The Psychic Being and the Process of Rebirth Provide the Basis for a Real Purpose and Meaning in Life

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Humanity has grappled with
finding a meaning and purpose to

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life since time immemorial.
We ask ourselves, why have we

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been born?
Is there a meaning to life?

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What are we here to do?
Is life simply about acquiring

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wealth, status, power and
creating offspring?

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Is there anything else that acts
as the true motive and purpose

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of living?
As long as we remain bound

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within the confines of the body,
life, mind complex, our external

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being and personality, we cannot
understand that there is any

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higher purpose to life in the
life Divine.

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Sri Orovindo describes what he
calls the materialist denial,

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which is the essence of a
fixation on the external life to

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the exclusion of any deeper
purpose.

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The significance of our lives is
intimately tied up with the

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growth and development of the
psychic being, the sole entity

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that participates in the
manifestation and survives the

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process of birth, death and
rebirth.

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Many people challenge the idea
of rebirth.

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In his book Rebirth and Karma,
Sri Aurobindo explores the

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various objections,
alternatives, and substantial

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factual and experiential basis
for the existence of rebirth and

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its role in the evolution of the
psychic being across multiple

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incarnations.
He further explores this subject

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in various chapters of The Life
Divine.

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Essentially, the meaning of our
lives is bound up with the

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process of the soul's
participation in the divine

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manifestation, the evolutionary
process of development as the

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divine process unfolds, and the
corresponding growth and

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development of the mature
psychic being as the soul

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participates in the process
across multiple lifetimes.

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Sri Aurobindo writes quote it is
necessary to understand clearly

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the difference between the
evolving soul psychic being and

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the pure Atman self or spirit.
The pure self is unborn, does

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not pass through death or birth,
is independent of birth or body,

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mind or life, or this manifested
nature.

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It is not bound by these things,
not limited, not affected, even

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though it assumes and supports
them.

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The soul, On the contrary, is
something that comes down into

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birth and passes through death,
although it does not itself die,

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for it is immortal from one
state to another, from the earth

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plane to other planes and back
again to the earth existence.

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It goes on with this progression
from life to life through an

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evolution which leads it up to
the human state and evolves

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through it all a being of
itself, which we call the

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psychic being, that supports the
evolution and develops a

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physical, a vital, a mental
human consciousness as its

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instruments of world experience
and of a disguised, imperfect

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but growing self-expression.
All this it does from behind a

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veil, showing something of its
divine self only in so far as

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the imperfection of the
instrumental being will allow

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it.
But a time comes when it is able

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to prepare to come out from
behind the veil, to take command

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and turn all the instrumental
nature towards a divine

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fulfillment.
This is the beginning of the

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true spiritual life.
The soul is able now to make

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itself ready for a higher
evolution of manifested

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consciousness than the mental
human.

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It can pass from the mental to
the spiritual and through

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degrees of the spiritual to the
supermental state.

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Till then there is no reason why
it should cease from birth.

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It cannot in fact do so.
If, having reached the spiritual

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state, it wills to pass out of
the terrestrial manifestation,

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it may indeed do so.
But there is also a possible a

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higher manifestation in the
knowledge and not in the

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ignorance.
End Quote.

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Reference Srioro Bindu and the
Mother, The psychic being, soul,

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its nature, Mission and
evolution.

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Section 1.
Meaning and Nature of the

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Psychic Being, pages 12 to 13.