Life's Spiritual Source

Life
Life is the final result of a process by which a Conscious-Force emerged from an original omnipresent Reality, taking shape first as energy and from it a universe of forms.

Life/Energy has its Spiritual Source as Conscious Force
Life is a form of, a dynamic of, a current of, an energy of a universal operation of the cosmic Conscious Force.

Life is the energy that originates in Chit (Conscious Force) of Satchitananda (Existence, Conscious Force, Delight)

The Infinite in order to extends its Delight into a created universe becomes self-aware of its existence that generates both consciousness and Force. When that force is devoid of most if it consciousness, it takes shape as energy, which is the original substance of creation. Out of energy all things take shape in the universe.

Conscious-Force
The supreme's first poise is that of Existence, i.e. it exists. It then becomes self-aware of its existence, which creates its Consciousness. In becoming conscious of its existence, a Force is generated. Conscious-Fore is thus the second aspect (after Existence) of the Supreme.Out of Conscious-Force will come life, matter, and the known and unseen universe.

Life's Conscious Force Source
Life is a form of, a dynamic of, a current of, a universal operation of the cosmic Conscious Force. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Life
Life is really a universal operation of Conscious-Force acting subconsciously on and in Matter. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Definition of Life

Life is the operation of the Conscious Force [Chit of Sat-Chit-Ananda; Conscious Force of Existence - Conscious Force- Delight] in the universe that enables forms to take shape, change, dissolve, and reconstitute.

Source of the Plane of Life
Life is a plane below that of Mind, but above Matter. Mind, or rather Supermind, with Mind as its instrument, divided the Conscious Force, enabling energy to emerge, which is the plane of Life through which all forms take shape.

Forms and Cosmic Force
Forms feed upon the breath and energy of the Cosmic Force through an interchange with other forms or by absorbing it from the outside. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Life is Infinite, Creative Force
In Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes life as a universal force that expresses as the individual force maintaining each individual form or object in manifestation. It is the force that creates and preserves the form, defends its survival and energizes its growth. Although we view life in terms of many separate and individual lives, it is only one single, universal existence that we perceive as many. In its origin, life is the infinite, creative force that builds the worlds and inhabits them with forms of its own self-conception and creation. It is the conscious force of Sat, the Self-Conscious Being, the Pure Existence, the Divine Consciousness, the omnipresent reality. (MSS)

Man Created in Plane of Life
God has created Man in the plane of life, through the force of life. (MSS)

Additional Thoughts on the Nature of Energy and the Plane of Life
 

The Play of Life

The Life Play
The life play of the Force, manifests as an interchange and stimulation between the forms. Thorough this interchange Life seeks to awaken conscious sensation in those bodies. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Life and Consciousness

Life Reflects Consciousness

Life is a universal field of energy/force that expresses the intention of the consciousness from which the force originates. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Life and Nature
Life is of Nature that expresses the force of consciousness. (MSS)


Poises of Life

Poises, Statuses of Life 1
Life is at first dumb subconscient will, apparent as dumb urge of physical energy; inconscient, subject to the mechanical forces. The middle term of Life is death and mutual devouring, hunger and conscious desire, the sense of a limited room and capacity and struggle to increase, expand, to conquer and possess. But a new set of terms intervenes and Life begins to evolve toward conscious Mind. [We can express these three as the Physical Vital, the Vital Vital, and the Mental Vital. Also corresponds to the physical, vital, and mental stages of social historical development] [In "The Double Soul of Man" (Book 1, Chapter XXIII Sri Aurobindo explains how we have moved through these 3 states to enable Delight of Being.]

Poises, Statuses of Life 2
The statuses of life are (1) dumb inconscient drive; (2) desire, eagerness to possess and give; (3) love, which seeks to possess, be possessed, to receive and give; (4) satisfaction. These statuses of life are actually the stages of the soul's seeking for delight in things. The ascent of life (of drive, desire, love, and satisfaction) is really the ascent of the Divine Delight in things. "Since Life is an energy of His conscious-force, the secret of all its movements must be hidden delight inherent in all things which is at once cause, motive, and object of its activities..." (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Life Reveals God at Each step
To perceptive, sensitive souls, Life tries to reveal God at each step. (MSS)

Also see Thoughts from Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine on this Subject. Click here and  here.

Life for the Individual Human
(main)
 

Energy, Forms and the Emergence of Man
-There is an ocean of energy, a plane of Force enveloping the earth. This is Life.
-Forms, matter, us emerge from this energy, this plane of Life
-The Divine has created Man in the plane of life, through the force of life.

-Man is one formation of life, and the animal is another formation of life. Matter itself is a hard formation dense to our touch. (MSS, paraphrased)

Two Principles of Life for the Individual Human
There are two aspects of the vital, i.e. two principles of Life; the necessity or will of the separative ego to survive in its distinctness and guard its identity, and the compulsion of Nature to fuse itself with others. [The two principles of life are the separative individual and the social individual.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Life that Expresses our Human Consciousness

Everything we experience in life is an expression of consciousness. All that occurs, from the very grand to the totally insignificant, is a reflection and result of consciousness. All that occurs around us and to us is an expression of our own consciousness, individual and collective. This knowledge enables one to not only understand that life is a manifestation of consciousness but compels us to want to discover the consciousness/spirit in life. The more conscious we are, the more we are able to be in tune with and master life. 

Furthermore consciousness is really an energy and force. Life itself is a universal field of this energy/force that expresses the intentions of the consciousness from which the energy/force originates. 

Furthermore the consciousness (i.e. energy/force) is the same as the Consciousness of the Spiritual Reality, the Absolute, Divine from which the universe emanated from. That Divine Consciousness is the optimal consciousness that we in life can rise to and have. The more conscious we are, the more we are one with the Divine and its infinite powers. The greater the consciousness, the greater the Divine attributes we experience in our lives -- including its the power, truth, unity, harmony, perfection, peace, beauty, and love.

The Ascent of Life through the Individual
-(1) Life is first dumb inconscient will rooted in the physical energy; inconscient, and subject to mechanical forces. This is reflected in the necessity of the separative ego, and to survive. (2) Then there is a movement to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with others. This reflects the compulsion of Nature to fuse our individual selves with others. At this second poise of life there is death, mutual devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer, and possess. This is a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical. (3) The third poise of life is a movement towards conscious mind in life. In this stage there is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc. In its higher aspects it is vitally reflected as the ability to be self giving towards others, and to feel love.

-Survival of the fittest that enables evolution comes from love, commonality, unity, harmony, etc.; not because of selfishness, self protection, self-assertion, and aggressive living of the individual. [This is the movement from the physical and vital in the vital and life to the conscious mind emerging in life, and beyond to spiritualized mind to supermind to Satchitananda]

-As life ascends to mind, it grows toward the rule of conscious unity. (One sees there the unity in the in the differentiation and diversity of life.) This reflects the divine law of the Satchitananda in the manifestation.

[As there is an ascension in life, as we ascend to higher levels in life, we move from physical selfishness, to vital interchange with others, including desire, et al to mental and spiritual mind-based commonality and unity, reflecting those higher aspects that are there in Satchitananda.

-This suggest that life can reflect every aspect, attribute of every plane of mind to supermind in the vital. E.g. the highest aspect of Truth, Love, Oneness, Power, Bliss/Delight, Knowledge can be experienced in all aspects of life, and in all aspects of our vital being.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + Additional growth Online Comments)

The Ascent of Life: The Four Successive Statuses that the Forms of Life Undergo
Unconscious Will to Survive -- The first is of force, of dumb inconscient [unconscious] will. It is mere physical energy, subject to mechanical forces. This is reflected in the necessity of the seperative ego, and to survive.

Ego-Oriented Interchange -- The second status is to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with others; a compulsion of Nature to begin to fuse ourselves with others. There is death, mutual devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer, and possess. This is a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical.

Mutual Interchange and Harmony -- The third status is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc. It is a movement toward cooperation and mutual help, the associated group, conscious joining and interchange. In its higher aspects it is vitally reflected as the ability to be self giving towards others, and to feel love.

Sri Aurobindo also indicates than in this third status, there is an increasing predominance of Mind. Mind is of a higher consciousness which does not need to devour to grow. to the degree that Mind is free of the material influence, it will have these positive influences.

Spiritual Unity with Others, Life -- Sri Aurobindo says that ultimately there is a need to harmonize two principles of life:  the necessity of the will of the seperative ego to survive in its distinctness; and the compulsion imposed upon it by Nature to fuse itself with others.

Sri Aurobindo says that these will be fused when we reach the fourth status of life, which occurs when the eternal unity of the many [i.e. of the self and others] is realized through the unity and freedom of the spirit. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + Additional growth Online Comments)

The Three Problems of Life
The first problem of life is that man is aware only of the surface of life, not his inner being and true Self. The second problem of life is that he is disconnected from the universal, and therefore from others. The third problem of life is that the body, the vital, and mind are not in harmony with each other, nor with its self. When man becomes conscious he becomes more aware of the discords and creates this harmony. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Social Life, Human Life, Life, Nature, and Spirit
-Human life exceeds social life in dimension. Life is far wider in its scope than either social life or human life. Nature outstrips life. Existence on earth is not confined to Nature. It consists of many other worlds such as the subtle world of spirits ... Beyond lie the causal worlds proper to the Spirit.

-The Spirit surfacing in personal life expands the scope of Man's existence to the borders of social and human life and goes beyond. (MSS)

Biological vs. Social vs. Spiritual Evolution
-Life functions with a wider background that divides into three layers -- social evolution, biological status, spiritual poise. All of them can be called evolution.
-[In Pride and Prejudice] Lydia's elopement is a catastrophe from the point of view of respectable social living. It is no such thing from social evolution's point of view, even from the wider point of view of Mr. Bennet's family. It triggers social evolution.
-Behind it is the biological evolution of the physicality of Mrs. Bennet trying to raise itself to mentality or at least the vitality of social acceptability.
-Beyond the biological lies the spiritual evolution. In its own context, everything is evolving Spirit, evolving in Joy. There is nothing which is not a MARVEL.
-[In Pride and Prejudice] Elopement is social disgrace.
-Elopement is furthering social evolution.
-Elopement enables biological evolution in utter disregard of health or life.
-Spiritually you see everyone in the family gay, happy, cheerful always which denotes the surfacing of the spirit. (MSS)

Out of the Darkness of Life
Life is a journey in the darkness of the night. Wake up to the inner light. (The Mother)

The Purpose of Death (in general, and for the individual)
(main)

Death as a Process of Life

Life and Death

The natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our mentality. Death has no reality except as a process of life. Disintegration of substance and renewal of substance, maintenance of form and change of form are the constant process of life. Even in death of the body there is no cessation of Life, only the material of one form of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life. This occurs through some process of metapsychosis or new ensouling of body. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Process of Life and Death
-The processes of life are disintegration and renewal of substance, and maintenance and change of form.

-The natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our mentality. Death has no reality except as a process of life. Disintegration of substance and renewal of substance, maintenance of form and change of form are the constant process of life. Even in death of the body there is no cessation of Life, only the material of one form of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life. This occurs through some process of metapsychosis or new ensouling of body. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Process of Life and Death
-The processes of life are disintegration and renewal of substance, and maintenance and change of form.

-Thus death is just a process of life.

-Death is not a cessation of life. Also, in death materials of a form break up to serve as materials for other forms.

Birth and Death
Birth and death are not life's beginning and end, but are rather intermediate stages in an occult processes of life. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Spirit Revives
Spirit revives dead or dying vehicle into fresh new life. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Cause of Death, Desire, and Incapacity
-Death is a process of life.

-Death, desire, and incapacity are due to the exclusivity and separateness, to the nature of divided being, and to the ignorance of the individual, rooted in ego and mind. They prevent the right balance of energies, which cause dissolution.

-Individualized Life is subject to death because it seeks the infinite though in a finite body; desire because it seeks Bliss, and also it has incapacity.

-Death also exists because the individual life seeks the Infinite through a limited individual body. ["... death is only the negative term in which Life hides itself and tempts its own positive being to seek for immortality." [Death compels Life to seek Immortality.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + additional Growth Online comments)

Death as a Process to Enable Immortality

Reason for Death
"... death is only the negative term in which Life hides itself and tempts its own positive being to seek for immortality." (Sri Aurobindo) [Death compels Life to seek Immortality.]

Purpose, Compulsion of Death

Death compels Life to seek Immortality. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Why Death Exists
Death also exists because the individual life seeks the Infinite through a limited individual body. ["... death is only the negative term in which Life hides itself and tempts its own positive being to seek for immortality." [Death compels Life to seek Immortality.] If the psychic being, the evolving soul of the individual, cannot get what it seeks (i.e. if the individual doesn't develop enough), it withdraws from the being and looks for a new form. [We have also said that death is a process of life. One thing needs to die in order to sustain the emerging, following entity.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + additional Growth Online comments)

Cause of and Way Out of Death and Ignorance

-Death, desire, and incapacity are due to the exclusivity and separateness, to the nature of divided being, and to the ignorance of the individual, rooted in ego and mind. They prevent the right balance of energies, which cause dissolution. 

-Man can move out of this status by the gradual awakening of self. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Procreation and Immortality
Procreation is an incomplete form of immortality, where part of our physical essence is passed on to our progeny to enable continuance. However, through our insistence on a divine existence, we can secure this immortality in a single body.

Death is for the Purpose of the Evolving Soul

Purpose of Death and the Evolving Soul
The purpose of death is to enable the fulfillment of the soul in its evolving journey.

The Psychic being and Death
If the psychic being, the evolving soul of the individual, cannot get what it seeks (i.e. if the individual doesn't develop enough), it withdraws from the being and looks for a new form. [We have also said that death is a process of life. One thing needs to die in order to sustain the emerging, following entity.]

[The soul, the psychic being seeks infinite experience, and withdraws if it cannot get that from the finite being of the individual.]  (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Death and the Journey of the Soul
When the soul has nothing new to gain from the individual it is on, it leaves, bringing bout that person's death. Then the soul continues on its journey, either resting or entering other souls, seeking its further evolution.

The Journey of the Evolving Soul
When the evolving soul leaves the body, the individual dies. That soul goes to rest in nether realms or enters the body of another to continue on its journey of its own Evolution.

Overcoming Death for the Individual
When we connect with our evolving soul, we take an important step toward overcoming death. The evolving soul is itself in a deathless state. We thus can bring the "energy" of the deathless state to life, thus the possibility of unending life, when the power of the soul is brought to the vital and material surface.

Death & Rebirth
There is life on other planes after death and before the next rebirth, as a result of the old and in preparation of the new birth. Other planes coexist with ours, and constantly act upon the physical plane.

Why there is an in-between state in other planes between death and rebirth: 1. There is an attraction of other planes for the mental and vital plane in man due to their affinity to these planes; 2. There is a utility, need of an interval for assimilation of the life-experience, including what has to be discarded, and what has to be prepared for the new birth. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Overview of Rebirth
-The individual has a soul and an evolving soul; the former the spark of the Divine, the latter the deputy of the former. It is this evolving soul (Psychic Being, True Self) that takes its birth in the individual, and gathers the experience of the individual in its journey through existence. After death, this evolving soul takes on the body of other individuals to continue its journey towards ever higher states of being. It enters a particular individual to absorb those new experiences that will enable it to grow.

(Rebirth is not however an individual being reborn as another individual. E.g. John Smith dying and the personality of John Smith entering the next person. It is instead the movement of an evolving soul through various individuals.)

'Rebirth is the birth of the individual soul from form to form until it reaches the human level of manifested consciousness which is its instrument for rising to yet higher levels, higher possibilities; to incorporate powers of spiritual mind, Supermind, and beyond.

-Rebirth is as inevitable as birth. It enables an incomplete being in a body its promise of completeness and its spiritual significance.

-If the soul enters this life with a certain development of personality, it must have prepared it in other precedent lives here or elsewhere.

The Psychic Being [i.e. the evolving soul], Death, and Rebirth

• "... the rebirth of the soul in successive terrestrial bodies is an inevitable consequence of the original significance and process of the manifestation in earth-nature; ..."

• There is life on other planes after death and before the next rebirth, as a result of the old and in preparation of the new birth. Other planes coexist with ours, and constantly act upon the physical plane.

• Why there is an in-between state in other planes between death and rebirth: 1. There is an attraction of other planes for the mental and vital plane in man due to their affinity to these planes; 2. There is a utility, need of an interval for assimilation of the life-experience, including what has to be discarded, and what has to be prepared for the new birth.

• There is the old religious dogma of a life after death in hells and heavens.

• The reason for the rebirth: The movement of an ascending soul, into higher and higher grades of the earthly existence.

• The inner soul, the psychic being survives death and carries mind and life on its journey. It is in the subtle body that the psychic being passes out of its material lodging. 

• There must be a sufficiently developed psychic personality; an individuation of the psychic person for this to happen. 

• Other planes of existence and rebirth: There is a relationship between these higher planes and the individual; and the nature of that relationship determines his direction after death, determine the place, period, and character of his self-experience there.

• There are also true vital worlds, native habitats of the universal Life-principle. He may be held there for awhile as a result of the vital character of the influences that have shaped his life. This can also be true of the physical being and true physical planes. In addition to these outer-life worlds, if developed in life he may be held in subtle physical, vital, and mind worlds.

• It is the soul, the psychic being, not the mind, that is the traveler between death and life.

• There must be finally a plane of pure psychic existence in which the soul would await rebirth, assimilating the energies of the past, preparing for the future. There after going through the subtle worlds, there would be a dwelling in a plane of psychic repose.

• Higher planes influencing our development: Our development take place very much by superior action of the higher planes on the earth-plane. It is contained in the inconscient or the subconscient, only as potentiality. This alliance of action shows principally however through our subliminal being. All the action from the higher plane that enters the individual is stored in the subliminal being from which we derive our active power of consciousness in life.

• Rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression. There is a discarding of past strong vibrations of personality, which is enabled by the exhaustion of the previous physical, vital, and mental motives after death, where what must be discarded is discarded.

• In the cycle of rebirth the individual soul, the psychic being prepares for itself (or the Divine prepares for it) whatever is needed for the next step in the evolution, for the next development of personality, organized out of the requisite experiences of the past, present, and future energies.

• Reason for rebirth -- "In this motion takes place the cycle of rebirth, and in that cycle the soul, the psychic being, prepares for itself, -- or of the Divine Wisdom or the cosmic Consciousness-Force prepares for it through its action, -- whatever is needed for the next step in its evolution, the next formation of personality, the coming nexus of necessary experiences constantly provided and organized out of the continuous flux of past, present and future energies for each new birth, for each new step of the Spirit backward or forward or else still in a circle, but always a step in growth of the being towards its destined self-unfolding in Nature.

• There is no importance to the memory of past lives because karma is not the final principle. .. ""If a constant development of being by a developing cosmic experience and the building of a new personality in a new birth is the method, then any persistent or complete memory of the past life or lives might be a chain and a serious obstacle; it would be a force for prolonging the old temperament, character, preoccupations, and a tremendous burden hampering the free development of the new personality and its formulations of new experienced."

• "It is not as a machinery for the persistent renewal or prolongation of an unchanging personality that birth exists, but as a means for the evolution of the spirit being in Nature." 

• The psychic being is the inner Person. This inner person survives death.

• Immortality of the body and immortality of spirit in the individual: "This consummation of a triple immortality, -- immortality of the nature completing the essential immortality [in a birth and life] of the Spirit and the psychic survival of death, -- might be the crown of rebirth and a momentous indication of the conquest of the material Inconscience and Ignorance even in the very foundation of Matter. But the true immortality would still be the eternity of the Spirit; the physical survival could only be relative, terminable at will, a temporal sign of the Spirit's victory here over Death and Matter."

  (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

The Way Out of Death
 

Evolution of Man and Overcoming Death
Evolution is the method to overcome Non-Existence through and beyond the dualities of life and death; Inconscience through and beyond its dualities of Truth and Falsehood, and Knowledge and Error ; and Insensibility through and beyond its dualities of Pleasure and Pain.

Overcoming Death, Desire, and Incapacity through Lead of Supermind
-Man can move out of this status by the gradual awakening of self.

-If Supermind (Truth Consciousness) leads, replacing the ignorance and dividing mechanism of mind, then the exclusivity and separateness are overcome; ignorance is replaced by divine knowledge; and the right balance of energies (of the balance of life force and the form it inhabits) is restored, preventing dissolution, enabling endless life.

[Knowledge acting on Will releases energy. Since Supermind has the right balance of, a fusion of knowledge and will, it creates or enables the right balance of energies for sustaining life. Supermind thus overcomes death, desire, and incapacity.]

-Only in Supermind can life acquire the necessary charging(?) energies that will enable the body to feel it is experiencing the infinity it seeks, will enable the body not to disintegrate. Supermind takes it out of its exclusivity [of mind, and ego], which is the reason it cannot maintain the balance of energies. With Supermind that is changed. (One can thus control life, its energies, which can lead to endless life.)

-The mind, not separated from Supermind, of divine knowledge, would be free from its ignorance, and would not be subject to its ignorances of death, desire, and incapacity.

-If the individualized force were the energy of mind free from ignorance, no such necessity of desire would intervene.

-Supermind then is not only a mechanism of perfect knowledge, but is the mechanism for the perfect vital and body. The supramental transformation would enable this. The Mother was absorbing the Force to enable the right balance of energies in doing the physical and final part of the supramental transformation. What then are interim steps that we can take using the supramental force and power to affect death, desire, and incapacity in our lives? We can begin by going within, finding the psychic, open to the universal, call in the Force, and let it descent as it wishes?] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + additional Growth Online comments)

Abolition of Death, Suffering, and Disease
It is not the Divine intention for the embodied soul to seek release from the cycle of birth and death; instead the embodied soul should seek total release from falsehood and ego in all parts of its being; and, rising into the higher realms of Spirit, bring down the spiritual force and truth to life on earth, so that death, suffering and disease can be abolished forever. It is the difference between liberation into the spirit, and ascent to the spirit to bring down its properties to enable the transformation of the being and life around one.

Purpose of Illness In Creation, and The Transformation Of Humans
Another question that arises is why is there illness, suffering, and death in the first place? The creation came about as the result of the Absolute's need to embody the divine force in physical forms. In order to create the greatest multiplicity of forms the Absolute manifest in forms positively and negatively in the cosmos. As the cosmos, the earth, and humanity developed, this diversity in duality can be seen in our physical bodies, our feelings and emotions, and in our minds. The duality of the physical body shows up as health and sickness, life and death. The forces of duality and its reinforcement through Nature keep these dualities intact. 

Gradually, however, through our evolution we will evolve as a species to overcome the negative aspect of creation in our bodies, leading to overcoming of illness, disease, and the eventual possibility of endless life through the power of our will and consciousness. 

We will surely see great improvements in medicine that will help us become healthier. However the ultimate determinant of perfect and endless health may be through the bringing into our being the powers and influences of a spiritual Force, which can transform humans from out of their current necessity of illness, suffering and death.

The Subconscient and Death
The subconscient is an unconscious and unevolved part of our inner being; a kind of vestige of our primitive heritage. For example, a good deal of the fear we experience in life wells up from this realm. Or, when we sleep and wake up tired and exhausted in the morning as a result of incessant, draining dreams, we know we have spent time travelling in this unconscious realm. Also, in the course of our days when we feel pessimistic, or things seem hopeless, or we sense that there is no way out of a situation or a difficulty, you know that the subconscient is sending up its negative impression to our surface thoughts and feelings. Perhaps most negatively the subconscient is the part of our being that reinforces our physical illnesses. Have you ever felt a cold coming on, and suddenly you think to yourself "oh no, not a cold?" Well that's the subconscient influence of fear and pessimism at work, reinforcing and solidifying the possibility of the illness. The subconscient has this overall negative nature because it has built in memory of millennia of human suffering, disease, and death. It sends up pessimistic, negative, fear-laden messages intent on overcoming the positives that occur on the surface. Its message is that anything positive on the surface is but a temporary distraction and waste of time because we will all end in disease, death, and destruction.

Procreation and Immortality
Procreation is an incomplete form of immortality, where part of our physical essence is passed on to our progeny to enable continuance. However, through our insistence on a divine existence, we can secure this immortality in a single body.

Use of the Force to Overcome Death
One utilizes the (supramental) Force to overcome the current limitations of our bodies (i.e. its lack of flexibility, tendency to inertia, propensity to illness, even the inevitability of death).

Physical Transmutation is a Later Stage of Transformation
Overcoming death is a much later stage of personal evolution and transformation. Before that must come the change of he mental and vital realms. the physical is later or last.

Mental, Vital, and Physical Transformation
-In addition to this dramatic change to our mental functioning, to the way we acquire knowledge, and perceive the world, there are the effects on our vital/emotional and physical parts. For example, our vital/emotional being begins to be transformed from its normal lower inclinations of desire, pleasure, sensation, need, and selfish attachment to correspondingly more subtle, refined behaviors and capacities. We experience a shift from our negative attitudes and sentiments to higher attitudes and behaviors,  such as vital patience and calm, and concern and self-giving towards others.

-There are even the beginning of great changes at the physical level, as we are able to overcome our fixed habits, the need for intense stimulation and attachment, and our reflexive reaction to pain. We even learn how to prevent and overcome physical illness, as we understand their subtle nature, their relationship to our psychological state, to a lacking energy, and other factors. At a further point we begin to perceive that it is possible to even control the body's processes of decay and death (though at this point on the path we do not as yet have the power to make that understanding a lived reality).

-Further along on this ultimate leg of the Path our bodies are no longer are subject to death and decay because the very cells of our body have been supramentalized so that they respond to the higher Power, preventing their decay and degeneration, enabling them remain alive as long as we desire. In other words, we are on the road to becoming immortal.

Change in Subconscient to Enable Physical Transformation
When the subconscient is changed through the workings of the superconscient Spirit and Force, a great stage has passed that can enable physical transformation.

The Mother's Experiment
The Mother was making her lifetime experiment in trying to overcome death by calling in the supramental Force into her cells. This was her lifetime worked; i.e. the ultimate physical yoga and transmutation. She made a vast progress in that direction, and we can follow in her Vast footsteps.

The Mother's Great Attempt
-The Mother's other great role occurred in the later years of her life. From about the age of 70 until her death at age 94 in 1974, she made the difficult attempt at the transformation of her own physical body, to be the forerunner of a new type of human being, perhaps a new species beyond man. Whereas most disciples and followers around the world needed to first overcome the normal, typical weaknesses in their mental and emotional parts of their being (such as their ego-sense, falsehoods, ignorance, poor attitudes, habits, limited knowledge and skills, etc.), the Mother had mostly attained that perfection at birth, and endeavored to make the more difficult transformation of her physical body her chief preoccupation. The first goal was to find the secrets to illness, suffering, and pain. A second goal was to overcome the inevitability of death itself, to the decay of the cells over time; to find the secret to unending life based on one's will for continuous existence.  The most important goal however was the transformation of the physical substance of the body into a new type of human being, a Supramental being, with powers of consciousness, plasticity, creation, truth, and unity beyond anything the world has ever known or conceived. By utilizing the Force, this physical transformation would lead to a new type of individual, a new species beyond man, leading to a divine existence and life on earth. She was the pioneer individual for the ultimate physical transformation to this new existence.

-She often referred to death as a mere state of mind, a state of mind of the cells that the cells accepted. If they could change their perspective, if they did not accept death as an inevitability, this could help the cells maintain their form without their deteriorating.

Transformation of Body Followed By Unlimited Life Based On Will
When the transformation of the body is complete (it will occur after the transformation of the other parts of the being first, including vital, psychological, mental), there will be the possibility of the end of being subjected to death. i.e. people can life as long as they wish.

Romance & Death

Romance cannot die, it has never died. It emerges to give life to death and dead habits. They smother Romance to death and triumphantly announce their own death as the death of Romance. (MSS)

Also see Thoughts from Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine on this Subject by clicking here.
 

Other Points

The Ascending Movement Upward through the Three Poises of Life
Life is first dumb inconscient will rooted in the physical energy; inconscient, and subject to mechanical forces. This is reflected in the necessity of the separative ego, and to survive. (2) Then there is a movement to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with others. This reflects the compulsion of Nature to fuse our individual selves with others. At this second poise of life there is death, mutual devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer, and possess. This is a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical. (3) The third poise of life is a movement towards conscious mind in life. In this stage there is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc. In its higher aspects it is vitally reflected as the ability to be self giving towards others, and to feel love. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Other
(main)

When it is complete, it ceases to be human life. It becomes higher life. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Basic Units of Existence: Atom of Material, Acts of the Vital, and Thoughts of the Mind
The basic unit of material substance of the atom. The basic unit of vital substance is the individual discrete act. The basic unit of mind is the individual thought. Atoms combine to form all of the larger units of material substance observable in the universe. Acts combine to form all of the larger units of activity observable in life. Thoughts combine  to form larger, more complex structures variously termed concepts, ideas, theories, etc. (MSS)

Spiritual Evolution is Unmixed Joy
Spiritual evolution in its own plane is an experience of unmixed joy; in the ignorant life, it is an experience of joy that alternates with sorrow. Lydia represents biological evolution which does not care about social mores or marriage or health or even death. Spiritual evolution goes on by increasing joy. In increasing the joy, it goes through a trough of sorrow before reaching the joy. Spiritual evolution is higher joy, through a trough of sorrow.

Fulfillment at Various Levels
The individual, family, collectives, and society each seek their own fulfillment. The Universe and the Transcendent Divine also seek fulfillment.

The Process of Creation for Individual, business, society, universe, The Absolute

• The individual decides to or is compelled to develop physically through higher skills, vitally through higher attitudes, mentally through higher forms of knowledge, understanding, conception, and perception; spiritually through the connection to the inner self, soul, through higher levels of mind (higher mind, illumined, and intuitive), all the way to connection to the Supramental realms. In all these cases the urge to move to the next level reflects the process. 
• The business through its own self-conception or is compelled to move to a higher level of functioning, which is supported by its plan to carry out and execute its aspiration to the next level through the its organization and skills of its people. 
• The society decides to consciously or is compelled to move from physical survival to vital interaction, commerce, etc. to mental organization and the emergence of the individual, and on to spiritual unity of life. 
• The universe fulfilled at the physical level of inert matter is compelled to animate, to m