In whatever direction humanity tries to acquire knowledge about the world and our life in the world, eventually the seeking leads to the Divine. Western science, grounded firmly in outer “facts” that could be seen, measured, correlated and compared, has itself begun to recognize that unseen factors are both real and significant, if not yet recognized as primary. Physics begins with the study of Matter. After manipulating matter for some time, a scientist discovered that Matter after all is a form of Energy and the conversion between the two was possible, with tremendous release of energy resulting from certain manipulations of Matter. Thereafter, other scientists took up the questions raised by quantum physics and eventually determined that Energy is a form of Consciousness. It is only one step from that realisation to an acknowledgement of the Divine and the Divine Will as the determining factor in the establishment, creation and perpetuation of the universe and its evolutionary action through Time and Space.
Intense study of the atomic structure of Matter, or the complex biological and ecological systems, and the total interdependence of all life-forms within one eco-sphere make it clear that the universal creation was not simply a development of random chance.
A similar series of steps can be followed through each field of human endeavor, as Sri Aurobindo has observed:
“At first it is the workings of life and forms of Nature which occupy us, but as we go deeper and deeper and get a completer view and experience, each of these lines brings us face to face with God. Science at its limits, even physical Science, is compelled to perceive in the end the infinite, the universal, the spirit, the divine intelligence and will in the material universe.”
“Art leads to the same end; the aesthetic human being intensely occupied with Nature through aesthetic emotion must in the end arrive at spiritual emotion and perceive not only the infinite life, but the infinite presence within her; preoccupied with beauty in the life of man he must in the end come to see the divine, the universal, the spiritual in humanity.”
“Philosophy dealing with the principles of things must come to perceive the Principle of all these principles and investigate its nature, attributes and essential workings.”
“The history and study of man like the history and study of Nature leads towards the perception of the eternal and universal Power and Being whose thought and will work out through the cosmic and human evolution.”
“The intellect begins to perceive and revere, the will to turn itself to the service of the Divine without whom Nature and man cannot exist or move and by conscious knowledge of whom alone we can arrive at our highest possibilities.”
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Part Two: The Yoga of Integral Knowledge, Chapter 25, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge, pp. 492-493
Sri Aurobindo Studies 