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THE AIM OF LIFE
Surely our life has an aim. We are conscious beings and we persistently seek things. Some of these things satisfy us more, some less. And through all these seekings and satisfactions we work and hope for greater and greater satisfactions and in fact the greatest possible. What this greatest satisfaction is and how is it possible, is the real quest of man. And one who achieves it fulfils his life. He realises the aim of his life. Man is more conscious than the animals and he can plan and organise his life. But surely his consciousness is yet very limited. His knowledge is imperfect, his will is divided and weak and he is subject to fear and anxiety. To grow in his consciousness so as progressively to over- come these limitations seems to be the aim, which the process of evolution sets to human life. From imperfect knowledge to perfect knowledge, from divided and weak will to integrated and united will and from fear and anxiety to joy and Ananda seem to be the course and way of our life. Ordinarily we look upon becoming a teacher, an engineer, a crafts- man as the aim of life. For a young boy, no doubt, they are the aims. But these turn out to be means, since they are, in fact, ways of earning a livelihood. Through them we are able to earn and live, but what we live for, knowingly or unknowingly, and what will fulfil our life, give us a complete sense of satisfaction, joy and success as a human being is really the aim of life. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother tell us that man in truth is the Psychic Being, which is the ever joyous spirit within. To discover that and consciously be that is the true aim of life. And when he discovers that and becomes that he begins to live the life that enjoys the full satisfaction of living. His life becomes a fulfilment and the world a stage for the exercise of this fulfilment Ordinarily in ignorance and in separation from this true self of ours we live in and exercise those parts of our personality, which are composed of wants, appetites and hungers and in consequence remain involved in an anxious pursuit of temporary satisfaction of those wants, appetites Page - 14 and hungers. A real satisfaction even of these comes to us when we discover the joyous soul within us. Therefore, according to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother to become consciously that what we secretly even now are is the aim of life. Nature herself through her attempts to manifest progressively a higher and higher consciousness is tending to realise the joyous and integral consciousness of the Psychic Being and man at his present stage of evolution is capable of realising the same more quickly through a sincere and persistent seeking for it The discovery of the joyous soul within enables us to discover the joyous Soul of the universe, which is the true sense and meaning of the world we live in. In fact the sense and feeling for the Soul in the universe and that of the soul within us grow more or less simultaneously, mutually aiding their distinct emergence in our experience. Then we learn to know our world and our self truly, as also the sense and purpose that govern them. Life and existence then become clear perceptions of truth and delight and such fulfilment is the true aim of our life. |