Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume I - Part 3
Fragment ID: 10395
That1 is the argument of the Mayavadin to whom all manifestation is useless and unreal because it is temporary – even the life of the gods is no use because it is in Time, not in the Timeless. But if manifestation is of any use, then it is worthwhile having a perfect manifestation rather than an imperfect one. “Have to be left willingly” is a contradiction in terms. One keeps the body as long as one wills, with an illumined will, leaves it or changes it according to the same will. That is a very different thing from a body assailed constantly by desire and suffering and death brought on by decay or illness. Always assuming that the divine manifestation or any manifestation is worthwhile.
As for the second argument2, change and progress are not excluded from the supramental life. I do not see why the change of cells, supposing it continues in the supramentalised body, takes away from the value of the transformation, if it is a change to something equally or more conscious and luminous.
1 The correspondent asked, “What is the need of transformation if the body will have to be left willingly or unwillingly?” – Ed.
2 The correspondent asked, “Since the body cells undergo changes from second to second, what value has the transformation of the body?” – Ed.