Does the Universal Manifestation and Our lives Have Any Meaning?

Rene Descartes famously proclaimed the fact the he existed by stating ‘I think, therefore I am.’ In today’s world, however, that method of proving existence is under pressure as we grapple with more subtle possible answers to how we exist, why we exist and what this entire existence means, if anything. There are scientists who hold that all life has come about purely through various chemical interactions and that these combinations of elements are simply, through the magnitude of time and chances to create our universe and all of our developments of awareness. We are thus, in their view, simply the product of random Chance playing out on a universal scale. There are others who look at the existence as some kind of machinery. Some hold that his machinery is governed by a conscious intelligence, or at least, was set up by a conscious intelligence which may have, in the meantime moved on or even died! More modern theories hold that the world we live and act in is actually something of a hologram or computer simulation, and it is so realistic that while we are immersed in it, we believe it is real and our true existence. In this instance we may be active players who have an existence outside the simulation, or else, we may be purely figments of the imagination of whoever the creator and player in this simulation happens to be. Obviously if we accept any of these theories, we do away with any real and ultimate significance to our lives and our increasing level of self-awareness.

And yet, there is another side to this debate about the nature and meaning of existence, founded in the very fact of our self-awareness and increases of consciousness which we experience, as well as in the numerous deep and moving experiences that countless individuals have had that become self-evident truths of their existence and of the existence of an over-arching consciousness which creates, directs, guides and supports the manifestation within which we exist.

Those who hold this view of reality fall essentially into two camps. The first group looks at the universe as the creation of a Creator, a God, who is omniscient, omnipotent, infinite and eternal. These people tend to treat God as some being external to the universe but who manages and cares for it. The second group tends to see a universal consciousness, but recognises that any Being who has the qualities of infinity, omniscience, omnipotence and eternity must, by definition include all of us, and the environment within which we live and act, within its Being and thus, we are one with that pure Existence/Consciousness/Bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda of which the universe is constituted. All the names and forms are part and parcel of that aware, self-conscious and all-conscious Being and the separations between beings and forms are for purpose of the manifestation but nevertheless remain one in their essence and inherent consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “It is quite obvious that this world is full of suffering, and afflicted with transience to a degree that seems to justify the Gita’s description of it as ‘this unhappy and transient world’, anityam asukham. The question is whether it is a mere creation of Chance or governed by a mechanical inconscient Law or whether there is a meaning in it and something beyond its present appearance towards which we move. If there is a meaning and if there is something towards which things are evolving, then inevitably there must be a guidance — and that means that a supporting Consciousness and Will is there with which we can come into inner contact. If there is such a Consciousness and Will, it is not likely that it would stultify itself by annulling the world’s meaning or turning it into a perpetual or eventual failure.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pp. 23-24