INTRODUCTION

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A Most Extraordinary Vision of the Future

Human Transformation and a Divine Life on Earth

In one sense, Sri Aurobindo is the most radical of radicals. He begins with the extraordinary assertion that we humans might not be the ultimate form of life to emerge on earth. That we are likely to witness the emergence of a new type of individual from out of the current (transitional) human form. In addition, this new individual will live his life from a spiritual poise and perspective -- enabling the infinite powers of the Divine consciousness to enter his being, releasing his ultimate potential, and giving new meaning and purpose to his existence in the cosmos.

Sri Aurobindo suggests that we can begin to live this life by centering our consciousness to a deeper poise within -- instead of living on the surface, where we perceive life through ignorance, division, duality, contradiction, suffering, and pain. From this inner perspective, we perceive our daily existence with greater clarity and insight; are more in touch with the multiplicity of truths unfolding around us; are in greater harmony with the needs of the environment, including others; and are generally more aware and conscious of who we are, and what purpose we serve in life.

This level of self-awareness and self-consciousness is just the starting point for an even greater change -- the evolution and transformation of our being through contact with the spiritual dimension of life. In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo explains that there are two primary means by which we connect to and are transformed by the Spirit.

First, he informs us that in the depths of our being there is a True Self and Spirit -- an evolving Soul that he calls the "Psychic Being" -- which is the primary lever and means of our evolutionary change. By connecting to our Evolving Soul, we perceive our ultimate purpose in life, open to the vast array of spiritual insights, forces, and powers in the universe; feel a sense of oneness with everything and all around us; and as a result experience ultimate joy and delight in being alive.

Second, he reveals that around us there is also a descending spiritual Force -- a Supramental truth consciousness -- that we can open to, allowing Its infinite truth power to enter our being, and uplift, perfect, and transform it. It turns out that this supramental truth consciousness is not only the descending spiritual power that can hasten our progress, evolution, and transformation, but it is in fact the very force and power that enabled the universe to emerge from a Divine Source.

As we take up the call to discover our higher nature; as we come in touch with our evolving soul; as we open and surrender to the descending supramental power, we begin to make the decisive evolutionary and transformational change. Through this reversal of consciousness, our old nature is transmuted into a new supernature. Not only are our mental, vital, and physical parts uplifted, and our capacities dramatically enhanced, but we feel a deep connection and oneness with the world around us. In addition, we begin to feel a profound connection with the cosmic and transcendent spiritual reality, which helps us perceive life's true purpose, and out own purpose as instruments of the Higher Power. Finally, out of all of these inner and outer experience, we feel a deep and abiding joy and delight in being alive.

As individuals make this decisive change in their nature, as they infuse all parts of their being with this higher consciousness, there then gradually emerges a new type of Person -- a Gnostic, Supramental being, whose existence is organized around the power of the Spirit. As a number of such individuals make this decisive change, a new human social existence begins to emerge, culminating in a Divine Life on earth.

This is the powerful vision that Sri Aurobindo has offered the world. This is the revelation of a future existence for the individual and the society that he has captured sp eloquently in his metaphysical treatise The Life Divine. [EP]

The Story of the Universe

In addition to his vision of a new humanity organized around the spiritual dimension of life, The Life Divine also tells the story of how the universe came to be from a Divine Source. Throughout the 56 chapters of the book, Sri Aurobindo describes the process by which "forms of force" have emerged from an Infinite consciousness -- producing the energy, matter, life forms, and consciousness in the universe. He also shows that through this "involutionary" process, humans were born as ignorant, divided beings, who have lost connection with the One, Infinite Reality; and how we can evolve ourselves back to this Higher Nature so that we can fulfill our infinite potential in life.

Along the way Sri Aurobindo describes the nature of the ultimate Reality from which the universe emerged and of which we are a part; the role played by the Supramental Truth consciousness in converting the original Conscious-Force into the energy that would became the source of life in the cosmos; and how life unfolded as forms of that force as matter, animated life forms, beings with mental capacity (including us), and the further emergence of a spiritual consciousness amongst humanity.

He also explains the purpose and destiny in the universe. He says that the Infinite Consciousness created this universe to extend its own static Delight into the dynamic Delight experienced by forms of force (including us humans) in the manifest universe. When we humans rise in consciousness and discover our higher nature, we experience that joy and delight -- thereby fulfilling the Divine Intent. In essence, we regenerate the consciousness that was lost when the universe first emerged as unconscious matter from a spiritual Source, and through that discovery of our higher individual, cosmic, and transcendent nature, experience extreme delight and joy, fulfilling the Divine Intent.

It is indeed a most profound vision that Sri Aurobindo has provided the world with in his 1000+ page revelation of truth and infinite possibility. Something perhaps unprecedented in human history as he has actually explained in full the nature of the ultimate Reality; the process of creation from a Divine Source; how life emerged from that source and continues to evolve ; the limitations and potentials of life in the universe, including our own human makeup; the means by which we can evolve our consciousness and overcome our limitations born of creation; the power of the spirit within and about that can transform our nature; and the possibility of a spirit-based Divine life on earth.

He only wonders if we will respond and take up his challenge: whether we will hear the spiritual call and make the difficult, yet infinitely rewarding psychological and spiritual effort to bring about this new consciousness in the world.

Those Who Can Benefit

Though the principles are profound and sublime, anyone can benefit from the knowledge presented in The Life Divine. Seekers of truth and the spirit will discover a way to fulfillment and spiritual realization. Thinkers will marvel at his evolutionary philosophy. Scientists will appreciate his insights into the nature of reality. And business leaders, social scientists, educators, and artists will be heartened by his insights into the creative process.

Sri Aurobindo has sketched out a new world view that can be applied to any field of life, and for any purpose. His insights tell us why there is difficulty and pain in life, as well as the way out. He provides us with a deep understanding  of our limitations, even as he presents us with a panorama of our infinite potential. He gives us the tools to elevate our lives, so that we can realize our hopes and dreams; and fulfill our deepest aspirations in life.

Perhaps, most importantly he reveals the power of the Spirit in life to transform and uplift humanity. He implores us to open ourselves to the descending spiritual Force so that it can work its magic in  our lives. By opening to the Infinite, we rise in character and consciousness, and we develop a deep, abiding connection with the world around us.

Through the extraordinary experiences of  spirit in our lives, we overcome all notions of what is humanly possible; we shed limited perceptions of causality, and traditional views of space and time. Through spirit, we replace the finite with the infinite, and bring the future into the present. Through spirit we accomplish in the extreme, as we are able to create the greatest results in the shortest period of time with the least effort. Through spirit we attract the universe to us from within. Through spirit, we know our deepest purpose in life, feel a deep connection with everyone and everything, including the ultimate transcendent Reality. As a result of all such experiences and realizations, we feel an intense joy and delight in being alive.

Overcoming the Obstacles of the Book

Demands on the Reader

And yet despite the powerful vision that Sri Aurobindo has offered the world, the truth is that most people find The Life Divine a very difficult, if not impossible book to work their way through, let alone decipher and understand. Its long, extended passages, though perfectly logical and impeccably written, is not easily grasped by the normal human intellect. Its dense prose, unfamiliar terms, and supra-normal experiences transcend both our experiences and our knowledge.

Fortunately, there is an extreme logic in every word, sentence, paragraph, passage, and chapter in the book. There is a perfection of writing, of philosophy, metaphysics, and insight that can be understood if we come to the book with a steady and concentrated mind. If we have the inner calm, the discipline, the patience, the keen interest, and an openness to the extraordinary possibilities expressed, then we can more readily follow the rich arguments, and comprehend the laws and principles expressed in this magnificent exposition of the Eternal.

There is yet another problem that the book presents us with. Normally, in a work of non-fiction, we acquire knowledge in a cumulative manner, as we systematically make our way from one chapter to the next. In The Life Divine, however, most if not all of the major terms and insights are actually there in every chapter, making it that much more difficult to navigate these dense, but powerful passages.

For example, in the relatively simple first chapters, Sri Aurobindo refers to terms and insights about the nature of the divine Reality that is not explained until later on, making it difficult to follow his reasoning and arguments. There seems to be an assumption by the author that the reader is required to understand a number of terms and principles before they are even explained! That might suggest that Sri Aurobindo did not write the book for the average person, or at least the one-time reader, but rather for those who are serious and are willing to make the journey through the dense underbrush of argument several times -- and do so with deep, concentrated effort. Or perhaps he secretly hoped that others (such as this author) would digest the knowledge so others (i.e. you the reader) could easily make their way through this dense, though perfectly ordered opus of wisdom and knowledge.

There is also a third issue that challenges the reader. How can one truly grasp Sri Aurobindo's ideas and insights if one has had not personally had such experiences: if one has not grappled with those forces, powers, dimensions, and planes in one's own life Again, Sri Aurobindo provides no obvious way around this dilemma; asking only that we keep an open mind, and that we let the knowledge wash over us, so that we are somehow touched at a deeper level.

There is one final issue that we are confronted with in approaching The Life Divine. It is the way the spiritual dimension of life is presented to us. The fact is that his views are so radically different from the tradition, that it is difficult to secure spiritual anchor points. Sri Aurobindo's unique metaphysical insights into the nature of spirit and matter; and the nature of the Divine reality in terms of involutionary and evolutionary process transcend all previous insights into the nature of human, cosmic, and transcendent existence. It even defies the vast spiritual insights of his own homeland, India. Again, if we give up past notions of what the spiritual life is, what spiritual progress entails, and open to some very unique notions of life's unfolding in the cosmos, then The Life Divine will become more accessible to us.

As we perceive his unique perceptions of spiritual life, including a divine life for the individual and society, we begin to feel something unusual inside. As we read through these unique metaphysical and practical concepts, we feel that we have been touched by a vibration from the future; that we are privy to a future spiritual knowledge in the here and now. Even if you have had certain types of spiritual experiences before, you will sense something very different here. It is hard to explain, but when experienced you have a sense of an utter freshness, of a unique force flowing, of some unthought of spiritual dream that has come down into the earth's atmosphere, and has lodged in your heart and mind.

For all of these reasons, I hope you find the analysis of The Life Divine presented at this site to be useful. That it clarifies and simplifies the profound messages contained in the book. That it overcomes any limitations and demands that the book places on the reader.

Our goal is to make Sri Aurobindo's greatest work and teaching accessible and understandable for the general reader, so that we can turn this knowledge into a living truth; so that it becomes a guiding light for infinite progress, accomplishment, and delight of being.

He Walked the Walk

One obvious question that presents itself when we analyze the book is how Sri Aurobindo knew or perceived all of the things he wrote about -- such as how the universe emerged from a Divine source. Did he have a special ear to the Divine or to God? Or was it perhaps just a mental exercise fro him, in which through logic and reason he was able to devise a comprehensive theory of existence? Or did he simply synthesize the knowledge that was already there in the tradition?

In my view, his inspirations descended into his field of awareness from the Heights as pure truths and principles of existence through his vast consciousness that was stationed at the plane of "spiritualized mind."

When Sri Aurobindo wrote he was not merely using the normal rational capacity of mind to develop logical argument, but rather he experienced a continuous flow of knowledge from the higher spiritualized planes of mind. By spiritualized, I mean that it went beyond the simple hard churning of thought, and instead came to him through ethereal planes of mentality that his consciousness was in tune with.

In his mind of silence, he had the "open space" to think more clearly that led to right, insightful argument and reason. Through his illumined mind -- one plane higher -- he had visions and illuminations of knowledge and truth and truth that he transcribed into argument. Through the plane of intuitive mind -- higher still -- he experienced direct intuitions and revelations of knowledge and truth without the necessity of any thought on his part at all. The complete knowledge just appeared in his mind without thought that he then transcribed. Through supramental perception -- the highest of all spiritualized mind planes -- he, in association with that plane, literally created new thought, new truth that had never existed before. In other words, he invoked truth and knowledge never known before in the world, and yet put him in touch with the workings and unfoldings of the Infinite and life in the cosmos.

He wrote from each of these planes -- with his inspiration shifting amongst them, which produced greater or lesser levels of inspiration and insight. The higher the plane, the more direct the insight and perception of the object of knowledge he was addressing. I.e. the greater the truth of things.

Through these spiritual powers of perception; through these spiritual-like intimations of wisdom and knowledge, he was able to experience the knowledge of the Divine from the Divine. It is as if the Infinite consciousness and Reality broadcast knowledge vibrations of Itself -- explaining its own nature, makeup, processes, intentions, et al -- and Sri Aurobindo had the inner antennae to lock into these signals. In that way, he was jotting down the truths of the Divine directly from the Mind, or consciousness of the Divine.

But that is not all. Though his wisdom came through this supra-normal cognition capacity, it also was developed through his own life experiences -- from his everyday perceptions of how life functioned; including that of the individual human. For example, he was able to perceive the limitations, capacities, and powers of the human psyche because he had all of these experiences himself. He was thus able to organize the aspects and qualities of the of the human individual into identifiable categories, patterns, and scales of human consciousness.

He was also able to organize, categorize, and devise principles and laws of life pertaining to the way life itself operated. Through his own experiences, he perceived planes of consciousness in life that ranged from matter to spirit, from the gross material to the subtle and causal. He also indentified corresponding planes of being in the human individual, from mental to spiritual, from an outer surface consciousness to the deepest depths within. It was in the latter that he discovered the well-spring of the spirit within us, in the psychic being, the evolving soul within. Again, he was able to devise them not out of a mental formulation, but through direct experience of each of these planes. including their powers, capacities, limitations, and future potentials.

Combining his perceptions of life through spiritualized mind, his encyclopedic knowledge of the spiritual tradition (i.e. the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, and other spiritual wisdom of the world), and his own personal life experiences, there emerged from him a titanic spiritual flow of wisdom that he unleashed in his Magnus Opus of existence in the universe, The Life Divine

The Language of Tomorrow Experienced Today

There is one other matter to address when considering the obstacles presented by The Life Divine. It is the actual language -- i.e. the diction and terminology -- used in the book. Not only is Sri Aurobindo's expression rich and dense with argument, counterargument, and infinitely profound conclusion, but the terminology used is quite unusual -- even unprecedented in use of the English language. Both the average reader, and those individuals steeped in the spiritual tradition are likely to find it that way.

Expressions like "omnipresent Reality" "atomic existence," "Conscious Force," "reversal of consciousness," "Real Ideas," "the evolving soul," "supramental perception," "involution," and "inconscience," to name a few, punctuate the book. Thought they may appear foreign to us at first, they nevertheless capture the Reality that he has uncovered for the world and explained in the book.

Even the modern jargon of science and technology will pale before the bold expressions and descriptive terms that permeate The Life Divine. Unlike modern technological and scientific jargon, his terms are not destined for the scrapheap of fad and short term-obsolescence, but are rather bold, bright, illumined expression of a Reality that will be there for all eternity; that we will come to know and realize more and more in the future.

Again, it is our role at this analysis site of his masterwork to explain such terms as best we can, so that you have a clear understanding of their meaning, nature, and purpose. Moreover, if you pursue the book with vigor, these terms can eventually become a part of your own vocabulary, and your own ongoing understanding of the nature of life in the cosmos. At that point, you will truly begin to understand Sri Aurobindo's mind -- including his cosmology, and his message of the dawn of the  divinized individual, followed by a divine life on earth.

Experiencing the "Life" in The Life Divine

There is one final point to address, and it is perhaps the most important for you the reader. Though Sri Aurobindo writes of Spirit, the divine Reality, planes of consciousness, supernormal experiences, the process of involution and evolution, etc. the book is ultimately about Life -  life as experienced by the individual, and life as expressed through our collective existence. The book is no mere tome on cosmology or the vast array of supra-physical planes, but how we can apply that Reality in our daily existence, enabling us to fulfill our infinite potential. This means that what wherever he expresses an idea, or principle, he means for us to be apply it in a practical way to the events, circumstance, and activities of our own life. For example, if he writes of a theory of creation by which the universe emerged from a Divine source, he also wants us to experience that same process in our own lives; to follow it in a practical way from a vision of something to be achieved to its manifestation; just as the Reality did when it manifest a universe of forms out of its Conscious-Force.

In the end, Sri Aurobindo is asking us to participate in a process so that we can uplift our own lives, while still fulfilling a wider universal and transcendent purpose. Life therefore is the nexus of change. It is here that the experiment will unfold. It is here in our daily existence that we practically apply his lofty cosmic principles. He intended it so because he called his book The Life Divine.

With this in mind, I would like to now formally welcome you to a journey of a lifetime: a voyage not only to the spiritual peaks of knowledge and wisdom, but to the shores of personal progress, evolution, transformations.

I welcome you to the ultimate adventure of consciousness and joy.

Structure and Summary of the Book

(To continue, click "Chapter Summaries and Analysis " on the left, or click here.)