As we overcome the ignorance, the world becomes a better place to live in. That is possible only by engaging with the world with love and a feeling of oneness. Further, if the universe is real, and to take it as the entire reality is the result of ignorance, the aim of life should be to get rid of the ignorance so that we can see the world and worldly life as imperfect manifestations of the perfect Divine. Thus the world may be a temporary reality, not the Absolute Reality, but it is not unreal. They may break, and the clay we get from them may be recycled to give us new pots of a different shape, but that does not mean that the pots are an illusion. To give an analogy, the deeper reality of pots is clay, but while the pots exist, the pots are not unreal. Although the visible form is temporary, it is eternal in its recurrence. Although the visible form of the Divine is perishable, it is only the form that is perishable the essence is Imperishable. That would be rejecting one aspect of the very Reality that we consider to be Imperishable. We cannot accept the invisible form of the Divine as Real, and reject Its visible form as unreal. If the Divine is Real, its manifestation cannot be unreal. TRUTH CONSCIOUSNESS OR SUPERMIND AUROBINDO FULLA select few go to the Himalayas or a cave and pursue the One that really matters but the vast majority cannot afford such a luxury, and are therefore condemned to a worldly life full of suffering and injustice till death provides some respite.Īnother interpretation of Vedanta is that the world is not an illusion but a manifestation of the Divine. This is a life-negating tilt, and its logical consequence is a dichotomy between worldly life and spiritual life. This makes everlasting moksha (liberation) and escape from the cycle of birth and death the highest goal of life. Therefore, we should treat this illusion with the contempt that it deserves, treat the illusion as an obstacle to the Realization of the One Reality that is truly real, and at best tolerate the illusion as a necessary evil till we shed the body and, hopefully, attain the bliss of liberation in heaven. Although our ordinary life revolves around that illusion, the aim of life is to overcome that illusion. One interpretation is that since the fundamental imperishable and constant Reality of all creation is the One Divine, the multiplicity, plurality and differentiation that characterize creation are an illusion. The basic philosophy remaining the same, its implications for life can be diametrically opposite depending on the way we interpret it. With this basic background, let us examine three highlights of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy. The universal presence of the Divine is what is called the Spirit, and the presence of the Divine in an individual is what is called the Soul. Therefore, the Divine has an all-pervasive presence throughout the universe. Similarly, the universe is nothing but the Divine in another form. Since the boat is nothing but the paper in another form, the paper has an all-pervasive presence throughout the boat. 710-711)įor example, if a child takes a square piece of paper, folds it, and makes a boat out of it, we do not need any evidence to prove that the paper is present in every bit of the boat. SRI AUROBINDO (Savitri, Book 11, Canto 1, pp. This earthly life become the life divine. Nature shall live to manifest secret God, Illumine common acts with the Spirit’s ray As a corollary, it follows that the Divine is present in every bit of the creation. Hence all creation is the Creator (called God or the Divine) itself in a material form. Thus, through the process of creation, the Creator became visible in a material form, or manifested itself. In other words, the Creator did not create the creation It became the creation. A key feature of Vedanta is that the creation of the material universe was the result of a non-material Supreme Consciousness itself becoming the universe. Vedanta is a spiritual philosophy, the three pillars of which are the Upanishads, the Gita, and the Brahm Sutras. Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is rooted in Vedanta, but has a distinct tilt, a unique emphasis, and a significant extension.
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