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The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo · 1914–1919 (serialised in Arya); revised 1939–1940 · Long (over 350 pages)
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What it is
Sri Aurobindo's main philosophical work, first serialised in his journal Arya between 1914 and 1919 and heavily revised for book publication in 1939–40. It opens with humanity's persistent aspiration towards God, light, freedom and immortality, and treats this as a sign of where evolution is heading. Early chapters reject two one-sided answers: the materialist denial of spirit, and the ascetic's refusal of the world as illusion. Reality is Saccidānanda, existence, consciousness-force and bliss, which has involved itself in matter, life and mind; because spirit is already hidden in matter, it can evolve out of it. Between the One and our divided mental world stands Supermind, a truth-consciousness that holds unity and multiplicity together. Book Two explains the Ignorance as a self-limitation of knowledge and traces the soul's progress through rebirth, ending in a triple transformation, psychic, spiritual and supramental, that would bring a 'gnostic being' and a divine life on earth.
Why read it
It is the most ambitious modern attempt to join Vedānta with evolution, arguing that spiritual life should transform the world rather than escape it.
Where to start
Read the opening chapters of Book One, from 'The Human Aspiration' through the two negations of the materialist and the ascetic, before the chapters on Supermind.