The Life Divine

 

CONTENTS

 

 

Pre-content

 

Book One

Omnipresent Reality and the Universe

 

Chapter I

The Human Aspiration

Chapter II

The Two Negations

1. The Materialist Denial

Chapter III

The Two Negations

2. The Refusal of the Ascetic

Chapter IV

Reality Omnipresent

Chapter V

The Destiny of the Individual

Chapter VI

Man in the Universe

Chapter VII

The Ego and the Dualities

Chapter VIII

The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge

Chapter IX

The Pure Existent

Chapter X

Conscious Force

Chapter XI

Delight of Existence: The Problem

Chapter XII

Delight of Existence: The Solution

Chapter XIII

The Divine Maya

Chapter XIV

The Supermind as Creator

Chapter XV

The Supreme Truth-Consciousness

Chapter XVI

The Triple Status of Supermind

Chapter XVII

The Divine Soul

Chapter XVIII

Mind and Supermind

Chapter XIX

Life

Chapter XX

Death, Desire and Incapacity

Chapter XXI

The Ascent of Life

Chapter XXII

The Problem of Life

Chapter XXIII

The Double Soul in Man

Chapter XXIV

Matter

Chapter XXV

The Knot of Matter

Chapter XXVI

The Ascending Series of Substance

Chapter XXVII

The Sevenfold Chord of Being

Chapter XXVIII

Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya

 

 

Book Two

The Knowledge and the Ignorance - The Spiritual Evolution

 

Part I

The Infinite Consciousness and the Ignorance

 

Chapter I

Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable

Chapter II

Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara -- Maya, Prakriti, Shakti

Chapter III

The Eternal and the Individual

Chapter IV

The Divine and the Undivine

Chapter V

The Cosmic Illusion; Mind, Dream and Hallucination

Chapter VI

Reality and the Cosmic Illusion

Chapter VII

The Knowledge and the Ignorance

Chapter VIII

Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance

Chapter IX

Memory, Ego and Self-Experience

Chapter X

Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge

Chapter XI

The Boundaries of the Ignorance

Chapter XII

The Origin of the Ignorance

Chapter XIII

Exclusive Concentration of Consciousness-Force and the

Ignorance

Chapter XIV

The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil

 

 

Note on the Text

 



The Life Divine


Publisher's Note

 

The Life Divine first appeared serially in the monthly review Arya between August 1914 and January 1919. Each instalment was written immediately before its publication. In 1939 and 1940 Sri Aurobindo revised The Life Divine for book publication. The first volume of the revised version, consisting of the first twenty-seven chapters of the Arya text, along with a newly written twenty-eighth chapter, was published in November 1939. The revision of all but two of the Arya chapters was light. The second volume of the revised version was published in July 1940. The revision of this volume was extensive. Eight Arya chapters were discarded and seventeen considerably revised, while twelve new chapters were written. Volume I was reprinted in 1943 and 1947, Volume II in 1944. A one-volume edition was brought out in the United States in 1949. New editions were published in India in 1955, 1970 and 2001, and in the United States in 1990. The editions of 1970 and 1990 were reprinted many times.

The present edition has been checked against all editions published before 1950 and, when necessary, the author's manuscripts.