Even though many people regard The Life Divine as a book of philosophy, it is actually a book about LIFE. Knowledge is power and the knowledge in this book carries the power to divinize life.
Sri Aurobindo said that India is destined to become the guru of the world. But before the spiritual greatness of India can emerge, the country has to become prosperous. The Mother’s Service Society started its activities in the village of Ramapuram, where it had acquired 123 acres of barren land in a place that had barely enough water for drinking. After the Society discovered and developed the ground water potential in this place, agricultural income on the project lands rose more than ten times higher per acre than the level prevalent in the village. At that time the average income in Ramapuram was Rs. 150 per acre per year. Today, the average income in the village is more than 100 times what it was then. On the initiative of the Society, the first village adoption program by a nationalized bank was introduced in Ramapuram in 1969. From 1969 to 1980, more than 100,000 villages throughout India were adopted by nationalized banks for development. Ramapuram was the very first village in the country to be adopted by a commercial bank. This is the result of a work done in service to The Mother. Mother’s aspiration and force are there, not just for the prosperity of a particular village or individual but for the whole country and the whole world.
What Sri Aurobindo is talking about in this book is the power to change life, to divinize life. That power liberated India from British rule and that power can make India prosperous. And that is also the power which can create luck for each one of you. It is not a question of Mother creating luck in your life. Rather it is YOU who can create luck in your own life. Each one of you can direct the spiritual power we refer to as Mother’s Force for any higher goal that you choose. The Ramapuram achievement shows that this power is available to us and that the power is real. The only limitations on how that power expresses are our own limitations, the limitations that we impose on it.
Coming from the USA with a Western education, it has not been easy for me to accept the idea that we can command a spiritual power that can change the world. Yet during the past 30 years, I have seen over and over again what that power can do. The Life Divine has helped me to understand what I already know from first-hand experience. Sri Aurobindo explains in The Life Divine what that power is, what it can do for us, and how we can make that power active in our lives. As you go through the book, you will find a confirmation of everything that you already know.
I have talked to many leading intellectuals in the world who have tried to read The Life Divine and quickly put it down as too difficult to understand. I met a world-renowned British biologist who had spent some time living in South India to discuss with him some of Sri Aurobindo’s ideas. When I asked him if he had ever read any of Sri Aurobindo’s works, he pointed to a copy of The Life Divine on his bookshelf. He explained that after reading the first chapter, he fell asleep and could not proceed further in the book. He did not fall asleep because he lacked the intellectual capacity to understand what is written. He fell asleep because the power in the book is so great, that unless there is a receptivity to receive what He is trying to deliver, we cannot read it. Sri Aurobindo is not trying to deliver explanations. He is trying to give us the power to change life. And when the receptivity is not great enough for that, we fall asleep.
This book has been created for the spiritual perfection of life on earth. The first step for that is the full flowering and prosperity of life as we know it now. Mother says that the potential for prosperity is infinite. That is a big word. How can anything be infinite? We grow up thinking about limitations. We want to buy something. Then we look at our bank account, and find there is not enough money. There is not enough rain sometimes, or enough food. There is not enough clothing for many people. How can anything in the world be infinite? Yet Mother says we have the capacity to create infinitely. That capacity is a divine capacity. That is the process Sri Aurobindo describes in this book.
