Life Divine and Beautiful

life_wanderer (life_wanderer) wrote,@ 2005-10-20 14:10:00 beautiful, bliss, divine, life, omnipresent, philosophy, reality, spirituality, truth Shrikant Vasudeo My search for theLiving Truth Life Divine and Beautiful Solely and exclusively based on God Sri Aurobindo’s Life Divine Aspiration of Humanity (Book One : Omnipresent Reality and the Universe; Chapter One : The Human Aspiration)

The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It is interesting to note that it is also his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation as it survives the longest periods of skepticism. It returns after every banishment. The human aspiration manifests itself

• In the divination of Godhead

• The impulse towards perfection

• The search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss

• The sense of a secret immortality.

The ancient dawns of human knowledge are witness to this constant aspiration. The victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature is not able to satisfy the humanity today. This is in spite of total abundance of such material before us. The Nature of Man always returns to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom is also its last. It is summed up in just four key words ; God, Light, Freedom and Immortality.

These persistent ideals of the race pose to us a contradiction between two opposite movements of human nature. On the one hand we have the normal experience of humanity and on the other hand we have the affirmation of higher and deeper experiences. These experiences are abnormal to humanity. They can be attained in their organized entirety by

• A revolutionary individual effort (in a very short period of time), or

• An evolutionary general progression (over a very very long period of time)

The manifestation of God in Matter is the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution. It is represented by various aspirations such as :

• To know, possess and be the divine being in an animal and egoistic consciousness

• To convert our twilit or obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination

• To build peace and a self-existent bliss where there is only a stress of transitory satisfactions which is besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering

• To establish an infinite freedom in a world which presents itself as a group of mechanical necessities

• To discover and realize the immortal life in a body subjected to death and constant mutation

The ordinary human intellect takes its present organization of consciousness as the limit of its possibilities. The above aspirations of humanity are made invalid by ordinary nature when it sees the direct contradiction between the realized fact and the unrealized ideals. On the other hand if we take a more deliberate view of the world’s workings, we find that the above contradictions are part of Nature’s profoundest method. It is her seal of completist sanction.

We should understand that all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. These problems arise from following two opposite factors of human nature :

• The perception of an unsolved discord on the one hand and

• The instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity on the other.

The animal and most practical part of man can rest content with an unsolved discord. However, it is impossible for his fully awakened mind. Even the practical part of human nature which seem to accept the discord can do so either by shutting out the problem or accepting a compromise. This compromise is a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise. This is because one very essential fact of Nature : All Nature seeks a harmony. Life and matter seek harmony in their own sphere. The mind seek harmony in the arrangement of its perceptions. The force of Nature to seek harmony is directly proportional to the level of apparent disorder of the materials or apparent disparateness. Greater the disorder, greater will also be the urge to seek the harmony. This principle applies even when the opposition between the constituent elements is irreconcilable.This urge in the face of strong opposition drives the Nature towards a more subtle and puissant order. This would have been not possible under the condition of less difficult endeavour.

The Nature has already successfully solved the problem of opposites between inertia of material and active Life with a material form. Nature continues to solve this problem better with greater complexities. The solution offered by Nature is only an intermediary solution. It is in the continuous process of perfection. The final destination of this process will be the material immortality of a fully organized mind-supporting animal body. As a next step in this evolution, the Nature has accorded conscious Mind and conscious Will with a Form and a Life which are not themselves overtly self-conscious. By themselves, the Form and Life are capable at best of a mechanical or sub-conscious will. But the Nature has wonderfully managed to put conscious Mind and conscious Will in the Form and Life in spite of this opposition. Even here the Nature aims at higher marvels. The ultimate goal of the Nature in this respect will be an animal consciousness no longer seeking but possessed of Truth and Light. This consciousness will possess practical omnipotence which would result from the possession of a direct and perfected knowledge.

This brings us the logical conclusion that there is a perfect rationality to the upward impulse of man towards the accordance of yet higher opposites. We see that it is the only logical completion of a rule and an effort. It is a fundamental method of Nature. It is also the very sense of her universal strivings.

What is the rational explanation of this phenomenon? We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter. The evolution of Mind in Matter. However, evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. We say that Life has evolved in material elements. OK. But what is the reason for life to thus evolve? Similarly, the word evolution can not explain as to why the Life has evolved out of living form. Here, Vedanta offers a solution. Vedanta states that Life is already involved in Matter. Similarly, the Mind is involved in Life. This is because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life and Life is a form of veiled Consciousness. Thus we see that what is already involved is getting evolved.