Preparing for the Miraculous

218 eleven talksexistence far exceeds the sum of the pain of existence ... Preciselybecause the latter is normal, we do not treasure it ...The normal satisfaction of existence which is always thereregardless of event and particular cause or object, affects usas something neutral which is neither pleasure nor pain.”It is actually this mostly subconscious pleasure of existencewhich keeps us going through thick and thin. “There toohidden, profound, subconscious, it is that which enablesand compels things to remain in existence. It is the reasonof that clinging to existence, that overmastering will-to-be,translated vitally in the instinct of self-preservation, physicallyas the imperishability of matter, mentally as the senseof immortality which attends the formed existence throughall its phases of self-development.” 8“We must first make it clear to ourselves that just aswhen we speak of universal consciousness we mean somethingdifferent from, more essential and wider than thewaking mental consciousness of the human being; so alsowhen we speak of universal delight of existence we meansomething different from, more essential and wider thanthe ordinary emotional and sensational pleasure of the individualhuman creature. ...“Sensation and emotion are, in their essential being, thepains no less than the pleasures, that delight of existencewhich they seek but fail to reveal – fail because of division,ignorance of self and egoism.” 9Sri Aurobindo’s second point is the one we have alreadymentioned above: that the Judeo-Christian God stands outsidehis creation, and that therefore the flaws in this creationmust be his handiwork. “The difficulty [i.e. the problem ofsuffering and evil] arises only if we assume the existence8 Id., pp. 94 and 100.9 Id., p. 99.