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It is the time that India brings Sri Aurobindo to the center-stage of its politics. The voice of Sri Autobindo should be the flag of India. He should be made the part of Indian education and his vision and call to humanity – in simple language – should be made the compulsory part of educational curricula at the primary level in this country.
India is blank about Sri Aurobindo. While the educated minds of the scientifically most advanced countries of the world are singing in his praise in this 21st century, India is totally oblivious to his existence. Is India listening?
If India is to elevate itself to the coveted place of a spiritual guide of humanity, Indian politics has to come out of the cocoon of the cultural Hinduism represented by RSS today and make itself a wider colossus of spirituality to include every shade of multi-faceted Hindu India. India and its politics must be represented by a voice that is revered among the enlightened sections of humanity at large. And, this is not enough. This voice must also show the path leading to future and present to the humanity a workable practical program to humanity towards its destiny, which is acceptable to the best of human minds. In view of the complexity of humans’ psychological make-up, such a program also cannot be but a complex one.
Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India and he is extremely popular among Indians, and particularly among Hindus. He is at the second inning of his political leadership of India. He is rightly or wrongly identified with Hinduism – or Hindutva, as it is mostly referred in the ruling circles of India. Hindu politics today is at its zenith in India, which politics is both liked and disliked at national and international levels. This India under the supposedly Hindu rule has a vision of the coming India. What type of an India would this be? What type of this vision of coming India is like? Indians as well as the global community keep their keen eyes glued to this emerging Hindu India.
There are many voices of great Indians aspiring to represent this vision of emerging India. These voices include Vivekananda, who mesmerized the world by his spiritually energetic utterances at the World Congress of Religions and exhorted Indians to rise from their ignorance, and show the spiritual path to the suffering humanity; Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, who dreamed of a violence-free ‘Ram Rajya’ of the poorest and the weakest in India, and played a supposedly decisive role in winning the Indian freedom in a non-violent way from the British; Bhagat Singh, who happily gave supreme sacrifice with his life to win freedom for a socialist India; Subhash Chandra Bose, who dreamed of a free and strong India, and led an armed resistance against the British imperialism by organizing an Indian National Army and assaulted the British rule in India; Bheem Rao Ambedkar, who envisioned of a caste-less Hindu society and drafted the national Constitution of free India; Guru Golvalker, who laid the ideological foundation of Hindu nationalism and founded Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS); Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who presented an intellectual vision of integral humanism that the Hindu India should shape itself into; Veer Sawarkar, who had the vision of a strong Hindu India and fought the British for Indian freedom, and suffered extreme brutalities at the hands of his enemies in the Cellular Jail in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar; Jawahar Lal Nehru who wanted India to be a modern and democratic country free from the weight of its obscurantist religious legacy (of Hindus alone!); and, there are many more voices of lesser weight and popularity.
Which one of them really fits the bill for this coveted post? Which one of them really represents India, an India that is ancient in its existence as a civilization, a storehouse of spiritual wisdom; an abode of innumerable number of venerable sages; and a land of incredible mystics since time immemorial? Which one of them truly represents this India? It is proverbially said, one cannot see his own face; one needs a mirror to see his face. Mirror is neutral, it doesn’t tell a lie and reflects the reality.
It is but natural that we Indians – as any other nationals – may be subjective and prejudiced in our estimation of the worth of great Indian leaders in judging the rightful claimant – the rightful voice that represents this India the best. In this 21st century world is dominated by reason and there are many great human minds around the world, who are not Indians and can judge the rightful claimant with the required mental neutrality. Today the world is connected through technology and their voices can be heard by anyone and everywhere. Such voices are like a mirror that tell us what they think of these great Indian voices about this incredible India and who among them represents this India the best.
One great voice representing this incredible India that is admired the most is of Sri Aurobindo. Most of India is ignorant about him and what he says. By and large, ordinary Indians are unaware of what he stands for. For this general ignorance of India about Sri Aurobindo there are many reasons: It was long back – around 1910 – that he was held a moving Indian national political leader; he was a great Yogi who did not mix with and preach to people; he wrote only in English language that is a foreign tongue for most of Indians; he is mentally too high, abstract and complex in his writings for ordinary human minds to grasp what he means; he is considered too great a spiritual giant – and a serious risk – that his vision would put in peril the shallow idea of India in peril of those who politically lead this country; he is held a formidable challenge to the western type of polity and stale constitution; and out of these fears he has been intentionally sidelined since 1947 till date by the ignorant ruling political leaders of India.
Sri Aurobindo wrote extensively – thirty volumes of them. One of his books is titled, “The Life Divine”. What he says in this book and what it means for humanity is reflected in the reviews of some Americans who have read this book. They are verified purchasers of this book from Amazon. These reviews have been taken by us from the Amazon site of the USA Google. As normal practice, these readers / reviewers use their net names. Let us see what these readers say about this great human being – almost an Avatar of Divine in human flesh and bone.
“Make Sri Aurobindo a compulsory part of education in India ! Without Sri Aurobindo, India is speechless and defenceless in the comity of nations for what this country is doing today in the eyes of the western world.
In spiritual context, no soul – awakened one or not so awakened – is higher than the other.In the 21st century, without Sri Aurobindo what …. India has no future !”
One M.M. says the book ‘Life Divine’ is the greatest achievement of Mankind. His words are:
“This book is the greatest achievement of Mankind!It is the greatest philosophical book ever written and in the best English Language ever written too.It is the Ultimate culmination of a 3,000-year-old Indian Philosophic Thought.
Sri Aurobindo examines deeper than anybody ever did the Human Condition and treats with the utmost profundity, clarity, linguistic beauty, logical acuity, originality and imagination all the major questions of Life: Why is there something rather than nothing, what is the meaning of life, why are we here, where did we come from, what is our relationship to the ultimate ground of Being, what is the function of ignorance, suffering, pain, what is the Nature of the Ultimate Being.He surpasses Shankara, incorporating in his philosophy the Tantric idea of the meaningfulness and purposefulness of the Becoming, as well as all central elements of Buddhist Philosophy. In relating all these to modern man (Western and Eastern) and connecting everything together through the most plastic, expressive, exquisite language ever written. He achieves the Ultimate Synthesis of all philosophical and spiritual thought of Mankind.
Although one needs to become accustomed to his unique language and expression , as well as to spend initially some time in understanding the way he uses certain terms (some of his own creation, so that the Inexpressible could at least be hinted at). This initial investment of time will more than reward the serious reader in the end.
Some, with whom I agree, suggest that one start reading the book from the chapter “The evolution of the spiritual man” (Book 2, chapter 24) and, after moving on to read the next two chapters too, to go back and start reading it from the beginning.These last chapters give an overview of his philosophy and are written in an easier language.
“The Life Divine” is itself one of the most pure EMBODIMENTS of the DIVINE.”
“Albert Einstein of human and cosmic consciousness ! Sri Aurobindo, a contemporary of Sage Gandhi, helped to compliment Gandhi’s works and message to India and the World. Whilst Sri Gandhi preached non-violence and world peace, Sri Aurobindo also left his philosophy to serve humanity evolution. If Martin Buber were alive, I would recommend him to read it in addition to his own “I and Thou”. I am indeed humbled by my rating. I can only say it is meant for sharing with patrons how dearly I treasure it, the rating is not meant to rate the sage Sri Aurobindo and his “Life Divine” — for example, how does an elementary student rate Einstein’s works?
Starting from the very first page, I wonder how the written meta-materials could have originated from a homo sapiens mind. It seems to me, the wordings in written physical form is a limited tool employed, but was the best available for Sri Aurobindo at that time. The work, originally a compilation of numerous contiguous articles, comprises 3 Parts:
Book 1 Part I Omnipresent reality and the universe
Book 2 Part I The infinite consciousness and the ignorance
Book 2 Part II Knowledge and the spiritual revolution
Occasionally he quotes, he mentions Names, it is not an extension of any sacred texts, be it Hinduism or others; it is not a set of spiritual practice based on mystical symbolism e.g. Kabbalah. They are simply words emancipating from the Author, like crystal clear waters flowing naturally in a steady moving stream, with calmness, serenity and vitality, glistening with cosmic light of jnana.
Last six chapters are the essence of the book, if you are intimidated by the volume size and really want to get something out of it with limited time constraint.
Reading a 1100+ pages fiction is already no easy matter. And more than 1100+ pages of philosophy writing requests your persistency, and requires your thinking and assimilation in each page. It is not an exaggeration if it takes you a lifetime to read. After you finish the book to its last page, you start over if you may want to recall the chapters all over.”
Another reader under the name of “Roy Posner” says about Sri Aurobindo thus:
“It has been said that no one can explain the process by which the Divine became the universe. It is explained here. It is said that no one can explain the meaning of life, including the myriad of details that explains its organization. It is explained here with great clarity, using the most beautiful of prose. It is said that no one can explain the purpose and future evolution of life on earth. It is also explained in exquisite detail.In sum, this is the most profound spiritual work of the last hundred years. If you have the patience, you can discover the answers to most of the major questions of life within the bounds of this book. This work is a synthesis of western evolutionary teachings and the most profound spiritual teachings of the East. And yet it is beyond even a synthesis of the two. It is a revelation of truth and insight never before expressed in all the annals of spiritual literature. There is no work like it on earth. The expression does not feel like something that is spiritual, as we’ve come to know that concept. Instead it feels “FUTURE spiritual.” That’s so because he EXPERIENCED that supra-spiritual future in the present of his extraordinary life.”
“Sri Aurobindo’s sentences are built of triple dependent clauses (without commas, he’s an Oxford grad),but if you stay with him, follow the thread, you’re a different person by the time you reach the period. He is pure genius. A gift from the Gods. His long sentences are a kind of meditation really; their gentle coaxing detail draws the inflated reactionary mind down to a still point.This book has changed my life. It pulls everything together; every thread of spirituality from the great thinkers and philosophers as well as some errant threads of my own imagination, and weaves them all beautifully, poetically,into something you can hold onto.Never felt comfortable with Buddha’s assertion that the world is a total illusion; recoiled from violent denial of the body and pleasure. Sri Aurobindo points out the serious error of said positions. This is what I got from him:God, the Absolute Brahman, is REAL; He is all that IS real. There is nothing that is not Him, the infinitesimal quark as well as the immeasurably vast(apparent)void of space is God, the Absolute Brahman. Consequently, the universe of matter must be and is REAL; it is simply not the Ultimate Reality, the all inclusive Absolute–it’s a dependent, secondary reality. God’s consciousness/ awareness is active, embedded, concurrently INVOLVED in every form of matter, which forms are all extensions of Himself and dependent on Him for their limited reality, subscribed existence. The body, the world then, are aspects of God, innocent matter; to be understood while not allowed to dominate, corrupt.Maya is a power of God, God’s Maya, that emanates from Him. God’s Maya conjures up matter, the universes; Nature is Her executive force. As a limited reality She, Maya, can be termed an illusion (certainly God is aware that She is), but for us who are ourselves limited realities Maya is effectively VERY REAL. She and Her active instrument–Nature, are expressions of Him, God. God is present as a silent hidden program, His conscious intent like a sleeper chip embedded in all matter.
God being silently, secretly as it were, INVOLVED in matter–matter EVOLVES. Without apparent conscious intent (but this hidden program/knowledge /consciousness), Nature has propelled matter to the development of man, a Self-aware Consciousness, the highest evolution of matter.But man is not a done deal; from this point on the Consciousness itself must propel any further evolution; man must evolve spiritually. He must lift his head from the domination of matter(pleasure/pain)and initiate the embedded program that will open to a higher consciousness bringing man to face God as his father, and himself.
Man must rise to divinity. This spiritual evolution is man’s birthright, his responsibility, his only true purpose. Meditation is fundamental to the initiation and realization of man’s sacred self. The superficial mind must be stilled to allow this god aspect in man, which was not deliberately hidden but has been naturally, necessarily submerged in the dense matter which had to evolve to this point.The time is now for mankind. (According to me, hahaha.) I feel that each human being has a secret assignment, a secret sacred role to play, but she must come close to God to know what it is. Meditate.Thank you, Sri Aurobindo. I love Buddha but you gave me a truer understanding of him. Buddha’s teachings were concentrated, condensed to hyperbolic because his life was the lesson, a solar flare that commanded attention, challenged the status quo. The same with OSHO. Vivekananda.”
One more, Ger Agrey thatcher spells out Sri Aurobindo thus:
“Man is a transitional being, he is not final; for in him and high beyond him ascend the radiant degrees which climb to a divine supermanhood.
The step from man towards superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth’s evolution. There lies our destiny and the liberating key to our aspiring, but troubled and limited human existence–inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner Spirit and the logic of Nature’s process.
The appearance of a human possibility in a material and animal world was the first glint of a coming divine Light,–the first far-off intimation of a godhead to be born out of Matter. The appearance of the superman in the human world will be the fulfillment of that distant shining promise.
The difference between man and superman will be the difference between mind and a consciousness as far beyond it as thinking mind is beyond the consciousness of plant and animal; the differentiating essence of man is mind, the differentiating essence of superman will be supermind or a divine gnosis.
Man is a mind imprisoned, obscured and circumscribed in a precarious and imperfect living but imperfectly conscious body. The superman will be a supramental spirit which will envelop and freely use a conscious body, plastic to spiritual forces. His physical frame will be a firm support and an adequate radiant instrument for the spirit’s divine play and work in Matter.
Mind, even free and in its own unmixed and unhampered element, is not the highest possibility of consciousness; for mind is not in possession of Truth, but only a minor vessel or an instrument and here an ignorant seeker plucking eagerly at a mass of falsehoods and half-truths for the unsatisfying pabulum of its hunger. Beyond mind is a supramental or Gnostic power of consciousness that is in eternal possession of Truth; all its motion and feeling and sense and outcome are instinct and luminous with the inmost reality of things and express nothing else.
Supermind or gnosis is in its original nature at once and in the same movement an infinite wisdom and an infinite will. At its source it is the dynamic consciousness of the divine Knower and Creator.
When in the process of unfolding of an always greater force of the one Existence, some delegation of this power shall descend into our limited human nature, then and then only can man exceed himself and know divinely and divinely act and create; he will have become at last a conscious portion of the Eternal. The superman will be born, not a magnified mental being, but a supramental power descended here into a new life of the transformed terrestrial body. A gnostic supermanhood is the next distinct and triumphant victory to be won by the spirit descended into earthly nature.
The disk of a secret sun of Power and Joy and Knowledge is emerging out of the material consciousness in which our mind works as a chained slave or a baffled and impotent demiurge; supermind will be the formed body of that radiant effulgence.
Superman is not man climbed to his own natural zenith, not a superior degree of human greatness, knowledge, power, intelligence, will, character, genius, dynamic force, saintliness, love, purity or perfection. Supermind is something beyond mental man and his limits, a greater consciousness than the highest consciousness proper to human nature.
Man is a being from the mental worlds whose mentality works here involved, obscure and degraded in a physical brain, shut off from its own divinest powers and impotent to change life beyond certain narrow and precarious limits. Even in the highest of his kind it is baulked of its luminous possibilities of supreme force and freedom by this dependence. Most often and in most men it is only a servitor, a purveyor of amusements, a caterer of needs and interests to the life and the body. But the superman will be a gnostic king of Nature; supermind in him even in its evolutionary beginnings will appear as a ray of the eternal omniscience and omnipotence. Sovereign and irresistible it will lay hands on the mental and physical instruments, and, standing above and yet penetrating and possessing our lower already manifested parts, it will transform mind, life and body into its own divine and luminous nature.
Man in himself is hardly better than an ambitious nothing. He is a narrowness that reaches towards ungrasped widenesses, a littleness straining towards grandeurs which are beyond him, a dwarf enamoured of the heights. His mind is a darkened ray in the splendours of the universal Mind. His life is a striving exulting and suffering wave, an eager passion-tossed and sorrow-stricken or a blindly and dully toiling petty moment of the universal Life. His body is a labouring perishable speck in the material universe. An immortal soul is somewhere hidden within him and gives out from time to time some sparks of its presence, and an eternal spirit is above and overshadows with its wings and upholds with its power this soul continuity in his nature. But that greater spirit is obstructed from descent by the hard lid of his constructed personality and this inner radiant soul is wrapped, stifled and oppressed in dense outer coatings. In all but a few it is seldom active, in many hardly perceptible. The soul and spirit in man seem rather to exist above and behind his formed nature than to be a part of its visible reality; subliminal in his inner being or superconscient above in some unreached status, they are in his outer consciousness possibilities rather than things realised and present. The spirit is in course of birth rather than born in Matter.
This imperfect being with his hampered, confused, ill-ordered and mostly ineffective consciousness cannot be the end and highest height of the mysterious upward surge of Nature. There is something more that has yet to be brought down from above and is now seen only by broken glimpses through sudden rifts in the giant wall of our limitations. Or else there is something yet to be evolved from below, sleeping under the veil of man’s mental consciousness or half visible by flashes, as life once slept in the stone and metal, mind in the plant and reason in the cave of animal memory underlying its imperfect apparatus of emotion and sense-device and instinct. Something there is in us yet unexpressed that has to be delivered by an enveloping illumination from above. A godhead is imprisoned in our depths, one in its being with a greater godhead ready to descend from superhuman summits. In that descent and awakened joining is the secret of our future.
Man’s greatness is not in what he is but in what he makes possible. His glory is that he is the closed place and secret workshop of a living labour in which supermanhood is made ready by a divine Craftsman.
But he is admitted to a yet greater greatness and it is this that, unlike the lower creation, he is allowed to be partly the conscious artisan of his divine change. His free assent, his consecrated will and participation are needed that into his body may descend the glory that will replace him. His aspiration is earth’s call to the supramental Creator.
If earth calls and the Supreme answers, the hour can be even now for that immense and glorious transformation. ~ Sri Aurobindo”
“Aurobindo is a golden Vessel. His words convey thoughts of the most sublime and supreme that a human is given to think and become. His depth of realization and breadth of learning continues to leave me aghast. This magnum opus dethrones and perfects the intellect, opens the being to higher ranges and transmissions to the effect of developing the necessary mental architecture for the radical uplift and trans-human amplification.”
A great Indologist David Frawley speaks of Sri Aurobindo thus:
“There are very few great spiritual classics that each century produces. The Life Divine is one of these great spiritual classics, one of the key spiritual studies of the twentieth center, perhaps of all time. There are few great mystics and enlightened masters who are able to express themselves in extensive philosophy and profound poetry. Sri Aurobindo was one of these, and the Life Divine is probably his magnum opus.
The Life Divine is no mere call to a life of piety, asceticism or outward religious fervor. It is a call to bring the Divine as a force of higher consciousness into all that we are and do, both individually and as a species. The Life Divine unfolds a panoramic exploration of consciousness from the Absolute (Brahman), to the Cosmic Creator (Ishvara), to the individual soul (Jivatman), and all the realms of existence, manifest and unmanifest, known and unknown. There are few books that cover such an expanse and with such depth, direct knowledge and clarity. For those who want to widen their horizons and extend their awareness into the realms of higher consciousness, there is perhaps no other book that is as complete, comprehensive and challenging. Reading it requires both concentration and meditation of a very high order, but brings great riches of inner insight in return.
As someone who has studied the main religious traditions of the world, and has written extensively on the traditions of India, this book has remained with me as life time companion. I recommend it to all those who are looking at the spiritual life as a quest for a higher consciousness and grace that can transform all that we do. One can continue to delve into the book for new wisdom and insight year after year. The Life Divine teaches us in depth about the great spiritual traditions of India, Veda, Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga, Tantra and Buddhism, but from a view of practice and realization, and a seeking for the universal truth behind all these great teachings.
Most notably, the Life Divine outlines the spiritual purpose of the soul and of our human lives. It charts a way to a future in which we can go beyond our current mentality of ego and strife to a world of Divine peace, bliss and knowledge. It charts the transformation of our species from a confused adolescence to the maturity of wisdom and grace. Sri Aurobindo shows how the Divine Shakti can descend into our minds and lift us to a higher level of intelligence as our natural state of existence. The book is perhaps the best study of the spiritual evolution of humanity, the evolution of consciousness in man and nature, which is available.”
“Perhaps the greatest book ever written … Sri Aurobindo’s opus. His insight on the evolution of consciousness is beyond cognizance of the current paradigm … It is genius … compact of wisdom from a kind-hearted soul. The correct view of evolution, which the spirit descends through involution in order to discover latent release and bliss and overcome the ignorance of creation. Understanding of Supramentalisation on a mass scale alone would arise a new civilization.”
Another reader “Evert Sharp” says:
“This is a work of genius on par with the work of Einstein or Darwin. However Aurobindo is little known and even less understood in the West. This is a great book but may take more than one reading to understand the depth and breadth of his yogic experience and the derivative philosophy. This is something more than just a work of speculative philosophy or religious writing.”
“One of the great sages of out time and a visionary for the future.”
“This book is impossible to describe, you have to read it. If you feel intimidated by its sheer size, start at the last chapter and then work you way through it in bits and pieces. It is a stunning preview of what is to come in human evolution, written with soul and courage, and stretching you beyond where you think you can go… turn off all your preconceived ideas about where we’re going and what you are capable of, and follow Aurobindo on his extremely courageous, adventurous and deeply human journey.”
“Man is a transitional being, he is not final; for in him and high beyond him ascend the radiant degrees which climb to a divine supermanhood.
The step from man towards superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth’s evolution. There lies our destiny and the liberating key to our aspiring, but troubled and limited human existence–inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner Spirit and the logic of Nature’s process.
The appearance of a human possibility in a material and animal world was the first glint of a coming divine Light,–the first far-off intimation of a godhead to be born out of Matter. The appearance of the superman in the human world will be the fulfilment of that distant shining promise.
The difference between man and superman will be the difference between mind and a consciousness as far beyond it as thinking mind is beyond the consciousness of plant and animal; the differentiating essence of man is mind, the differentiating essence of superman will be supermind or a divine gnosis.
Man is a mind imprisoned, obscured and circumscribed in a precarious and imperfect living but imperfectly conscious body. The superman will be a supramental spirit which will envelop and freely use a conscious body, plastic to spiritual forces. His physical frame will be a firm support and an adequate radiant instrument for the spirit’s divine play and work in Matter.
Mind, even free and in its own unmixed and unhampered element, is not the highest possibility of consciousness; for mind is not in possession of Truth, but only a minor vessel or an instrument and here an ignorant seeker plucking eagerly at a mass of falsehoods and half-truths for the unsatisfying pabulum of its hunger. Beyond mind is a supramental or Gnostic power of consciousness that is in eternal possession of Truth; all its motion and feeling and sense and outcome are instinct and luminous with the inmost reality of things and express nothing else.
Supermind or gnosis is in its original nature at once and in the same movement an infinite wisdom and an infinite will. At its source it is the dynamic consciousness of the divine Knower and Creator.
When in the process of unfolding of an always greater force of the one Existence, some delegation of this power shall descend into our limited human nature, then and then only can man exceed himself and know divinely and divinely act and create; he will have become at last a conscious portion of the Eternal. The superman will be born, not a magnified mental being, but a supramental power descended here into a new life of the transformed terrestrial body. A gnostic supermanhood is the next distinct and triumphant victory to be won by the spirit descended into earthly nature.
The disk of a secret sun of Power and Joy and Knowledge is emerging out of the material consciousness in which our mind works as a chained slave or a baffled and impotent demiurge; supermind will be the formed body of that radiant effulgence.
Superman is not man climbed to his own natural zenith, not a superior degree of human greatness, knowledge, power, intelligence, will, character, genius, dynamic force, saintliness, love, purity or perfection. Supermind is something beyond mental man and his limits, a greater consciousness than the highest consciousness proper to human nature.
Man is a being from the mental worlds whose mentality works here involved, obscure and degraded in a physical brain, shut off from its own divinest powers and impotent to change life beyond certain narrow and precarious limits. Even in the highest of his kind it is baulked of its luminous possibilities of supreme force and freedom by this dependence. Most often and in most men it is only a servitor, a purveyor of amusements, a caterer of needs and interests to the life and the body. But the superman will be a gnostic king of Nature; supermind in him even in its evolutionary beginnings will appear as a ray of the eternal omniscience and omnipotence. Sovereign and irresistible it will lay hands on the mental and physical instruments, and, standing above and yet penetrating and possessing our lower already manifested parts, it will transform mind, life and body into its own divine and luminous nature.
Man in himself is hardly better than an ambitious nothing. He is a narrowness that reaches towards ungrasped widenesses, a littleness straining towards grandeurs which are beyond him, a dwarf enamored of the heights. His mind is a darkened ray in the splendors of the universal Mind. His life is a striving exulting and suffering wave, an eager passion-tossed and sorrow-stricken or a blindly and dully toiling petty moment of the universal Life. His body is a laboring perishable speck in the material universe. An immortal soul is somewhere hidden within him and gives out from time to time some sparks of its presence, and an eternal spirit is above and overshadows with its wings and upholds with its power this soul continuity in his nature. But that greater spirit is obstructed from descent by the hard lid of his constructed personality and this inner radiant soul is wrapped, stifled and oppressed in dense outer coatings. In all but a few it is seldom active, in many hardly perceptible. The soul and spirit in man seem rather to exist above and behind his formed nature than to be a part of its visible reality; subliminal in his inner being or superconscient above in some unreached status, they are in his outer consciousness possibilities rather than things realised and present. The spirit is in course of birth rather than born in Matter.
This imperfect being with his hampered, confused, ill-ordered and mostly ineffective consciousness cannot be the end and highest height of the mysterious upward surge of Nature. There is something more that has yet to be brought down from above and is now seen only by broken glimpses through sudden rifts in the giant wall of our limitations. Or else there is something yet to be evolved from below, sleeping under the veil of man’s mental consciousness or half visible by flashes, as life once slept in the stone and metal, mind in the plant and reason in the cave of animal memory underlying its imperfect apparatus of emotion and sense-device and instinct. Something there is in us yet unexpressed that has to be delivered by an enveloping illumination from above. A godhead is imprisoned in our depths, one in its being with a greater godhead ready to descend from superhuman summits. In that descent and awakened joining is the secret of our future.
Man’s greatness is not in what he is but in what he makes possible. His glory is that he is the closed place and secret workshop of a living labour in which supermanhood is made ready by a divine Craftsman.
But he is admitted to a yet greater greatness and it is this that, unlike the lower creation, he is allowed to be partly the conscious artisan of his divine change. His free assent, his consecrated will and participation are needed that into his body may descend the glory that will replace him. His aspiration is earth’s call to the supramental Creator.
If earth calls and the Supreme answers, the hour can be even now for that immense and glorious transformation.~ Sri Aurobindo”
“The absolute pinnacle of human knowledge, spiritual and philosophical.
Congratulations if your spiritual quest has lead you to considering purchasing this book. It’s existence in itself is a bit of a secret, in our society that for the most part doesn’t read anymore. I have myself studied religion and philosophy, western and eastern for a long time. I owe a lot to Plato, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Jacob Boehme, the Bible, the Nag Hammadi library, the works of Scholem, Idel, Jonas, Corbin and many other writers and books…and yet nothing has surpassed this book in profundity. Buy it and enjoy please. Thank you.”
One Jim Parker says of him thus:
“Certainly one of the more challenging books that I have ever read. Each paragraph, if not each sentence, requires analysis. From my perspective the books attempts to reconcile a scientific view of consciousness with the views expressed in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Does Sri Aurobindo succeed in his effort? I can’t say that I am qualified to answer the question.
I do feel I have a better understanding of some of the concepts from the Vedas and Upanishads but I am far from an expert. I’m not even sure I really understand satcitananda, which from my reading is the underlying concept that Sri Aurobindo posits as the attributes of our essence or the what makes fully realized person.
The book is Aurobindo’s philosophy of mind, spirit, and body. The book reads like a western philosophy text. If you undertake this text be prepared for arduous effort. While reading the book I simply put it aside for extended periods.”
The reviewer Samesh Braroo says of Sri Aurobindo in these words:
“If you’ve taken Sri Ramakrishna’s lens to your person and located the wick of your darkness, then this book is your ignition to illustrate your candle and catch the sun by its collar. Before my third day on this book, I had identified the snipers that had been frustrating my quiet for years, and by the weekend, I had already begun to expose their bluntness and useless sincerity. Then on, it was a serial self-directed mechanical process of renouncing my unnecessary perceptions and opinions, that my cavities had caved in to, and exhuming my interred scope, that had been given to me lost by the petty day-to-day facades.
To call this book a book is to bind it with scope. It’s the perching that opens the door to give your journey in this world a gait of ‘Ananda'(tranquility).
This book is a burner for both the religionists and the materialists. No matter which end of the deception you contest for, Sri Aurobindo will reclaim you, restate you and achieve you. This is my its view. And here it is once again :
Neither is a temple god’s retail chamber,
Nor the tavern his sought church,
He’s in the half-steps that broke their precedent,
To break into the wonder of the Odyssey ahead,
And unless your address is widespread,
The divine will not be caught found !”
Another reviewer under the name Christian L. says of him thus:
“The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo is an utterly fascinating philosophical work that gives meaning to life. Aurobindo had the unique ability to perceive special things in this world that most people cannot; more importantly, he also had the special ability to put his thoughts into lucid written arguments and explanations. In this work, he outlines the purpose of evolution and what it’s next stages are: mainly that we have achieved greater levels of conscious at each stage with the ultimate realization of the divine here on this planet as the final goal. For example, consciousness has developed from dumb matter to simple life, from simple life to complex animals, from complex animals to the human mind. Now what will unfold is the development of even deeper levels of consciousness in the human being that will allow us to attain even higher heights.
While a very challenging read, this book will inspire you to strive for more in life as it will give meaning to the un-understood urge to attain perfection. This book completely changed my viewpoint on the world and life and has redefined my direction. While I have not drastically changed my path, it has allowed me to better understand what my path is and therefore approach it even more ardently.”
“I have been studying The Life Divine for over 40 years and am continually amazed at how much more there is to be understood each time i return to it. Over the last 3 years i have taken up writing a daily blog working through the book systematically chapter by chapter and paragraph by paragraph and am finding incredible wisdom and insight that one does not appreciate on a first read, covering virtually the entire range of human aspiration, consciousness, evolution of consciousness, and the future evolution of humanity and the world. There is perhaps no other book that i have ever read that provides such a breadth of view, clarity of wisdom and understanding and which continually helps one to broaden one’s own horizons and understanding. I recommend this book highly to seekers, philosophers and practitioners of yoga. I am especially impressed by the fact that it is non-sectarian and thus can aid the seeker regardless of the path of development or religion one follows. Because this is a quite long book with very detailed and complex sentence structure, i recommend the US paper-bound edition which is of a large size format and is much easier thereby to read than the reduced size versions sometimes found in the market.””
“Came to the end of a six month effort to read this in a reading group, a real adventure. As others have indicated, this is not an easy book to read, nor can it be read in the same manner as other books. There is a rational argument here, but it is shrouded within almost mystical writing that defies rational explanations, so you have to read the book on several levels and in several ways simultaneously. His ideas have had a dramatic influence on the development of, I would say “world thought” not so much “western thought” about spiritual practice and its relation to everyday life, and so it is useful to be able to untangle Aurobindo’s contribution to other more recent spiritual or even philosophical traditions. For my own personal interest, the book presents a kind of globalizing cosmology which fascinates me and informs my own thinking and writing along these lines. It also contains ideas that are relevant with regard to the current world crisis into which we are entering. So, in summary, a real challenge to read but it carries its own rewards.”
“I can barely make it through a solid page of this book without my brain shorting out.. but it’s amazing stuff. Spiritual Reason.”
Another reader under the name “My Fathers Grace” says of this book of Sri Aurobindo as one of the greatest spiritual books ever written in these words:
“This is one of the greatest spiritual books ever written, and there’s already enough info here describing what The Life Divine is about. So this review is dedicated to giving you some advice on HOW to approach the reading of this book.
First, it was written in the early 20th century by an Indian who was educated in England. Right off the bat, you have 3 difficulties: You’ll be reading essentially early Edwardian prose, written in a language that’s not the author’s native tongue, on a subject that’s extremely difficult to capture in ANY language.
Next, it was published in India. The editors were not (and are not) necessarily fluent in English grammar. Hence, there are thousands of instances were commas are missing, causing sentences to run into head-long traffic jams. I found myself, having reached the end of a very long sentence, not having a clue as to what I had just read! I ultimately got into the habit of reading with a pen, inserting a comma here and there, and then re-reading the sentence again so that it made sense.
Finally, don’t let the usage of the Vedantic terms deter you. In the beginning of the book, this can be off-putting for those of us who are not accustomed to it. You do not have to memorize these terms, you can just substitute the name “God” in your mind, just to keep the flow going, if that makes you feel more at ease. It’s all pretty much the same anyway. These Vedantic terms are used mostly in the beginning of the book, and much less frequently after that. Plus, there is a glossary in the back. As you go along, you’ll actually become more familiar with them. I rather enjoyed this aspect.
I recommend you set aside a special time each day for the reading of this very important, life changing work. I got up early, and read one chapter a day. I’m a slow reader, so one chapter took me sometimes 3-4 hours. But I really wanted to absorb each principle, so I would contemplate every idea as I read along.
This is not bedtime reading. It is a series of revelations. A divine inspiration from a divinely lead man, this miracle on paper will change your life,… if you allow it.”
Reader Shiraz H Kassam says:
“If you take the the time to read it several times, you will never be the same again. Greatest book I have ever read.”
“His understanding of man and his relationship to god, the material, and the sublime, transcends any particular religious foundation. I find his explanations enlightening and challenging at the same time. As with some other material written by enlightened, self-aware teachers, his words are sometimes difficult to absorb. I find that I often need to read the same paragraph over to get my arms around the meaning. Were it not for his run-on sentence structure, occasional use of Sanskrit, and infrequent references to hindu concepts without explanation, I would have given five stars.
Here is a man at peace with himself and the universe, who has seen behind the curtain, trying to explain his vision to those of us who are still caught up maya and ego illusion. If we have to grapple with his explanation a bit, it is well worth the effort.”
“This book is not an easy read, but is well worth the time and effort. This is Sri Aurobindo’s philosophical magnum opus detailing the process of involution and evolution, and the possibility, if not inevitability, of the transcendence of our present human condition. Aurobindo is undoubtedly an enlightened being and one of the great intellects of recent times. He is grounded in Vedic and Vedantic teachings, but, owing to his Western education, familiar with Western philosophy and science as well. The Life Divine is a profound and rewarding book which deserves wider recognition.”
“I came to this book in the beginning of 2008, after studying Advaita Vedanta for 1.5 years, and having studied spirituality and philosophy for many more. I had gotten good results with other books I had studied (including works by teachers of Neo-Vedanta and works by Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi). I had even been granted a Samadhi experience lasting a few days, but ultimately, by the time I had first read this book, I was left confused and frustrated. Too many teachers asked me to turn my back on the Mind, but I find that, for better or worse, my mind is not easily quieted until my sense of logic has been satisfied. Unfortunately, I had found too many logical inconsistencies and shallow explanations in the books I had been reading, and these were getting in the way of any true progress.
I wasn’t until taking a tutorial on Vedanta with my Philosophy professor that I was introduced to this book, and at first I resisted it. It seemed so inconsistent with all that I had read before. I viewed it as entirely too verbose and “caught up in the Mind.” I didn’t understand it all upon my first reading. Luckily, I had my professor to review it with me. By the end of the semester the genius of the book was gradually beginning to dawn on me.
Having re-read the book now once in it’s entirety, in addition to periodic chapter reviews, I can say with confidence that it’s the best, most enlightening, most life-affirming, most illuminating book I have ever read. Not just in an intellectual sense, but it has also completely altered my spiritual life, bringing me to internal realizations and revelations I didn’t know were possible. I have read The Upanishads and The Bible, and as wonderful as they are, they have not done for me what this book has. This is a true work of art; not many nonfiction books (if any) can tackle the entire nature of reality and explain it in way that is almost poetic. Many times while reading I could only shake my head incredulously, marveling at the beauty and depth of his words and insights. It is a book that fills me with gratitude; gratitude towards Aurobindo, that he should have gifted the world with such a masterpiece, and gratitude towards that force, that consciousness, which should allow such beauty and wisdom to be expressed through Man. If this sounds effusive, I assure you: this book is just that good.
Whereas other books on Vedanta can seem nihilistic, denying both the world and the individual, this is incredibly life-affirming and even joyous. It answered all of my previous questions on Vedanta, and then answered most of the major ones raised by the well known Western Philosophers as well. My professor, who had first picked up this book in India some years ago (he assured me that he didn’t absorb it all in his first reading, either), told me that he could not find a flaw in Aurobindo’s logic.
I find it interesting that now that I have had more realizations (not of the mental sort, but from direct experience of the Infinite Self), I can go back to those books that I had once found illogical or nihilistic and totally understand and even agree with their perspectives. However, such understanding would not have been possible without reading the thorough explanations I found in this book first. For me, my mind has to be satisfied before it can let go and allow the Self to take over.
The Life Divine was (and continues to be) a challenging read, not just in scope and writing style, but in ideology. The rewards were worth it however; it has made me a happier, wiser, and daresay, a more enlightened person.”
“A quintessential book on the evolution of Earth and its intended destination.”
Another under the name “Ponderingparks” says of his book in these words:
“If I could only take one book into exile on a desert island I would be torn between The Life Divine and Savitri by Sri Aurobindo. Tough choice but luckily I’m not going into exile any time soon so its a silly thing to worry about. The Life Divine has answered all my theological quandaries and Savitri has made me so happy that I don’t care about theology anymore– life is just plain more amazingly beautiful than I ever dreamed and now quiet silence feels safe, warm, eternal, and full of hero songs.”
One Yajnavalkya says:
“This is a difficult book to read. Let us be under no illusions about that. It is verbose, repetitive and massive in its scope: tackling virtually the entire gamut of issues that philosophy traditionally deals with. But by the time you have finished reading the book (it took me three months to finish)it would have transformed the way you live your life. You may not agree with Aurobindo, and in fact, he probably does not want you to blindly agree with him, he would much rather that you think things out for yourself; but one thing that he certainly does is to question the ‘commonsense’ view of the world: the view of the world that we build up using bits of unexamined,untested, received, ‘truths’. Take just one such ‘truth’: We believe–or at least we have done so ever since Descartes–that Matter and Consciousness are two separate things. Aurobindo puts forward the suggestion that the two are actually one and the same entity, only they are in different states being: somewhat like Ice and Steam being different states of water. If we concede that matter may be a form of consciousness, only in an inert state, all sorts of consequences would follow: especially with regard to our attitudes towards the environment.
As I had said earlier, the scope of the book is massive. Its three parts can be roughly divided into Ontology (where he discusses the Nature of the Cosmos), Epistemology (where he discusses the nature of Knowledge (& Ignorance), and the problem of Evil–which he attributes to Ignorance: a consequence of Ahamkara or ego-centricism) and finally, in the last part, he provides a broad, general direction for living our lives in accordance with our revised view of the world (Ethics). However, the book is not tightly structured (If you are looking for a book like Wittgenstein’s Tractatus you will find yourself truly frustrated) it is loose, repetitive, and disjointed. Possibly because it was originally written as a series of essays and published monthly in a magazine called the Arya (between 1914 to 1919). He must have had to repeat himself because his original audience would have forgotten a point that he would have made five years ago. But the cumulative effect of the repetitions is that his ideas have a tendency to gradually seep in and sink into your mind, rather than strike you as a sort of brilliant epiphany.
Aurobindo’s philosophy is ultimately rooted in ancient Hindu Vedic thought. In the course of the book, Aurobindo tackles Marx, Darwin, Nietzche, Freud, Hegel, Feurbach, (plus a whole range of European philosophers) and his idea is to adapt their philosophy to the ‘Truth’ as expressed by the Seers of the ancient Vedas. Does he succeed in doing so? I don’t know. That is for professional philosophers to decide. For me, the book has been a revelation, the scales have dropped from my eyes: I see things differently now. Hopefully, I will continue to do so for a while before the snares of living in a modern city finally engulf me once again. Haven’t they said that we can’t stand to face the truth for too long?
Another one Tusar N. Mohapatra says of this book thus:
“It is a difficult read, no doubt, but this is one book which each and every educated person must read; doesn’t matter if it takes a lifetime. If one reads three pages a day, it’ll take one year to finish the book; that is the kind of patience the book demands, but it’s worth it and extremely rewarding. Logistics overcome, comes the barrier of prejudice; several of them: India, Hindu, Ashram, Philosophy, Spirituality, New-Age etc. But what is needed is an absolutely open mind and the book becomes a pure Life’s User Manual.
The book itself is a University that breathes universality. During the course of reading, one gets attuned to many related areas and ideas by way of allusions and comparisions. It also solves progressively one’s long-held doubts and discords. Besides, in whichever profession one is, it helps to improve on the practical aspects. Further, the poetic beauty of the text enhances the sheer pleasure of reading even while the insights gained expands one’s sense of mundane existence. Two other booklets, “The Mother” and “The Mind of Light” or “The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth” are essential supplements, lest one’s understanding of the author is prone to be lopsided.”
“If you are like me and reading and spiritual development have gone hand in hand in your life, then it is possible I suppose to name a handful of books that really made difference; and I suppose it is possible, if push came to shove, perhaps to name just one book or one author that made a difference. It is also possible, that when you look at your life you see a book or an author that stands out at a given time as of paramount significance.
For me, reading Emerson in my early 20s was one such author/book. Reading him, doors flung open that I didn’t know existed, and I still read him at least once a year; essays like The Oversoul, Circles, and others are timeless, beautiful statements of spiritual understanding. Years of reading great books went by, but none seemed to strike the blows that Emerson effected on my consciousness.
Then in my late 30s I was introduced to Jane Roberts and her Seth books, and once again my mind was lifted beyond its ordinary field of vision by the authenticity of her work with such books as Seth Speaks, The Nature of Personal Reality, The Nature of the Psyche, and others. More great books intervened, Plotinus, St. Teresa of Avila, and others, but again none seemed to speak directly to me in the way that Emerson or Jane Roberts did.
The reading continued, but I think that I had in the back of my mind resolved myself to sifting and finding gold here and there, as I tried to piece all of the insights from a lifetime of reading into some kind of a coherent picture of the nature of reality, why the beings of the earth (and I include animals) have to suffer so much, what we can expect if anything after death, and so forth.
Indian thought had always impressed me with its genuineness, even though the ancient text seemed to obscure or poetic or foreign to speak to my heart and mind the way Emerson and Roberts did. Much reading lead to Radhakrishnan, the once president of India and a great writer on spiritual matters, and Radhakrishnan led to Sri Aurobindo.
I told my wife the other day that I wished that I had discovered Aurobindo when I was young, but I am fully aware that if I had I would not have read for long; his writing is too complicated and philosophical for the young mind, and for the average reader I suppose. But I have to say that it is the work of Aurobindo that stands out as the most significant of my late middle years of spiritual exploration in books.
Jane Roberts, as Seth, once said that there are rare individuals that are born completely conscious, many of whom you might not recognize as you go about your daily life. I am not sure if this appellation applies to Aurobindo, but he is the only person I have read during my lifetime that combines the spiritual insight of the mystic and the ability to put his visions into understandable, if difficult, language. Emerson had the insight but chose to employ a method of expression that was more poetic than systematic. The Life Divine runs more than a thousand pages and at times I found myself wishing that he had written a pithy article that communicated his essential points rather than the nuanced arguments that this book represents.
I would imagine that most people that begin this work do not finish it or get very far, which is in my opinion a pity: it is the most outstanding philosophical-religious work that I have ever read. If you are interested in a more practical application of his ideas (which are based on his personal insights and from extensive reading of the ancient Indian texts, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Gita, all of which he has commented on extensively in separate books) then I suggest his book The Synthesis of Yoga, in which he discusses the traditional Vedanta ways of aspiring to a union with God or with the spiritual reality within us. But it would be better to begin I feel with The Life Divine. The effort required to read him will repay itself in value beyond measure. He is a great genius and a great soul.
What is his main message? Look within; the within of things is endless. God or Brahman or All That Is (Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists, the tradition in the West that most closely represents Vedanta in the East, call the Divine Reality the One, as did Aurobindo) “is within everything that you can perceive with your senses,” to use Jane Roberts words, and this “primary motive force” (again Jane) “has a reality independent of its connection with the world of appearances.” Your Inner Self, like everything else, is a manifestation of this inner spiritual reality, and this Self, possessed of the freedom and self-awareness and joy and energy or power and will and creativity and goodness and beauty of All That Is (see Jane Roberts “The Nature of the Psyche”), is without limits. All dimensions of all realities are psychological and the “barriers” between them are fluid.
Thought added Aug 2013: Add Sri Nisargadatta’s “I AM That” to this list of great great books, a collection of his conversations. Delightful, stimulation, entertaining, etc. Don’t miss it.”
Another reader under the name “Juliette” says of this book thus:
“I have had this book for over 10 years and now have experienced some wonderful healings. This book actually changes your consciousness and enables you to realise that it is your consciousness and only that that will carry you through from one life time to the next. What all else doesn’t matter. Buy this book along side the others from this author and you will never have to wonder from store to store hunting for anything deeper. What a God realised Soul this man is.”
“The Summum Bonum of Spiritual and Metaphysical Knowledge. Mind not the negative reviewers, for they know not what they say. In all my readings and explorations over the years, The Life Divine alone stands out as the undisputed summum bonum of spiritual and metaphysical knowledge – there is simply nothing else like it.
Far from being garbled, wordy or obscure, Aurobindo’s prose is in fact beautifully, rigorously and meticulously crafted. Those with a finely tuned aesthetic sensibility will glean from each line a certain hue of poetic lyricism, for the book is not only a sharp-edged magnum opus of the highest order but also a fiery and free-flowing song of spirit. As such, to merely read it is to participate, wittingly or not, in a kind of sublime yoga.
Do yourself a favor and allow your soul the gift of the divine.”
“I am only 65 pages into this book and I must say it is slow going, so much essence is given and contained in each sentence, that I must go very slowly. But I felt the need to write a review, already, and say what a wonderful and joyful book this is! To anyone seeking a greater Truth behind existence, and a meaning to life and death, this book will comfort and help dispel the darkness!Aurobindo was person of great compassion, surely a Boddisattva who lived for the purpose of ending of suffering for all living creatures! Is their a more noble way to live one’s life?
What I really love about his writings is that he says we need not condemn, cast out, or abhor any piece of our mind, emotions, our egos, or basically any element of subject/object duality. They are all essential for where we are at this point in time and there for a reason. Every state whether painful or blissful is just a transitory step on man’s inevitable return to Glory.Aurobindo says through these early pages, that we must bring harmony and understanding into our being and then all that is painful, evil, and dark will be made right! This is a re-balancing so to speak of that which is out of balance.
We must embark on the long journey home and Masters like Aurobindo shine like beacons in the night to help light the way!This book is a gift to the human race and those who are ready to take what it offers!”
“This summer, got to pondicherry. if you’ve never heard of aurobindo, then you sleep.
“The message of the future. Every word read brings the seeker closer to that Reality.
A message of hope – the dawn of a new era – a divine life in a divine body on a divine earth.”
“Every word a meditation unto itself. Ok. I’m a fairly intelligent human being and have been on the spiritual path for a very long time. This book is so filled with profound revelation and is so deep that I have been reading it a paragraph at a time, putting it down and re-reading it. In other words, lectio divino is required to really absorb the profound teachings of Aurobindo’s work.
An amazing soul that has much to teach, but not an “easy” read by any means. If you don’t want to work, don’t get this book. If you have ever read a Shakespeare play through first with cliff notes and read every footnote to understand the language, then re-read the play with your new understanding and experienced the heartfelt pleasure of reading Shakespeare with a satisfying joy and deep amazement, you will know what I mean.”
“This book is that good. Take your time & pursue it. Read all of the other 5 star reviews, then double it. This book is that good. Take your time & puruse it, read it, & reread it again & each time take away some enlightenment. This is one of my top 5 “go to” books. I just wish I had a hardback copy.”