DESC
The Life Divine is Sri Aurobindo's major philosophical opus. It combines a synthesis of western thought and eastern spirituality with Sri Aurobindo's own original insights. The Life Divine covers topics such as the human aspiration, the emergence of life in the cosmos from out of a Divine Source, the evolution of matter to spirit in the universe, the division and dualities inherent in human consciousness, the way out of man's ignorance through an evolution of consciousness, and the spiritual destiny of life on earth.
The Life Divine was translated into poetic Bengali in "Divya Jeevan Prasanga" by the scholar saint Sri Anirvan
BOOK I
is entitled The Omnipresent Reality and The Universe. Here Sri Aurobindo describes how the Infinite Consciousness, the omnipresent Reality (Brahman, the Absolute) extended Itself through the power of Truth Consciousness (Supermind) to become this universe of forms. He also explains the origin and underlying nature of the planes of creation, from matter to vital life to mind, and on back to Spirit.
Sri Aurobindo tells us that Man has emerged as a divided being, unable to fulfill his deepest human aspiration for God, Light, Peace, Joy, Love, and Immortality. And yet if we move to a deeper consciousness within, and open to the descending Supramental power above, we will overcome our divided nature, develop a new consciousness that will be the basis of a divine existence on earth.
BOOK II
is entitled The Knowledge and The Ignorance: The Spiritual Evolution. Here, Sri Aurobindo delves deeper into the nature of our essential Ignorance, born of creation. He tells what in the involution, cosmos, life, and our being creates and perpetuates this Ignorance, and the way out of it, which is to arrive at true, Integral Knowledge. He goes further and indicates that as we overcome our Ignorance, we can also embark on the yogic effort to that will bring about our psychic, spiritual, and supramental transformation, leading to a spirit-based humanity, culminating in a Divine life on Earth.
SUMMARY
Man aspires for God, immortality, truth, delight, and perfection.
That aspiration remains unfulfilled because Man's nature is divided.
He can come to fulfill his aspiration when he discovers his higher nature, i.e. his higher consciousness.
The division and dualities in Man's nature -- i.e. his essential Ignorance -- has its origins in the creation of material life in the cosmos.
Out of a Divine Source emerged divided forms of force/energy.
The process of the cosmos emerging from a Divine Source to cosmic mind to energy to matter is the involution. The emergence of matter to life to mind and to spirit is the evolution.
Supermind created out of the conscious Force of Being, the cosmic Mind and energy that would be the basis of forms of life in creation.
Acting to fulfill Real Ideas of the Infinite, Conscious being, Supermind enables a universe in space and time.
The spirit that was the source of creation is involved in, embedded and hidden in matter.
The conscious Being intended the forms to be ignorant to allow for the greatest multiplicity and diversity of possibility in creation.
Because the forms in the cosmos originate in nescience and unconsciousness, man shares that quality. It reflects in his divided and Ignorant nature. It is the reason for suffering, pain, and death.
Through Man's evolution of consciousness, he overcomes his limited nature, bringing the spirit to the surface of life.
When Man moves his attention away from the sense inputs of the surface, and discovers his inner being -- down to the depths of Soul within -- he begins a vast ascent in consciousness.
In the depths, he begins to move out of his ego and become more connected with, sensitive to, and unified with the world around him, including others. He loses that sense of division and duality in life.
As Man perceives the world from this deeper perspective, he perceives a vast array of truth, which enables him to come out of his fundamental Ignorance. He begins to develop an Integral Knowledge that is in identity with every body of object he pursues.
As he moves within, his minds opens to light and intuitions and revelations of knowledge. He also begins to perceive all parts of a subject or object of knowledge, including its whole and essence, instead of the part he sees through ordinary sense and rational mind. He develops a super-rationality, which he experiences as Integral Knowledge, the opposite of his original Ignorance.
He then sees beyond duality and contradiction in life, such as pleasure and pain, good and evil, positive and negative, two sides of a dispute, etc., perceiving them as necessary, complementary, and One.
He also comes to see the Oneness of Spirit and Matter. That matter is a form of spirit, and that spirit expresses itself in creation through matter (and all other planes).
As a result, he perceives the dual pairs of the Unmanifest and the Manifest, the Creator and Creation, the original Being and the Becomings of life as integrally One. It is the Vision of the Reality, Brahman.
At that point, he can begin to fulfill his deepest aspirations in life, and find ultimate delight in being.
As man discovers his true self and highest consciousness, he experiences ultimate Delight of being., which is far beyond the normal transient happiness.
Delight of being is in fact the very reason that the Infinite set in motion the process that enabled a universe to emerge from a Divine Source.
When man discovers his higher nature, he feels the delight for which a universe of forms was created. The static delight of the conscious Being is then extended to the dynamic delight experienced by individual humans in creation.
Through man's evolution and transformation of consciousness, the Divine Intent is fulfilled. When Man becomes fully spiritual in nature, he completes the circle from whose Source he and the cosmos originally emerged.
The intent of the Infinite is not only to bring about Man's individual evolution, but to bring the spiritual Being into the Becoming of life to raise all existence into its greatest consciousness, power, and perfection.
As a large number of individual go through these transformative stages, there begins the possibility of the emergence of a new Divine Life on earth, fulfilling the Divine Intent in enabling a universe of forms, while also fulfilling man's deepest aspirations in life.
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