"I'm not sure you can really assume that about our readers," Elizabeth, one of my colleagues, interrupted. "Granted, most spiritual people don't tend to think of the goal in terms of evolution, but I think people probably have lots of different ideas about where their spiritual practice is taking them. Just look at how many people we've come across doing this issue on evolution who see the goal of the spiritual path as the attainment of physical immortality or the 'light body.'" She turned to the rest of the team.

"She's right," Carter agreed. "In fact, wasn't Sri Aurobindo one of them?"

"Well, yes," I conceded, "I think something like that was at least a part of what he was aiming for. But it definitely wasn't the main event. Shall I keep reading?"

"Did you just say that Sri Aurobindo thought the goal of the spiritual path had something to do with physical immortality and the light body?" Andrew asked.

"Well, I'm not completely clear on that one yet myself," I admitted. "From what I've read, though, it does seem that he thought that physical immortality would be one of the results of the transformation he was pointing to. I mean, to be honest, he talks a lot about the transformation of the physical body, and I actually don't feel like I understand that part very well yet. But I think the gist of it is that in the course of our further spiritual evolution, as greater divine powers begin to work in us, all limitations, even physical limitations, would eventually be transcended."

"Sounds pretty far out," Carter remarked. "But you said that definitely wasn't the main event. So what, in your mind, was the main event? What's gotten you so fired up about this?"

"Well, I think it's really what I wrote at the beginning—about his ultimate vision of the purpose and goal of the spiritual quest. His idea that we can create a divine life on earth. Actually, this is exactly what I wrote about in the next part of my piece. Here, I'll keep going. I'm skipping ahead a little."

"Isn't that beautiful?" I erupted. "This is what I'm so excited about. This is it! This is the whole point: That we have the potential to become truly God-inspired, God-motivated beings living a life completely beyond the ego. I mean we all see the potential for this, right? We see it in each other when we're at our best. And we know this is why we're here—to make this happen. Why else would we be here? Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but it just hit me again as I was reading that last quote how completely extraordinary what he's pointing to really is.

"In terms of the piece, this is as far as I've written, but the next point I want to make is about the collective aspect of his vision. Because that's really where it's all leading, in the end. It's what he devotes most of the last chapter of The Life Divine to speaking about. He basically says that for the divine life to truly manifest, it's not enough for a few highly evolved individuals to just kind of be around transmitting love and light to everybody else. He's saying that what has to happen is for a group of 'gnostic beings' to come together and begin to manifest a completely different kind of collective life. He writes about this in incredible detail, too. He describes how, when a group of egoless beings come together in the knowledge of their absolute unity with one another and with the whole, then completely different rules apply; all the structures and institutions and modes of relating and responding, individually and collectively, become informed by what he called the 'Truth-Consciousness' or 'supramental consciousness' and the result is really nothing less than a completely 'new world.' See, this is what I mean. No one else has written about all this. I mean, does anybody even know about this? Do you see why I want to do this piece?"

Andrew threw up his hands. "Okay, okay, you've convinced me. You're right, we need to do something on Sri Aurobindo for this issue. So when do you leave for India?"

"Wait—before we finish," Carter jumped in, "I just want to make sure I have the story straight. Because you said he had all these big experiences while he was busy leading the revolution. But he didn't just keep leading the revolution in the midst of this unfolding revelation, did he? You'd think the spiritual life would have eventually pulled him away from all that."

"Well, believe it or not, he did keep leading it for quite a while, even after those experiences. Even while he was in the midst of that big, ongoing experience of nirvana I mentioned, he visited a bomb factory and he gave something like fifteen political speeches. People said they were the best speeches he ever gave. He did eventually pull out of the revolution, though. In 1910, he heard the British were going to arrest him again, so he fled Calcutta, eventually ending up in Pondicherry, a French colony that was offering asylum to the freedom fighters. It seems like what happened there was that he got so fired up about this revolutionary spiritual vision he was discovering that he just lost interest in fighting the political revolution. He stayed there in Pondicherry, until the end of his life, doing his own spiritual practice, guiding other people in theirs, and putting his teachings of Integral Yoga into writing."

"It's quite a story," Amy said. "The more you hear, the harder it is to believe this was all one guy."

"Yeah, and I have a feeling there's a lot more where that came from," I replied. "That's why it'll be great to go and visit the ashram. Did you know they actually refer to it as a 'laboratory of evolution?' There are sixteen hundred people living there, some of whom have been around since the early days. I'm sure they're going to have a lot to say about Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga and, with any luck, about evolution as well."