Page 64 - NAMAH-Oct-2023

Book Review

Our Divine Destiny
Selections from the Words of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
Compiled by: Dr. A. S. Dalal

Published by: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry
Printed at: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 91
Price: Rs. 65
ISBN: 978-93-5210-263-1

Dr. Dalal has done an excellent job in compiling from the vast treasure-house of Sri
Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s writings, a sort of anthology on the divine destiny of
the human collectivity in the perspective of a spiritual evolution of consciousness, that
complements the scientific theory of evolution which lays emphasis on the species and
their outer material forms. In contrast, the emphasis here is on the inner consciousness
which creates progressively higher material forms till it reaches the Supramental form.

A spiritual unfolding of all potentials is the hidden truth of our birth in Matter and
if this is so then the human being of today is too imperfect — a transitional being. If
the human being is not capable of exceeding mentality, he must be surpassed by the
manifestation of a higher principle — the Supermind. This requires a laborious process
of transformation and a technique dealing with the process of living in the soul. The
process is difficult and complex as the evolution starts from the Inconscience. And the
process is novel as it does not conform to the known ways of development. It soars
beyond morality, beyond intellectuality, beyond the established norms of religion.
While the mind in Ignorance gropes for the Truth that always remains illusory, the
Supermind represents the Truth-Consciousness. In a Supramental world, imperfection
and disharmony are absent.

What has been proposed is to bring the Supramental as a power into the earth
consciousness and let it work there. This implies a work of transformation that cannot
be done individually. It is quite natural that at first a few shall get the full Light but
still a few should get it partially. Once what has been gained by the few is completed, a
generalisation can occur.

— Dr. Soumitra Basu

64