Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects

Essence Of Life

You have asked me—"What is the truth of life ?" This question has been answered long back by our ancient sages and the modern ones like Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and others who have not only an intellectual apprehension of what life is but a true, real and concrete realisation of it in the truth of the Spirit, Atman of which we read so much in the Gita. Life is nothing but a concrete manifestation of the Spirit in millions and trillions of physical forms. The Spirit is One but its manifestations are innumerable and varied. What we all are and see all about us is nothing but the One and sole Atman in its various forms and disguises. He or It is the One and also the Many. He does not like to rest Alone in His unmanifested state—therefore this mystery of self-creation. He is in the saint and the sinner, the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, in health and disease but is veiled from the perception of even the highest of his creation, Men by his Yoga Maya who live in unconsciousness, division and ignorance of their real Self, the Atman all-pervading, immortal, eternal and infinite. This is our real Nature but we are all deluded by Maya, a self-deluding ego that we are all separate and divided beings and that is why there is so much clash, conflict and bitter struggle in their daily and ephemeral lives. You know very well that those who have realised their real Selves like the sages I have mentioned above are full of divine Love because they live in their Selves and not in division as all the rest of the creatures, human, beasts, birds, reptiles, worms

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etc. do. When T3ine sees the One Self in all in their various disguises in names and forms, how can he be deluded and what fear and grief has he ?

This in substance is what I know of life but if you want to know in details written by men of Realisation, I can only recommend to you Vivekananda's Jnana Yoga and Sri Aurobindo's Life Divine. But it is never enough to know things intellectually, by mere mind. One has to live in the real sense of the word in order to know and understand. God is not something or some one remote and abstract. We ourselves are God in disguise, and in ignorance and in order to realise God we have to live in divine .consciousness and not in our separated, narrow, ignorant, and individual Ego. Get rid of the Ego and you know what life is, what God is.

Now, listen to my philosophy of life. It is my personal experience after years of living a disciplined yogic life under the aegis of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo :

Here, we are ajj. born to pay our nature's debts, Ignorance, folly, disease and sundry other states. These are the high ransom the Soul must pay, To free itself from nature's evil and intricate way. Therefore,

Our reliance must be on God, and not on men, However great, good and powerful they may be. Death, desire and incapacity—these three Are still on earth—the reigning sovereign.

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