In his major work The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo starts from an understanding that the basic aspirations that arise in the human soul from time immemorial, the seeking for “God, Light, Freedom, Immortality” represent a secret motive force that impels our evolution and action in this world. His conclusion there was that the future of humanity holds out the promise of a divine life on earth, based on the manifestation of the next level of consciousness that can solve the contradictions that arise from the limits of the mental consciousness and its attempt to control and direct the vital and physical aspects of life.
If we follow the guidance provided by the Isha and Kena Upanishads, and do not abandon earthly life in pursuit of the Absolute, but accept it and work to integrate the awareness of the Supreme with the perceptions and actions that accompany daily life, then we accept that the manifestation has a significance and a purpose that is not opposed to the supreme Brahman, but rather, is part of the Existence that is the Brahman.
Sri Aurobindo observes: “To assist in the lesser victories of the gods which must prepare the supreme victory of the Brahman may well be and must be in some way or other a part of our task; but the greatest helpfulness of all is this, to be a human centre of the Light, the Glory, the Bliss, the Strength, the Knowledge of the Divine Existence, one through whom it shall communicate itself lavishly to other men and attract by its magnet of delight their souls to that which is the Highest.”
Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, Kena Upanishad and analysis, pp. 189-190
Sri Aurobindo Studies 