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The Way Out of the Existential Dread That Accompanies Lack of Knowing Oneself and One's Purpose in Life · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The development of existentialism as a
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  philosophical viewpoint on human existence in the world took
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  place primarily during the 19th and 20th centuries.
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  It focused on the apparent lack of meaning in the universe, and
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  thus human significance had to be developed from an individual
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  standpoint of freedom rather than from participation in a
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  larger universal purpose. One of the essential feelings or
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  experiences in existentialism is the recognition that there is
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  essentially no meaning to our existence per SE, and the
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  development of what some of the existentialist called a sense of
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  nausea. As a result of being thrown into
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  an incomprehensible, absurd existence with no real purpose
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  or guidance to follow to figure out how to live our lives, there
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  arises a state of anxiety, or what is called by many
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  existentialists, existential angst.
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  It may be fair to say that the ordinary human being living in
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  ordinary existence without any true sense of his own purpose or
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  the meaning of existence, has at least a part of the experiences
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  declared by the existentialists. The mother describes this as a
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  kind of uncertainty or fog of the being, a feeling of
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  unpleasantness. Her prescription to come out of
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  this state of existential angst is to learn to become clear and
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  to dedicate oneself to the larger purpose which one can
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  discover if one does not get too tightly restricted by the
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  artificial mental blinders that leads the individuals with
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  strong mental development into existentialism as a philosophy
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  of living, the mother writes Quote.
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  You must have a great deal of sincerity, a little courage and
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  perseverance, and then a sort of mental curiosity.
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  You understand, curious, seeking to know, interested, wanting to
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  learn, to love, to learn that one must have in one's nature
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  not to be able to bear standing before something grey, all hazy,
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  in which nothing is seen clearly and which gives you quite an
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  unpleasant feeling. For you do not know where you
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  begin and where you end, what is yours and what is not yours and
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  what is settled and what is not settled.
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  What is this pulp like thing you call yourself in which things
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  get intermingled and act upon one another without even your
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  being aware of it? You ask yourself, but why have I
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  done this? You know nothing about it.
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  And why have I felt that you don't know that either?
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  And then you are thrown into a world outside that is only fog,
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  and you are thrown into a world inside that is also for you
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  another kind of fog, still more impenetrable, which you live
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  like a cork thrown upon the waters, and the waves carry it
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  away or cast it into the air, and it drops and rolls on.
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  That is quite an unpleasant state.
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  I do not know, but to me it appears unpleasant to see
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  clearly, to see one's way, where 1 is going, why 1 is going
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  there, how one is to go there, and what 1 is going to do, and
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  what is the kind of relation with others.
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  But that is a problem so wonderfully interesting.
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  It is interesting, and you can always discover things every
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  minute. You can never have finished your
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  work. There is a time, there is a
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  certain state of consciousness, when you have the feeling that
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  you are in that condition, with all the weight of the world
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  lying heavy upon you. And besides, you are going in
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  blinkers and do not know where you are going.
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  But there is something which is pushing you, and that is truly a
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  very unpleasant condition. And there is another moment when
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  1 draws oneself up and is able to see what is there above, and
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  one becomes it. Then one looks at the world as
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  though from the top of a very, very high mountain, and one sees
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  all that is happening below. Then one can choose one's way
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  and follow it. That is a more pleasant
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  condition. This, then, is truly the truth.
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  You are upon earth for that. Surely all individual beings and
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  all the little concentrations of consciousness were created to do
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  this work. Is the very reason for existence
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  to be able to become fully conscious of a certain sum of
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  vibrations representing an individual being and put order
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  therein and find one's way and follow the Way.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the
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  Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1 Looking at Life and
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  Circumstances, pages 11:00 to 12:00.