Aim of Life
Never in its checkered history through several millenniums, was there a more significant era in
human evolution than the present time. Man, it would appear, has reached the zenith of his
material and intellectual progress, perhaps never as swiftly as during the past hundred years.
Today we almost feel swept by the movement of accelerated evolution, constantly breaking and
changing all established structures of the past and the present. But this rapid and unbridled outer
progress without the necessary regulatory inner sympathy and concord has created a terrible
imbalance.
The foremost tools of this stunning human development—science and technology—have produced more problems of new dimensions than can be solved. Man’s mind is unable to keep pace with the movement he has himself set up. The all-conquering knowledge of Man suddenly appears to be grossly inadequate to show him the right direction beyond the bounds of this proud but distressed civilization still governed by egoistic self-assertion, domination, exploitation, deception, and opportunism—to name just a few prevailing rules.
The consequences are obvious: the still persisting human plights and miseries in varied forms, the unending revolts and conflicts, the unceasing struggles seeking dignity, equality, and justice; and all such existing imbalances which, neither the glitters and grandeurs of the greatest scientific inventions nor the grand promises of the most remarkable intellectual theories or religious tenets could eliminate, or even reasonably decimate, from the life of this highly illusory civilization.
But what does this crisis mean? Will all the established systems break down and the modern world end in chaotic disorder or catastrophic destruction? Or will a civilization of dread and despair, of soulless regimentation, turn the human race into a gigantic anthill?
But what does this crisis mean? Will all the established systems break down and the modern world end in chaotic disorder or catastrophic destruction? Or will a civilization of dread and despair, of soulless regimentation, turn the human race into a gigantic anthill?
But what does this crisis mean? Will all the established systems break down and the modern world end in chaotic disorder or catastrophic destruction? Or will a civilization of dread and despair, of soulless regimentation, turn the human race into a gigantic anthill?
It may, therefore, be reasonably assumed that somewhere— perhaps beyond our surface understanding— a progression is taking place, an emergence of something greater is probably in process, the manifestation of which will finally reveal the aim and purpose of life, indeed of the perennial mysteries behind this enigmatic existence. For, it is difficult to imagine that the colossal labor of Nature through millenniums had been no more than a chance or an accident without any purpose or aim. On the contrary, looking back at the movement of Nature, is it not more prudent to assume that perhaps hidden there somewhere behind the appearances of things a deeper reality waiting for its turn to manifest?
Sri Aurobindo, a yogi and mystic of twentieth-century India, envisioned that the destiny of Man is not obliteration but fulfillment of a secret Plan of the evolving Nature. He perceived Man— the mental being—as an incomplete and a “transitional being” but with the potentiality and prospect of exceeding his present limitations and becoming what he called a “Supramental” being, a being who will “remain a man in its external form, and yet whose consciousness will rise far above the mind and its slavery to ignorance.”
He expounded his theory of spiritual evolution in his principal philosophic work: The Life Divine. His other major works are The Synthesis of Yoga, The Essays on the Gita, The Secret of the Vedas, The Human Cycle-The Ideal of Human Unity-War and Self-Determination, The Supramental Manifestation; and several other works.
He expounded his theory of spiritual evolution in his principal philosophic work: The Life Divine. His other major works are The Synthesis of Yoga, The Essays on the Gita, The Secret of the Vedas, The Human Cycle-The Ideal of Human Unity-War and Self-Determination, The Supramental Manifestation; and several other works.
Sri Aurobindo’s revelations give a new urge to the human spirit to look beyond the despairs of the present time—dominated by the ego and its thousands of desires and demands, towards a greater era of human nobility, love, concord, and amity.
The foremost tools of this stunning human development—science and technology—have produced more problems of new dimensions than can be solved. Man’s mind is unable to keep pace with the movement he has himself set up. The all-conquering knowledge of Man suddenly appears to be grossly inadequate to show him the right direction beyond the bounds of this proud but distressed civilization still governed by egoistic self-assertion, domination, exploitation, deception, and opportunism—to name just a few prevailing rules.
The consequences are obvious: the still persisting human plights and miseries in varied forms, the unending revolts and conflicts, the unceasing struggles seeking dignity, equality, and justice; and all such existing imbalances which, neither the glitters and grandeurs of the greatest scientific inventions nor the grand promises of the most remarkable intellectual theories or religious tenets could eliminate, or even reasonably decimate, from the life of this highly illusory civilization.
But what does this crisis mean? Will all the established systems break down and the modern world end in chaotic disorder or catastrophic destruction? Or will a civilization of dread and despair, of soulless regimentation, turn the human race into a gigantic anthill?
But what does this crisis mean? Will all the established systems break down and the modern world end in chaotic disorder or catastrophic destruction? Or will a civilization of dread and despair, of soulless regimentation, turn the human race into a gigantic anthill?
But what does this crisis mean? Will all the established systems break down and the modern world end in chaotic disorder or catastrophic destruction? Or will a civilization of dread and despair, of soulless regimentation, turn the human race into a gigantic anthill?
It may, therefore, be reasonably assumed that somewhere— perhaps beyond our surface understanding— a progression is taking place, an emergence of something greater is probably in process, the manifestation of which will finally reveal the aim and purpose of life, indeed of the perennial mysteries behind this enigmatic existence. For, it is difficult to imagine that the colossal labor of Nature through millenniums had been no more than a chance or an accident without any purpose or aim. On the contrary, looking back at the movement of Nature, is it not more prudent to assume that perhaps hidden there somewhere behind the appearances of things a deeper reality waiting for its turn to manifest?
Sri Aurobindo, a yogi and mystic of twentieth-century India, envisioned that the destiny of Man is not obliteration but fulfillment of a secret Plan of the evolving Nature. He perceived Man— the mental being—as an incomplete and a “transitional being” but with the potentiality and prospect of exceeding his present limitations and becoming what he called a “Supramental” being, a being who will “remain a man in its external form, and yet whose consciousness will rise far above the mind and its slavery to ignorance.”
He expounded his theory of spiritual evolution in his principal philosophic work: The Life Divine. His other major works are The Synthesis of Yoga, The Essays on the Gita, The Secret of the Vedas, The Human Cycle-The Ideal of Human Unity-War and Self-Determination, The Supramental Manifestation; and several other works.
He expounded his theory of spiritual evolution in his principal philosophic work: The Life Divine. His other major works are The Synthesis of Yoga, The Essays on the Gita, The Secret of the Vedas, The Human Cycle-The Ideal of Human Unity-War and Self-Determination, The Supramental Manifestation; and several other works.
Sri Aurobindo’s revelations give a new urge to the human spirit to look beyond the despairs of the present time—dominated by the ego and its thousands of desires and demands, towards a greater era of human nobility, love, concord, and amity.