Introduction to Looking from Within: A Seeker’s Guide to Attitudes for Mastery and Inner Growth

How do we look at our lives? Do we find any meaning or purpose in living? Or are we just here to live a material existence, enjoy ourselves as much as possible, try to avoid suffering and eventually die without much pain?

Many people do not take the opportunity to shift their perspective on life and this then represents the frame within which they exist. They live in the external world without much reflection.

Yet there are individuals who, through one cause or another, often through traumatic incidents that turn their gaze inwards and upwards, take up what is known as the spiritual quest. They shift their gaze inwards to seek out the true centre of their existence, and they shift their gaze upwards to understand the greater purposes and significance of the creation within which they exist and participate.

This spiritual turn reverses the entire way they look at life and provides the an existential purpose that motivates them to explore inner space, and undertake what Sri Aurobindo has named ‘the adventure of consciousness and joy.”

The present book is a compilation by Dr. A.S. Dalal from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, along with a page by page commentary, reaction, response to their statements on a number of subjects including how we view our lives and circumstances, our insight into ourselves and others, our relationship to the external world and our action in that world, how we deal with difficulties that arise and various ways we can approach the challenges of life and growth, and the significance and purpose of our existence.

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Introduction