Talks on the Life Divine, Vol. 2

The second volume of M.P. Pandit‘s Talks on the Life Divine continues the commentary on Sri Aurobindo‘s great work, taking up the later chapters — the cosmic consciousness, Brahman-Purusha-Ishwara, the eternal and the individual, the higher planes of mind, the ascent of consciousness, and the eventual possibility of the divine life on earth. As in the first volume, the treatment is at once faithful to Sri Aurobindo’s text and alive to the questions of the practising sadhak. Together the two volumes form the most complete and accessible commentary on The Life Divine available.

1. The Cosmic Indeterminate
2. Brahman — Purusha — Ishwara (I)
3. Brahman — Purusha — Ishwara (II)
4. Brahman — Purusha — Ishwara (III)
5. The Eternal and the Individual
6. The Divine and the Undivine (I)
7. The Divine and the Undivine (II)
8. The Divine and the Undivine (III)
9. The Cosmic Illusion (I)
10. The Cosmic Illusion (II)
11. The Cosmic Illusion (III)
12. Reality and the Cosmic Illusion (I)
13. Reality and the Cosmic Illusion (II)
14. Reality and the Cosmic Illusion (III)
15. The Knowledge and the Ignorance
16. Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance
17. Memory, Ego, Self-Experience
18. Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge (I)
19. Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge (II)
20. Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge (III)
21. Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge (IV)
22. Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge (V)
23. The Boundaries of the Ignorance (I)
24. The Boundaries of the Ignorance (II)
25. The Origin of the Ignorance
26. Exclusive Concentration
27. The Origin of Falsehood and Evil (I)
28. The Origin of Falsehood and Evil (II)
29. The Origin of Falsehood and Evil (III)
30. The Origin of Falsehood and Evil (IV)
31. Origin of Falsehood and Evil (V)
32. Reality and the Integral Knowledge (I)
33. Reality and the Integral Knowledge (II)
34. Reality and the Integral Knowledge (III)
35. Four Theories of Existence (I)
36. Four Theories of Existence (II)
37. Four Theories of Existence (III)
38. Progress to Knowledge (I)
39. Progress to Knowledge (II)
40. Progress to Knowledge (III)
41. The Evolutionary Process (I)
42. The Evolutionary Process (II)
43. From Sevenfold Ignorance
44. The Philosophy of Rebirth (I)
45. The Philosophy of Rebirth (II)
46. The Philosophy of Rebirth (III)
47. The Philosophy of Rebirth (IV)
48. The Philosophy of Rebirth (V)
49. The Philosophy of Rebirth (VI)
50. Man and Evolution (I)
51. Man and Evolution (II)
52. The Evolution of the Spiritual Man (I)
53. The Evolution of the Spiritual Man (II)
54. The Evolution of the Spiritual Man (III)
55. Triple Transformation (I)
56. Triple Transformation (II)
57. The Ascent towards Supermind (I)
58. The Ascent towards Supermind (II)
59. The Ascent towards Supermind (III)
60. The Gnostic Being (I)
61. The Gnostic Being (II)
62. The Gnostic Being (III)
63. The Gnostic Being (IV)
64. The Gnostic Being (V)
65. The Gnostic Being (VI)
66. The Divine Life (I)
67. The Divine Life (II)
68. The Divine Life (III)
69. The Divine Life (IV)

Book Details

Author: M.P. Pandit
Print Length: 630 pages
Publisher: Lotus Press
Sold by: Amazon.com
Book format: Paperback
Language: English

Sample

The Cosmic Indeterminate

Today we begin the second volume of the Life Divine. The first Chapter on the Cosmic Indeterminate is metaphysical and somewhat difficult, all the same we can study it. Sri Aurobindo speaks of Consciousness, Consciousness-Force as the leading factor that is at work in the universe. The whole creation is based upon a total Nescience; the Consciousness which is the nature of the Supreme Reality, Supreme Existence, is found to have turned into Nescience, absence of consciousness, and that forms the base, the foundation. From that foundation there are emergents, partial emergences, a little bit of sensation, a little of consciousness, a little of what develops into mind; but before these developments take place, we notice that there is a general indeterminism, a sense of an infinite which we cannot determine definitely. In that Indeterminate there are a number of determinates, formed things, definite things, but they all come out of a base that is indeterminate. This is the cosmic paradox: how consciousness turns into total nescience, how what is indeterminate gives birth to the determinate. Why should these things arise and why so many variations on the same base of indeterminancy?