On 12 September 1939, Sri Aurobindo wrote the following sonnet;

THE GREATER PLAN

I am held no more by life’s alluring cry,
Her joy and grief, her charm, her laughter’s lute.
Hushed are the magic moments of the flute,
And form and colour and brief ecstacy.
I would hear, in my spirit’s wideness solitary
The Voice that speaks when mortal lips are mute:
I seek the wonder of things absolute
Born from the silence of Eternity.

There is a need within the soul of man
The splendours of the surface never sate;
For life and mind and their glory and debate
Are the slow prelude of a vaster theme,
A sketch confused of a supernal plan,
A preface to the epic of the Supreme.

– Sri Aurobindo

Like many of us this sonnet speaks directly to the individual seeking a greater meaning in their life. No more satisfied with the alluring desires of the current material world or charmed by the laughter of pleasures indulged, the author points to the wonder of things absolute as a means of uncovering the magic moments of joy that can be heard when mortal lips are mute. Sri Aurobindo writes that ‘there is a need within the soul of man the splendours of the surface never sate;’. What is that need?

We are left with this clear answer, The Greater Plan, of which our outer lives of glory and debate form a prelude or confused sketch to the real journey, the epic of the Supreme. For many this sonnet is an inspirational pointer to a wider vision of life, which includes a higher more selfless goal for all of us, which may be summarised in the simple form as ‘not my will, but Thy be done.’