Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 – 1921
Arguments to The Life Divine
Arguments to The Life Divine[[Sri Aurobindo prefixed
brief summaries or “arguments” to fifteen chapters of The Life Divine
when they were first published in the Arya in 1916 and 1917. He omitted
these summaries when he revised the book in 1939 – 40.]]
Chapter XIX. Life
ARGUMENT
Mind as a final action of Supermind is a creative and
not only a perceptive power; in fact, material force itself being only a Will in
things working darkly as the expression of subconscious Mind, Mind is the
immediate creator of the material universe. But the real creator is Supermind;
for wherever there is Mind conscious or subconscious, there must be Supermind
regulating from behind the veil its activities and educing from them their truth
of inevitable result. Not a mental Intelligence, but Supermind is the creator of
the universe. – Mind manifests itself in the form of Force to which we give the
name of Life, and Life in Matter is an energy or power in dynamic movement which
builds up forms, energises, maintains, disintegrates and recreates; death itself
is only a process of life. It is one all-pervading Life or constant movement of
dynamic energy which creates all these forms of the material universe and is not
destroyed in the destruction of its forms. – The distinction between animal and
plant life is unreal and that between the animate and the inanimate unessential.
Plant-life has been found to be identical in organisation with animal-life and,
although the organisation may differ, life is also present in the metal, the
earth, the atom. This life-force pervades the universe and is present in every
form of it and there is a constant interchange of its energies which creates the
symptoms and characteristics of vitality recognised by us; but even where these
are suspended, Life is present and only withdraws by a process of dispersion
which replaces the process of continual reconstitution of the form. The presence
of these symptoms and characteristics is not the essential nor is their absence
a sign of the absence of Life-force. Even where
we do not detect Life, it exists. – Conscious nervous sensation accompanies life
in the animal, but much of the action of nervous or life energy is subconscious;
in the plant, as in many actions of man, the nervous sensation is present but
the mentality of the sensation is subconscious. In the very atom there is a
subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates
because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom. That force is
Chit-shakti, force of conscious being, variously represented in various forms of
life. – Life is an energising of conscious being in substance of Matter, which
on one side is constantly supplying the material of physical formation and on
the other labouring to release mind and sense from their subconscious sleep in
Matter. It is therefore the dynamic link between Mind and Matter. To create form
and evolve consciousness out of its imprisonment in form is the sense of the
omnipresent Life in the universe.
absence of Life-force. Even where
we do not detect Life, it exists. – Conscious nervous sensation accompanies life
in the animal, but much of the action of nervous or life energy is subconscious;
in the plant, as in many actions of man, the nervous sensation is present but
the mentality of the sensation is subconscious. In the very atom there is a
subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates
because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom. That force is
Chit-shakti, force of conscious being, variously represented in various forms of
life. – Life is an energising of conscious being in substance of Matter, which
on one side is constantly supplying the material of physical formation and on
the other labouring to release mind and sense from their subconscious sleep in
Matter. It is therefore the dynamic link between Mind and Matter. To create form
and evolve consciousness out of its imprisonment in form is the sense of the
omnipresent Life in the universe.