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Does the Universal Manifestation and Our Lives Have Any Meaning? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Rainy Descartes famously proclaimed the fact that he
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  existed by stating I think, therefore I am.
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  In today's world, however, that method of proving existence is
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  under pressure as we grapple with more subtle possible
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  answers to how we exist, why we exist, and what this entire
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  existence means. If anything, there are
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  scientists who hold that all life has come about purely
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  through various chemical interactions, and that these
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  combinations of elements are simply through the magnitude of
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  time and chances to create our universe and all of our
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  developments of awareness. We are thus, in their view,
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  simply the product of random chance playing out on a
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  universal scale. There are others who look at the
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  existence as some kind of machinery.
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  Some hold that this machinery is governed by a conscious
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  intelligence, or at least was set up by a conscious
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  intelligence which may have in the meantime moved on or even
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  died. More modern theories hold that
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  the world we live and act in is actually something of a hologram
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  or computer simulation, and it is so realistic that while we
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  are immersed in it, we believe it is real and our true
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  existence. In this instance we may be
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  active players who have an existence outside the
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  simulation, or else we may be purely figments of the
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  imagination of whoever the creator and player in this
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  simulation happens to be. Obviously, if we accept any of
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  these theories, we do away with any real and ultimate
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  significance to our lives and our increasing level of
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  self-awareness. And yet there's another side to
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  this debate about the nature and meaning of existence, founded in
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  the very fact of our self-awareness and increases of
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  consciousness which we experience, as well as in the
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  numerous deep and moving experiences that countless
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  individuals have had that become self-evident truths of their
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  existence and of the existence of an overarching consciousness
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  which creates, directs, guides, and supports the manifestation
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  within which we exist. Those who hold this view of
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  reality fall essentially into two camps.
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  The first group looks at the universe as the creation of a
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  Creator, a God who is omniscient, omnipotent,
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  infinite, and eternal. These people tend to treat God
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  as some being external to the universe, but who manages and
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  cares for it. The second group tends to see a
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  universal consciousness, but recognizes that any being who
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  has the qualities of Infinity, omniscience, omnipotence, and
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  eternity must by definition include all of us and the
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  environment within which we live and act within its being, and
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  thus we are one with that pure existence, consciousness.
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  Bliss. Satchit Ananda, of which the
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  universe is constituted, all the names and forms are part and
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  parcel of that aware self-conscious and all conscious
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  being, and the separations between beings and forms are for
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  the purpose of the manifestation, but nevertheless
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  remain one in their essence and inherent consciousness.
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  Srioro Bindu observes. Quote.
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  It is quite obvious that this world is full of suffering and
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  afflicted with transients to a degree that seems to justify the
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  Gita's description of it as this unhappy and transient world a
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  nitya asukam. The question is whether it is a
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  mere creation of chance or governed by a mechanical
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  inconsiant law, or whether there is a meaning in it and something
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  beyond its present appearance towards which we move.
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  If there is a meaning, and if there is something towards which
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  things are evolving, then inevitably there must be a
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  guidance, and that means a supporting consciousness and
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  will is there with which we can come into inner contact.
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  If there is such a consciousness and will, it is not likely that
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  it would stultify itself by annulling the world's meaning or
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  turning it into a perpetual or eventual failure.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Orovindo and the
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  Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and
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  Circumstances, pages 23 to 24.