The Life Divine is Sri Aurobindo's major philosophical opus. It combines a synthesis of western thought and eastern spirituality with Sri Aurobindo's own original insights, covering topics such as the nature of the Divine (the Absolute, Brahman), how the creation came about, the evolution of consciousness and the cosmos, the spiritual path, and human evolutionary-spiritual destiny Also known as the integral-aperspectival stage of consciousness, the term integral has been used in a philosophical sense by several twentieth century philosophers and psychologists that is different from the mathematical sense. ... Śrī Aurobindo Śrī Aurobindo (August 15, 1872–December 5, 1950) was an Indian nationalist, scholar, poet, Hindu mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru. ... In philosophy and metaphysics, the development of the universe, and of consciousness through time, is referred to as evolution. ... According to Aurobindo and other integral (philosophy) theorists, the process by which the Divine manifests the cosmos is called involution. ... The Synthesis of Yoga is the book written by Sri Aurobindo, compiling the various methods of yoga and to give the comprehensive way for following the true path to Divine consciousness. ... Integral Yoga or Purna Yoga (Full or Complete Yoga) refers in Sri Aurobindos teachings to the union of all the parts of ones being with the Divine, and the transmutation of all of their jarring elements into a harmonious state of higher divine consciousness and existence. ... Auroville is an international township, near Pondicherry in southern India, whose sole purpose is to realize human unity in diversity. ... Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (May 1, 1881 – April 10, 1955) was a Jesuit paleontologist and philosopher involved in popularising the concept of the noosphere and the Omega Point, and was present at the discovery of Peking Man. ... Jean Gebser (1905 – 1973) was a prodigy, a student of the evolution of human conciousness, a linguist, and a poet. ... Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler ( September 5, 1905 - March 3, 1983) was a novelist, political activist, and social philosopher. ... Holism (from holon, a Greek word meaning entity) or wholism is the idea that the properties of a system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its components alone. ... A holarchy is a hierarchy of holons. ... A holon (from the Greek holos = whole and on = entity) is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. ... Arthur Middleton Young (November 3, 1905–1995) was inventor of the Bell helicopter, as well as a cosmologist, philosopher and author. ... Erich Jantsch was an Austrian astronomer who wrote the book The Self-organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution, which was published in 1980. ... For other people with the same name, see Michael Murphy Michael Murphy is the co-founder of the Esalen Institute, a key figure in the Human Potential Movement and author of both fiction and non-fiction books on topics related to extraordinary human potential. ... Stanislav Grof (born 1931) is one of the founders of the field of Transpersonal psychology and a pioneer researcher on the use of altered states of consciousness (otherwise known as nonordinary states of consciousness) for healing, growth, and insight. ... Don Beck is an American management consultant involved in the theory known as Spiral Dynamics. ... Clare W. Graves (December 21, 1914-January 3, 1986) was a professor of psychology and originator of the Level Theory of Personality. ... Spiral dynamics is a theory of human development, developed by Don Beck and Chris Cowan, based on the work of professor Clare W. Graves. ... Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. ... In Integral theory, an AQAL (pronounced ah-qwal) theory, perspective, or point of view is one that incorporates, or that allows for, all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types. ... The Integral Institute is a think-tank founded by American philosopher, psychologist, and mystic Ken Wilber for studying important issues of many fields of knowledge in an integral way. ... Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution is philosopher Ken Wilbers magnum opus. ... An emerging approach to politics that is based on developmental and holistic approaches to the self, culture, and society. ... Integral Psychology is a book by philosopher Ken Wilber in which he applies his integral model of consciousness to the psychological realm. ... Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) in Columbus, Ohio. ... Stuart Davis (born on January 11, 1971 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA) is a contemporary American musician and songwriter from Minnesota. ... The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private San Francisco, California-based graduate school whose programs focus on clinical psychology on one hand, and the study of the worlds various spiritual traditions on the other. ... Śrī Aurobindo Śrī Aurobindo (August 15, 1872–December 5, 1950) was an Indian nationalist, scholar, poet, Hindu mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru. ... Philosophy (from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom), as a practice, aims at some kind of understanding, knowledge, or wisdom about fundamental matters such as reality, knowledge, meaning, value, being, and truth. ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu (extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens Human beings define themselves in biological, social, and spiritual terms. ...

Basic Themes

The universe was created from the Real Idea of the Absolute that ended in its Involution in and as the universe. Since the universe came into being as a result of powers of an Original Consciousness and Force (Spirit - Satchidananda and Supermind), then we (and all beings) must also somehow consist of spirit. That spirit is concealed in the Physical, Vital, and Mental nature, into which it descended through involution. According to Aurobindo and other integral (philosophy) theorists, the process by which the Divine manifests the cosmos is called involution. ... Sri Swami Satchidananda ... The Physical faculty or part of the being, in Sri Aurobindos philosophy, refers not just to the physical body, but the bodys consciousness as well. ... The Vital or Life faculty or part of the being, in Sri Aurobindos philosophy, refers not simply to the life force as to the various passions, desires, feelings, emotions, affects, compulsions, and likes and dislikes that strongly determine human motivation and action through desire and enthusiasm. ... The Mental faculty or part of the being, in Sri Aurobindos philosophy, is the conceptual and cognative mind. ...

Through Evolution the universe evolves from matter to life to mind and spirit. The purpose of existence is to discover the latent spirit in all things, and release infuse and elevate all of life with its spiritual attributes of peace, power, knowledge, wisdom, love, beauty, and delight and joy of being. This is achieved by overcoming the inherent Ignorance born of creation. Through a movement into the soul within and to Spirit above one establishes contact with the Divine, grows in consciousness, and progressively overcomes the inherent Ignorance born of creation. Spiritual evolution is the philosophical/theological idea that human beings and/or human culture evolve along a predetermined pattern, or in accordance with certain pre-determined potentials. ...

Finally, through the ultimate state of Supramentalisation, evolution leads to the ultimate divinised evolutionary individuals, who have totally transcended the current human status to become Supramental Beings, gaining all of the powers and possibilities of the infinite manifest Divine (the Supermind) in physical existence. When a number of such beings develop, there is then the emergence of the basis for a Divine collective life on earth, the "Life Divine". Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu (extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens Human beings define themselves in biological, social, and spiritual terms. ...

Development of The Book

The Life Divine first appeared serially in the Arya, in fifty-two original chapters published from August 1914 to January 1919. 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1939 Sri Aurobindo revised and enlarged these chapters for publication in book form. Volume I was published in November 1939. It included the first twenty seven chapters from the Arya, with an entirely new twenty-eighth chapter. Chapters 19 and 23 also had major revisions. The other chapters were only revised in a minor way. 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Volume II, recast and enlarged, followed in July 1940, in two separately bound parts. Of the twenty eight chapters there were twelve that were entirely new: chapters 1,2, 5,6, 10, 14, and 23 through to 28. All the remaining chapters were revised (chapters 18 and 21 thoroughly) and several had been given new titles. 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The Arya Publishing House brought out a second edition of Book One (now called "Volume I") in 1943, and of Book Two ("Volume II") in 1947. These incorporate only a few minor corrections and changes. A third edition of Book One was published in 1947. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The first American edition was issued by the Sri Aurobindo Library, New York, as a single volume in 1949 and a comprehensive index provided; this edition was reprinted in 1951. 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ...

The Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry published the fourth Indian edition in 1955, reprinted in 1960; these also were of a single volume. 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The India Library Society Edition (New York) came out in 1965, while the sixth Indian edition is part of the deluxe Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, and appeared in 1970 in two volumes, Book One and Book Two Part I comprising volume 18, and Book Two Part II volume 19 of the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Three following editions were reproduced by photo-offset from the Birth Centenary Library; the ninth edition included a glossary of Sanskrit terms and two appendixes, and the tenth (1977) was once again a single volume. 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ...

List of Chapters

BOOK I

Ch.1: The Human Aspiration

Ch.3: The Two Negations I. The Materialist Denial

Ch.3: The Two Negations II. The Refusal of the Ascetic

Ch.4: Reality Omnipresent

Ch.5: The Destiny of the Individual

Ch.6: Man and the Universe

Ch.7: The Ego and the Dualities

Ch.8: The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge

Ch.9: The Pure Existent

Ch.10: Conscious Force

Ch.11: Delight of Existence: the Problem

Ch.12: Delight of Existence: the Solution

Ch.13: The Divine Maya

Ch.14: The Supermind as Creator

Ch.15: Supermind, Truth Consciousness

Ch.16: The Triple Status of Supermind

Ch.17: The Divine Soul

Ch.18: Mind and Supermind

Ch.19: Life

Ch.20: Death, Desire and Incapacity

Ch.21: The Ascent of Life

Ch.22: The Problem of Life

Ch.23: The Double Soul of Man

Ch.24: Matter

Ch.25: The Knot of Matter

Ch.26: The Ascending Series of Substance

Ch.27: The Sevenfold Chord of Being

Ch.28: Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya

BOOK II

Part One:

Ch.1: Indeterminates and Cosmic Determinations

Ch.2: Brahma, Purusha, Ishwara

Ch.3: The Eternal and the Individual

Ch.4: The Divine and the Undivine

Ch.5: Cosmic Illusion

Ch.6: Reality and the Cosmic Illusion

Ch.7: The Knowledge and the Ignorance

Ch.8: Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance

Ch.9: Memory, Ego, and Self-Experience

Ch.10: Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge

Ch.11: The Boundaries of the Ignorance

Ch.12: The Origin of the Ignorance

Ch.13: Exclusive Concentartion of Consciousness-Force and the Ignorance

Ch.14: The Origin and Remedy pof Falsehood, Error, Wrong, and Evil

Part Two:

Ch.15: Reality and the Integral Knowledge

Ch.16: The Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence

Ch.17: The Progress to Knowledge -- God, Man and Nature

Ch.18: The Evolutionary Process -- Ascent and Integration

Ch.19: Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge

Ch.20: The Philosophy of Rebirth

Ch.21: The Order of the Worlds

Ch.22: Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality

Ch.23: Man and the Evolution

Ch.24: The Evolution of the Spiritual Man

Ch.25: The Triple Transformation

Ch.26: The Ascent towards Supermind

Ch.27: The Gnostic Being

Ch.28: The Divine Life

Structure of The Life Divine

Book I is an examination of the ways of Nature's progress, the spiritual path, the reasons for the divisions and dualities in creation, and a detailed account of the nature of The Absolute, and how this unknowable, immutable omnipresent Reality became the universe we live in. In some varieties of philosophy, The Absolute describes an ultimate being; the Absolute is the whole of things, all that is. ...

Book II Part 1 explores the original Knowledge and state of the Absolute, and the cosmic Ignorance which is the source of our false perceptions of divisions and dualities in finite existence. It examines the cause of the Ignorance, and the way out by discovering the Spirit or Divine within.

Book II Part 2 explains how through shedding the Ignorance we begin to more fully come in touch with the Spirit or Divine, and can then progress to ever higher levels of spiritual consciousness. From a practical point of view the last four chapters are perhaps the most important in the book, providing a roadmap to higher spiritual attainment, from spiritual awakening to Psychicisation, Spiritualisation, the Ascent to Supermind, the nature of Supramental consciousness and existence as a Gnostic Being, and the foundation of a collective Divine Life on Earth

References

• Sri Aurobindo The Life Divine, Sri Aurobidno Ashram, Pondicherry
• Bibliographical Note, The Life Divine, 10th ed pp.1113-4

Links

• Complete on-line version of The Life Divine (http://www.sriaurobindoashram.info/Works/worksofsriaurobindo/The%20Life%20Divine/index.htm)
• Sri Aurobindo's 'The Life Divine' (http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/KnowledgeBase/Spirit/Creation.htm#Divine)
• An analysis of Sri Aurobindo's "The Life Divine" (http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/AurobindoMother/TheLifeDivine/HTML/LifeDivineFrame.htm)