Sachchidananda 'The Life Divine' Book I,Ch.9, 10, 11, 12 (The Mother Insitute of Research - MIRA) - Track 604

Similarly when you become the object itself, so it is said that reason conceives existence, intuition experiences that existence. But that experience is not of the kind that we have in the sense-experience. It is an experience where the subject and the object become one. In that experience, you find that supreme existence beyond quantity, beyond quality, beyond relation, beyond modality. So these are the two steps of the argument that first of all the argument is only one line, you may not call it an argument, you can only say is that this is the perception of the reason through conception which is indubitable, which you cannot doubt. Which only says that existence without quantity and quality is not only that we can conceive it but it is the only thing that you can conceive. This statement is the argument. Ontological argument is basically nothing but this. Now I am quite sure that when you think of this statement again and again, you will not have that much conviction because of the fact that you are not yet accustomed to think and conceive exactly what you need to conceive. Like if you have a binocular, and I ask you to look at a star and if you have a telescope and you to look at a star and you don’t know how to handle the telescope, you cannot see the star which is the target because you don’t know how to fix your telescope on the target. It is only when you are able to put your telescope exactly on the target that you will be able to see it. Similarly, reason is like a telescope and normally we don’t know how to adjust the telescope and therefore, when you are told this statement, you may not be able to perceive this because you do not know how to handle the telescope. That is why I gave you a negative way of putting this telescope and I said think of ‘nothing’. Think of ‘nothing’, that is to say that you have now taken out the telescope entirely off the target. Existence is the target; if you can fix on it you will see it directly. You are not able to see it now; therefore I am saying take off the telescope from the target completely. And I say now, think of ‘nothing’. Can you think of it? When you see that you cannot think of it, then you will come to the conclusion - the only thing that you can think of, or conceive is ‘existence’. ‘Nothing’ can’t be conceived therefore the only thing you can conceive is existence. This is the way in which you can set your telescope exactly on the target. This is the first step of the argument that there is existence without quantity; quality is the one thing that you can conceive. Having established yourself on this statement, there are two more statements to be established. Basically, you have established everything, fundamentally. But when you still think about it there are two more statements which have to be proved. Which are corollaries of this, one is that the ‘Existence is infinite’. Existence is one, there are two statements. In other words we have to prove that God is only one, not two gods, three gods or five gods. When you want to prove the existence of god you are proving also that God is one. In a sense it is proved already, but I want to explicate it. So that in our mind concepts are very clear. The first thing is to say that existence is infinite. Now let us make an effort to prove this statement. The starting point is that all our experience, all our imagination and all our conception; I am saying three things – experience, imagination, conception. So any one of these methods, whether you go by the methods of experience, imagination or conception, or by experience nothing shows you the absolute beginning and an absolute end you point out in your experience anywhere hat you have arrived at the complete end. Whatever you say end is followed by something else. You may be seeing a film at the end of which you see the end but after that you come out of the cinema hall and something happens after that, that end was only you might say was a temporary interval; it is not the real end. Beginning is also preceded by some thing. Every beginning has an earlier beginning, it has an earlier beginning and it has a further beginning. It is true I have argued myself that there must be an absolute beginning. But today to start with I am arguing that in your conception, in your imagination, in your experience you never have an absolute beginning or an absolute end. The first step of the argument is that you see everywhere a beginning which has an anterior beginning and an end which has an ulterior end that means that nothing before you is really finite. A finite is by definition something which has a beginning and an end. This object is a finite object; it has a beginning and it has an end. But in the universal movement of which it is a part, which is the real reality there is no end. In other words there is no such thing as finite. Therefore, Sri Aurobindo says infinity imposes itself, whatever exists, whatever definition you give of existence, you must say there is infinity. Now having made this statement the second statement, if you read Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Life Divine’ this particular chapter he says -But this is infinity with regard to time and space. If you read this particular chapter having said infinity imposes itself. The next sentence is but this is infinity with regard to space and time. If you have got the text with you I would like you to see this particular statement: page no 74 you read first of all the last sentence “Infinity imposes itself on the appearances of the finite by its ineffugable self-existence.