for a second. The problem is that I believe not having a soul is a positive thing. So I said, "Well it depends on what you think is a positive."
"Having a soul is a positive."
"Not necessarily, what's the consequence?"
"Eternal happiness if you accept it"
"And if you don't?"
"Suffering"
"Well there's the negative in it."
He thought for a second. Then he said, "Well if you don't believe in a soul then life is temporary and the only purpose you see in life is hedonism." I didn't quite agree with him, because I don't believe in a soul, but I also believe in eternal life of some sort (just not eternal damnation...maybe it's complicated.) He never did get around to the point of having a soul. Then he asked, "What do you think the purpose of life is?"
I thought for a few seconds. I thought of the various common Christian answers to such a question. Then I went with, "Well I don't really think about that much."
Then he put his book back in his bag, said "ok", and walked away. That was weird. So now upon reflection I wish I'd answered some of his questions differently. If he were giving away his book, I'd like to have a copy of it. I'd like to know more about Hinduism and it had a bunch of stuff in Hindi Sanskrit, which would be cool to look at (I can't read it). Ohh well, maybe next time...