Sri Aurobindo's - 'The Life Divine' - The Human Aspiration - Chapter I - The Human Aspiration - Track 1201

Question: Is it really true that humanity has aspired for Truth, Light, Freedom, Immortality only a few individuals here and there have aspired, how can you say that humanity has aspired?

Is it really true, historically, that only few individuals here and there have aspired? You assume when you ask this question you feel as if you are saying a truth. But that itself can be questioned. Is it really true that only few individuals here and there have aspired?

If you take a walk in the evening around the temples here, may be you are not going there, a few extraordinary individuals are not going there, but a large humanity is going there. So how can we say only a few individuals are aspiring? Historically is it a fact that only a few individuals are aspiring? Historically it is not true. Historically crowds of people, multitude of people...

Question: I put this question because even the ordinary humanity which goes to the temple and all this, they go to pray for what? The necessities, they are tied down to the needs and necessities, they are not aspiring for Truth and Light and Immortality. What they are aspiring is for a little money for his son career, it is things of that kind.

Why do they want a career for the children? They want them to live. It is an aspiration to live. What is living? And the moment they are begging to live they want something more. What is that more? As you cross one barrier after the other you begin to uncover what exactly was behind it. It may take one form or the other.

As I said last time, somebody hurts you, pains you and immediately you want to reject it. You may not say I am desirous of desires or of bliss. But why do you reject pain at all? Basically all life is seeking for bliss, all life. If you really examine anything that happens, you are actually looking for bliss.

But it is the first answer to the question.

Who is asking the question? It is your feet, your mouth or your hands? You tell me who is asking the question?

- It is my mind through my mouth.

That is right. Your mouth is occupying what portion of the whole body? Only a small portion. Isn't it? Your hands are not troubled at all by your question; your feet are not troubled by your question. That is what you think actually. Actually the whole body is asking the question. Where does your mouth end and where another part of the body start? All ends and beginnings are artificial. Where does this palm end and the arm begin? It is for our practical purpose we divide. Where is my palm if there is no arm? So even if a few individuals have aspired. They are a kind of flowering of humanity. This is the second answer to your question.

There is a third answer to the question. Whenever you refer to the highest that your are capable of, then you can say that is actually what all human beings have been seeking unconsciously - the Highest. The very first sentence of The Life Divine is: It is the highest that thought can envisage. You can therefore conclude, that if you actually take an account of the whole of history from any point of view, the one breath is God, Light, Freedom, Immortality. This is the human aspiration.

Question: What is scepticism?

Scepticism is a state of mind which is inclined to doubt, and doubt as much as possible, - forever if possible. A state of mind which wants to doubt, and doubt again and again, and forever if possible.

Question: What is evolution and what is the explanation of evolution?

What is evolution? Evolution is a gradual development from one stage to the next which prepares for a further development by transmitting to the next what is already acquired and at the same time developing still something new. That is evolution.

The essential point is that there is a gradual development. This word gradual is very important. A gradual development from one stage to the next, and it still wants to develop further. And in developing further there is a transmission of what is already acquired to the next. There is something like an accumulation, a gradual accumulation and then transmission.

The explanation of evolution is that the next stage of evolution is already hidden in the present one. If Life has evolved in Matter the explanation is that Life is already hidden in Matter. Not only that, Matter is already Life in another form. If a tree evolves out of a seed, it is because the tree is already hidden in the seed, and the tree in a sense is already the seed, the seed is already the tree. Basically it is already the tree. This is the explanation of evolution.