Man, the explorer, has ever been in quest of the elixir of immortality, the ambrosia that can grant him health and vigor, youthfulness and vitality. His quest has led him to far off places. He has plumbed the ocean depths to discover the food of tomorrow. He has travelled far and wide to gather knowledge of the subtler states of energy and matter and their effects upon the earth. Sometimes he has scaled the mountain-tops and discovered rare minerals and herbs that rejuvenate the body and promote health and longevity. Different systems of knowledge have been born. Different schools of thought have sprung up. Diverse forms of medicine and healing have emerged. Each of these represents a line of approach that Nature follows in its complex and many-sided movement. Each of these is a truth valid in its own limited field and scope. Each of these represents a stage of development of the human consciousness.
But where is the total truth? Where is that whole vision that synthesizes all in a single look? Where is that Idea that embraces all existing documents of knowledge in a single thought?
That key to a harmonious synthesis lies in the treasure-chest we carry in our own heart. There lies embedded the secret Veda from which all knowledge flows. There lies the secret truth of immortality in the deathless substance of our soul whose touch can transmute the ambrosial nectar of delight.
By discovering that, we discover the origin of all our quests, and the source of their fulfilment, for ultimately all knowledge lies within.
Having discovered that, we discover what once Nachiketa from the Upanishads in his quest of immortality discovered:
“By the Self one knows form and taste and smell, by the Self one knows sound and touch and the joy of man with woman: what is there left in this world of which the Self knows not?
This is that thou seekest.” 1
(1. Sri Aurobindo. The Upanishads. Pondicherry; Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1981, p.230.)
