My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

The Art of Living

[The following is the report of the author's inaugural address on the opening of Sri Aurobindo Centre at Sojitra in November 1950.]

Life, down the centuries, has been an enigma for every thinker. It is of great importance to understand what we really mean by the word "Life" before we can discuss the art of living. Only after we have a clear conception of "Life", can we learn the art of living. The modern scientist says: "Life is movement, motion". But he is hardly aware that aimless motion results in a circular movement which means absence of any progress and development. The West has attained unprecedented growth in the field of the physical sciences. The scientific development has overpowered all other activities of man. And now it threatens his very existence. The prolific means for fulfilment of desire that have been supplied by these sciences have made man a slave of his senses, licentious, unnatural and mechanical. The axiom "Life is progress" no longer holds good. The natural and simple course of life is arrested and the modern man finds himself suffocated with the unnatural way of present life. Imprisoned within the walls raised by modern scientific conveniences, man is groping in the dark in the fond hope of touching some secret that will open up an escape from this labyrinth. In their despair, the Western people have turned to India in search of a solution to these burning problems of life, and realization of the goal of life. And when they turn to India they find that they have stumbled upon a new concept of life, which can be expressed thus: step in any other direction is degeneration, death and ruin.

What is life? What is the purpose of living? These questions are daily growing in importance and urgency among the seekers and searchers throughout the world. For the very fact that these questions are raised indicates a thirst for knowledge. A blind groping for solution to these problems evidences the urge for knowledge, i.e., aspiration, while a conscious and systematic search for their answers consists of sadhana, i.e., steady and conscious pursuit of Truth.

This problem is as old as the hills and has been an eternal quest. The Vedas and the Upanishads gave the soluton to this problem several centuries ago. Yet the most of men remained unaware of this. And so after all these ages, this stubborn question is still astride awaiting spiritual awakening and its active application in life. It is seldom realized that life means active application of spiritual findings. How can we find solution to this riddle without actually moulding life by that practical application of sadhana in one's daily life?

All living beings are endowed with a thirst for knowledge. A major part of life is spent in reading and understanding. But this part of life would be well-spent only if whatever is read and understood is implemented in one's own life. But how many can speak of such an application of their knowledge? However few they may be, there exists a class of people whose lives are constantly altered and modified by their reading and understanding. And on attaining a measure of success in experience and awareness, they come face to face with the same old questions which they are better equipped to tackle: "What is life? What is its purpose?" They are thus inspired to seek answers to these questions. The initial blind thirst for knowledge eventually leads man to a conscious pursuit of knowledge.

After making some progress in this conscious pursuit, sooner or later man gradually finds answers to these questions. When we penetrate into the spiritual depth of life, when we make every effort to live on all the three levels—mental, vital, and physical—with the inner light, when we harmonize the entire life with the inner notes or when we reconstitute the outer life at the behest of the inner voice, then spiritual living becomes the normal and natural process of living. Life without these efforts then appears like a veritable death itself. Then one receives Grace and, from behind appears the Lord of life, Who initially inspires the quest, and says: "I am the purpose of life, and the life lived for me alone is life".

"A true life is a life lived for God". From this standpoint, life today can hardly be described as "life". Modern living is pivoted on Mind and its object is no longer the quest of the Supreme. Its object is self-interest and pampering of the ego. Down the ages we have been flattening our egos. For personal pleasure and satisfaction we never mind if others are hurt. We never lend a moment's thought to it! Incessant and global wars are waged ostensibly for the establishment of peace. But we have fallen into the wont of cultivating unhappiness and unrest, instead of happiness and peace.

Physical Science is the glory of life in the West, while Spiritual Science is the soul of life in the East!

Physical science is a creation of mind. It gives power but not wisdom. Power bereft of wisdom turns destructive. A living illustration of this is the gloomy world devastated by the two world wars. Science ought to have induced man to enter into one's inner self, to acquire that inner power and to attain control over one's nature. But instead, science has urged man to conquer the moon. Thus he may some day acquire the empire of the planets but, in the process, has been reduced to the state of a slave of his own nature.

The craze for pleasure, prodded by scientific inventions like wireless and the television, has driven man to the point of insanity. The craze for power and domination over others has been further heightened by radio-operated aeroplanes, guns and the atom bomb. The craze for world conquest has gripped Western politicians who have acquired lethal weapons and devices that can reduce millions of their fellow-men to ashes in a matter of seconds. Have they at any time shown even a semblance of prudence by employing all these new-fangled inventions in the service of mankind? It is a painful irony that all our efforts are turned to suppressing and tyrannizing others; and yet we harbour the hope that by some quirk of Fate these efforts will yield happiness and peace! It is sheer moonshine!

Thus we eternally widen the gulf between practice and precept thereby giving rise to several problems and yet have the face to ask: "What is life? What is its purpose?"

Considering the object of Creation, sooner or later, it was a very natural development that we should encounter this problem and yet it was an inevitable outcome. We can arrive at the solution of this question only when the entire process of living is turned towards God-realization, when every individual would do the work assigned to him as a vehicle for God-realization. This practice of Karmayoga, i.e., doing one's duty as a means for attaining self-realization, may be employed to purify life and the way of doing one's duty and prepare all the three levels of nature—mental, vital and physical—for the attainment of God which is the object of our existence. When every person will thus lead every province, every nation and ultimately all the nations of the world will be devoted to the same pursuit of life. Thus mankind will be linked together with divine ties, and wake up into a millennium of peace and happiness in the quest of which man has been engaged in an eternal odyssey. "All men are brothers" will not then be a mere pedantic quotation but a fact of life.

The Ishopanishad says: "All that lives is full of God." In this world He has set up an experiment of prolification of his own image. He has created the world for His own expression, and so He alone should be the object of all living beings. The further you go from this object, the wider becomes the chasm between you and the rest of the creation. The more we ignore this the more we give rise to discord and widen the cleavage between our life and God.

The modern attempt to instal ego on the pedestal of God has enslaved man to the pursuit of individual interest and pleasure and confined him to a vicious circle of more efforts for individual pleasure resulting in more unhappiness and distress. All happiness, all satisfaction and all peace reside in the Lord. This hard fact is ignored and modern life is virtually in an open revolt against the Almighty as Milton's Satan did in Paradise Lost. It is small wonder therefore, that man has lost his paradise, his happiness, and finds himself groping in the pervading gloom without the slightest ray of hope. And in this human situation, if at all we really and thoroughly feel besieged with the choking environment, and if we seek an escape into fresh air, we shall have to surrender ourselves to God, restore him to His place at the helm of life, dedicate all our actions to Him and try to recover our pristine love and unity with Him Resigning ourselves to His benevolent will, we should perform every act of life with such purity and sincerity that every action will be prayerfully dedicated to Him. A steady practice of such prayerful Karma will one day transform us and our way of life, and every moment will be filled with incessant endeavour of strengthening the vital chord tying us with the Supreme. Then this thoroughly natural prayer will be the sole Karma in life. When this transformation takes place, the long-awaited downfall of the Satan and the resurrection of the Kingdom of God will be achieved over the ashes of the tyranny of the ego.

In explaining the nature of the Lord, Whose Kingdom we desire to establish on this tormented earth and with Whose spirit we want to inform our lives, the Divine Mother says:

The wisdom that we wish to acquire, the power we want to gain, the love we want to realize, the perfection we want to attain, the harmonious and progressive state we wish to reach, and the unknown and novel treasures we wish to inherit, all that wisdom, power, love, perfection, harmony, progress and treasures are embodied in the Incarnate Lord in human frame. This God wills to express Himself in human form with all His powers and glory. As a result of opposition to and revolt against His appearance or expression in human frame today's life has become individualistic, egoistic, discordant and bleak, whose Satanic gloom is smothering the whole world.

The whole world, both the Orient and the Occident, is trying to evolve a remedy for the present malaise. But so long as the world craves for ungodly pleasures, it will have to stagnate in the cesspools of the ego and face the resultant putrefaction. Ignore God and you forfeit your right to peace and happiness!

We have seen earlier that God is life's sole object. He has also from behind the veil announced: "Life is to be lived for me!" In pursuance to this command, if every act of living is undertaken with the sole aim of God-realization, we will experience the real fulfilment. To render this realization as an everyday natural phenomenon is to be free from the shackles of human existence. Even after this highest state of living moksha, to fulfil His will, to become a tool for his expression, an instrument for his creation is the sole purpose of life. Then we should allow the highest light to react on the threefold nature for its transformation into divine nature. Thus God and His nature embodied in human frame, will manifest in transparent shape to us and the world. This manifestation is a divine boon to humanity.

The Mother says:

Every individual comes across a moment in his life when he has to choose between sadhana and chaotic life. You cannot put one foot in sadhana and another in confused life. Any attempt to do that will rend the person to shreds. The heart which does not make a correct choice dies.

The time is ripe. It is high time we abandoned the struggle against His manifestation and prepare ourselves to receive Him amidst us. Today we are at the crossroads to choose our course between the ungodly Satanic life and the life for His sake. Is the goal of life to forsake God and lead a selfish satanic life or to realize Godhead by living for his sake? The whole mankind has been offered the chance of allowing itself to be the vehicle of His expression. Let us seize this chance, this opportunity. How long can we deny ourselves this golden opportunity of imbibing life with His spirit, and steeping the whole world in his power, happiness and peace?

This is the art of living. There are four objects to be achieved in this life—Duty, Wealth, Desires and Salvation. For each of these objectives a healthy, strong and fair body is not only necessary but indeed indispensable. As the Sanskrit saying goes "For the fulfilment of duty, wealth, desires and salvation best health is basic." But the modern man has turned his back on duty and salvation, i.e., liberation. He has drowned himself in the pursuit of wealth and .pleasure. This has resulted in a gloomy and unhappy life, weak and diseased body, lustreless myopic eyes guarded by eye-glasses.

To utilize the golden opportunity of living for the sake of God and attaining union with Him and transforming one's existence into divine life, the body is the only instrument. Let us fulfil our duty of maintaining this instrument as fit as a fiddle and the eyes as fine 'as divine sparkle. To achieve this let us learn the art of preserving health and preserving our eyesight. Thus we shall be living a conscious life that leads us to fulfilment.

Balcony Darshan

One day I shall return, His hands in mine
And thou shalt see the face of the Absolute. ||124.71||