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SUPPLEMENT
TO VOLUMES
18-19
THE LIFE DIVINE
ARGUMENTS TO "THE
LIFE DIVINE"
In response to the desire of some of our
subscribers we
shall prefix henceforth a brief summary or argument to each
chapter of The Life Divine.
Arya, February, 1916
These Arguments were written by Sri Aurobindo for
Chapters XIX to XXXIII of The
Life Divine as it appeared originally
in tl1e Arya (1914-1919).
The Life Divine
was revised in 1939-40 and divided into
two parts, the order of the chapters was rearranged in
some places
and several new chapters were written for
it.
The "Argument in Brief" and a
"Synopsis" of the first chapter of The Life Divine were written
by Sri Aurobindo in the 1940′s in response to pressing requests for a model
indicating the lines upon which a – summary of The Life
Divine
could be attempted.
Where necessary
a note is given indicating to what chapter of the
(Centenary Edition) the Arya chapter and its argument correspond.
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CHAPTER
I
The Human
Aspiration
ARGUMENT
IN BRIEF
A SEARCH for God (for a spiritual or divine Reality
within oneself and behind, above or within the phenomenon of
existence), for perfection, for freedom, for an absolute Truth and Bliss, for
immortality has been the persistent preoccupation of the highest human thought
since the earliest times. This preoccupation seems to be a perpetual element
in man’s nature;
for it survives the longest periods of scepticism.
This
aspiration is in contradiction with his present existence and normal
experience of himself which is that of a mortal being, full of imperfections,
ego-ridden, largely animal, subject to transitory joys
and much pain and suffering, bound by mechanical necessity. But the
direct contradiction between what he is and what he
seeks to be need not be a final argument against the validity of his
aspiration. For such contradictions are part of Nature’s general
method; the aspiration may be realisable either by a revolutionary individual
effort or by an evolutionary general process.
The problems of existence are problems of harmony. Discords and
disorder of the materials, oppositions, demand a solution by
accordance, by the discovery of a harmony. Thus the accordance of an
inanimation and inertia in a containing Matter and the active indwelling
stress of Life is Nature’s first problem, its initial difficulty; its perfect
solution would be immortality in a material body. The accordance of an
unconscious Matter and an unconscious or half-conscious Life with a conscious
Mind and Will is her second problem; the possession of a direct and perfect,
instrumentation of knowledge in a living body would be its complete solution.
The accordance of a mortal mind, life and body with a secretly indwelling
immortal spirit is the final problem; the spiritualisation or divinisation of
mind, life and body, a divine
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life, would be the perfect solution. The search after these solutions
by the human being is not irrational; it is rather the very; effort and
striving of Nature within him.
Life appears in Matter, Mind in Life, because they are al. ready there.
Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled. Mind; Mind may well be a
form and veil of a higher power, the spirit, which is supramental in its nature.
Nature has implanted an impulse towards
life in certain forms of Matter and evolves
it there, a similar evolutionary
impulse towards mind in certain; forms
of life, an impulse in certain minds towards what is beyond Mind,
towards the unveiling of Spirit or the evolution of a spiritual being. Each impulse justifies itself by the creation of the necessary
organs and faculties.
There is therefore no reason to put a limit to evolutionary possibility
by taking our present organisation or status of existence as final. The animal
is a laboratory in which Nature has worked out man; man may very well be a
laboratory in which she wills to work out superman, to disclose the soul as a
divine being, to evolve a divine nature.
SYNOPSIS
Man’s
highest aspiration has been always a seeking for God, perfection, freedom, an absolute truth and bliss, immortality.
A direct contradiction exists between this aspiration and his present
state of mortality, imperfection, bondage to mechanical necessity, ego and
animality.
This contradiction between what he is now and what he seeks
to
be is not a final argument against his aspiration. Contradictions are part of
Nature’s method; the aspiration may be achievable by individual effort or by an
evolutionary progress.
The problems of existence are problems of harmony.
The accordance of an active life-principle with the inanimate
Matter containing it is Nature’s first evolutionary problem; its complete
solution would be immortality in the body.
The accordance of conscious Mind with an unconscious Matter and
half-conscious Life is her second evolutionary prob-
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lem; a
direct and perfect instrumentation of knowledge in a living body
would be its complete solution.
The
accordance of immortal spirit with a mortal mind, life
and body is her third and final
problem; its complete solution could be
the evolution of a divine being and a divine nature.
As Nature has implanted the impulse to life in Matter, to mind in
life, so she has implanted in mind the impulse towards le evolution of
what is beyond mind, spiritual, supramental. Each
impulse justifies itself by the creation of the necessary organs
and faculties.
The animal is a laboratory in which she has worked out man; man
may be a laboratory in which she wills to work out the superman, the being of a
divine nature.
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