The occult basis and foundation of materialism

These days, I don’t know whether it has come to the last battle, but it has descended very deep into the cells’ worst-lit realm: what still belongs most to the world of Unconsciousness and Inertia and is most foreign to the divine Presence. It is, so to say, the primal substance that was first used by Life, and it has a sort of inability to feel, to experience a reason for that life.

In fact, it’s something I had never experienced [this absence of meaning]; even in my earliest childhood, when there was no development, I always had a perception (not a mentalized but a vibrant perception) of a Power behind all things which is the raison d’être of all things — a Power, a Force, a kind of warmth.

It isn’t the experience of THIS body’s cells: it’s an identification with the world in general, with the Earth as a whole. It’s an absolutely frightful and hopeless condition: something meaningless, aimless, without raison d’être, without any joy in itself or ... and worse than disagreeable — meaningless, insensate. Something that has no raison d’être and yet is. It was ... it is a frightful situation.

I have an impression of being quite close to the bottom of the pit.

Yesterday, it was like that almost the whole day long. But all at once something came (I don’t know from where or how ... neither from above nor from within nor from ... I don’t know): there is only ONE raison d’être, only ONE Reality, only ONE Life, and there is nothing other than ... THAT. It was THAT (not in the least mentally, there was no intellectual formulation, nothing), it was Something that was Light (far more than Light), Power (far more than power), Omnipotence (far more than Omnipotence), and also an intensity of sweetness, of warmth, of plenitude — all that together — along with that Something, which naturally words cannot describe. And That came all at once, like that, when there was such a frightful state of anguish, because it was nothing — a nothing you couldn’t get out of. There was no way of getting out of that nothing, because it was nothing.

You know, all those who seek Nirvana, all their disgust of life, all that is almost enjoyable in comparison! That’s not it. That’s not it, it was a thousand times, a million times worse. It was nothing, and because it was nothing it was impossible to get out of it — there was no ... no solution.

At one point, the tension was so great that ... you wonder, “Am I going to burst?”

Then everything relaxed and opened up (gesture as if the cells opened out) ...

OM. (Silence)

I don’t know if there’s a yet deeper pit but.... And that relief, that blossoming, that peace ... Everything disappears, except That. (Silence)

It’s really the first time I had that experience — never, never did I experience that before. And it wasn’t in the least, in the least personal to my body, it isn’t my body’s cells — it’s something else....

And that is the basis and foundation of all materialism.

It lasted the whole day long! ... (Silence)

The experience came at the time when the condition was most acute in its nothingness.... I don’t know how to explain it, it’s inexpressible, but it was COMPLETE: there was nothing but that, that sort of meaningless and aimless “nothing,” without raison d’être or origin — and, therefore, without remedy. Then it reached the point when ... you know, when everything is about to burst and there is such a tension. (Is it tension? I don’t know how to explain.) And all at once, a change as total as you can imagine.

Materialism obviously implies atheism, but to some extent the converse holds true as well, for even among those who believe in a realm beyond the physical, a materialist metaphysics of nature is widely espoused. I can think of no better illustration of the difference between a truly spiritual worldview and a theistic religion espousing materialism with respect to nature than the contrast between the biblical saying “all comes from dust and to dust it returns” (Ecclesiastes 3:20) and the Vedantic saying “from Delight all these beings are born, by Delight they exist and grow, to Delight they return” (Taittiriya Upanishad III:6).

Another experience related by the Mother, about her conversation with a materialist:
“Once you are here on this earth and you have to go to the end, even if the end is nothingness, you go to the end and it’s just as well to do so as best you can, that is to say, to your fullest satisfaction.... I happened to have some philosophical curiosity and to study all kinds of problems, and I came upon Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, and what he taught” (I would say “revealed,” but not to a materialist) “is by far, among the systems men have formulated, the most satisfying FOR ME, the most complete, and what answers the most satisfactorily all the questions that can be asked; it is the one that helps me the most in life to have the feeling that ‘life is worth living.’ Consequently, I try to conform entirely to his teaching and to live it integrally in order to live as best I can — for me. I don’t mind at all if others don’t believe in it — whether they believe in it or not is all the same to me; I don’t need the support of others’ conviction, it’s enough if I am myself satisfied.”
Plus: While reading a passage about Savitri’s conversation with Death, the Mother remarked: “Basically, according to Sri Aurobindo, materialistic thought is the gospel of death.”