The Journey of Life pp. 68-69

Opening remarks
The great journey of life is the Purusha sailing through the fields of his experiences created by Nature. It is through this journey that he grows into his full stature. The purpose of this journey may not be known to us outwardly in the initial start but our soul always knows the true purpose.

The Promise of the Lord
This was his compact with his mighty mate,
For love of her and joined to her for ever
To follow the course of Time’s eternity,
Amid magic dramas of her sudden moods
And the surprises of her masked Idea
And the vicissitudes of her vast caprice.

The Lord of Nature has promised her that He would never abandon her. It is thus that He puts in her heart and core something of His Presence, a soul whose growing pressure and presence compels Nature too to grow. On the other hand Nature helps the soul to grow by giving it the needed experiences. Thus the two are tied together for the evolution and manifestation of divinity upon earth in terms and conditions of material life. Together they weave the dance of creation.

Two goals that are one, – Spirit and Matter.
Two seem his goals, yet ever are they one
And gaze at each other over bourneless Time;
Spirit and Matter are their end and source.

Man is the meeting point of Spirit and Matter. Though these two seem separate and distinct in their deepest essence they are one and must discover each through the other. Spirit is the secret origin of Matter and Matter is the condition for the manifestation of the Spirit.

The soul is an explorer and an adventurer
A seeker of hidden meanings in life’s forms,
Of the great Mother’s wide uncharted will
And the rude enigma of her terrestrial ways
He is the explorer and the mariner
On a secret inner ocean without bourne:
He is the adventurer and cosmologist
Of a magic earth’s obscure geography.
 
This endless, unceasing ever changing creation is the ocean expanse of the world Mother where there are set beautiful and dangerous creatures and isles to test and lure and strengthen the soul of man. Our soul is the adventurer and mariner who is exploring this fathomless ocean and in the process discovers hidden meanings and the deep wisdom that guides the worlds in enigmatic ways. Yet there is a deep wisdom in this journey. It is through this voyage that the soul rises to its fullness even as a seed grows into a tree.

The endless travel from one horizon to another
In her material order’s fixed design
Where all seems sure and, even when changed, the same,
Even though the end is left for ever unknown
And ever unstable is life’s shifting flow,
His paths are found for him by silent fate;
As stations in the ages’ weltering flood
Firm lands appear that tempt and stay awhile,
Then new horizons lure the mind’s advance.

This wide material world set the stage where forms are fixed and the route charted through ever shifting scenes and ever flowing waters that seems the same and give a sense of familiarity and certainty. Yet the winds of Fate keep us on the destined path and new experience come to tease and tempt and eventually to help us advance. Even when we do not know the route and the goal, yet our paths are found for us through the process and agency of Time.

No end point or fixed term for this journey
There comes no close to the finite’s boundlessness,
There is no last certitude in which thought can pause
And no terminus to the soul’s experience.
 
Yet there is always something to discover, something yet to know since it is a journey of the Infinite. Even after the Supramental transformation there will be still something more to discover and build and manifest of the Divine Consciousness here.

An endless progression
A limit, a farness never wholly reached,
An unattained perfection calls to him
From distant boundaries in the Unseen:
A long beginning only has been made.

As we move, the horizons and the limits imposed by sight recede. Each achievement becomes a spur for yet unattained things; each end becomes a new beginning. The Divine Perfection is not a fixed quality but an ever evolving manifestation of the Infinite. However, with the Supramental transformation this evolution will no more be painful nor through bondage to Ignorance. It will be based on freedom and delight, from Freedom to greater Freedom, from Joy to greater Joy will be the new formula.

Closing remarks
Sri Aurobindo gives us here the broad outline of this journey that the soul undertakes impelled by the currents and waves of nature.