If the apparent individual we have been discussing is simply a formation of the Eternal, subject to a whim of creation and a whim of dissolution, there can be no real significance to the individual Soul in manifestation, and it would all turn out to be simply a gigantic play, or “Lila” in the Sanskrit terminology. Sri Aurobindo obviously has not accepted this formulation, however, as the ultimate conclusion: “But if it is once admitted that the Spirit has involved itself in the Inconscience and is manifesting itself in the individual being by an evolutionary gradation, then the whole process assumes meaning and consistence; the progressive ascent of the individual becomes a key-note of this cosmic significance, and the rebirth of the soul in the body becomes a natural and unavoidable consequence of the truth of the Becoming and its inherent law. Rebirth is an indispensable machinery for the working out of a spiritual evolution; it is the only possible effective condition, the obvious dynamic process of such a manifestation in the material universe.”
In the next post we shall take up this mechanism in much more close examination.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book 2, Part 2, Chapter 20, The Philosophy of Rebirth
Tags: Integral Yoga, Sri Aurobindo
