The goal of life, Sri Aurobindo also taught, is not to escape from the world to some higher heaven, but to transform life on earth into a divine life. This process is accomplished, not by the mind, but by surrendering the mind and the vital life forces to the Divine-allowing the divine force to work on the body, the mind, and the life forces, and to transform them.
What I am really talking about is spiritualism. Spiritualism is a progressive awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, a self, a soul that is something other than our mind, body, and life. Spirit is an inner aspiration to know, to enter into contact and union with the greater reality beyond, a reality that also pervades the universe and dwells in us. As a result of that aspiration, contact, and union, there is a conversion, a turning, a birth into a new being.
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