THE HUMAN ASPIRATION

Sri Aurobindo starts the book from where all of us are and asks what it is that all of us are seeking. If you look back through history, apart from all of the mundane things we pursue on a day-to-day basis, there is a fundamental longing, a seeking in humanity, for something Divine, whether we call it light or god or freedom or immortality: like the atheist who pursues the light of Truth or the anarchist who yearns for total freedom or the scientist who searches for total knowledge of the world or the religious seeker who aspires for eternal bliss. All express the fundamental longing of humanity for perfection beyond what presently exists on earth. This seeking is actually the aspiration of the Divine itself expressing through us. It is the seeking of the Divine to manifest itself in life as perfect form. So when He says that Divine Life is the goal, it is the Divine evolving in our lives at the tether ends of our personalities to manifest something more perfect here on earth.

Many Indians have gone off to the USA in search of prosperity, education or social status. It does not matter how long they have been there, always when you scratch the surface, they say, “Something is missing there. We want to come back home without giving up what we have acquired overseas.” It is like the longing of the Divine within us seeking to regain the original bliss of the spirit as delight here on earth without giving up the world in order to do it.