Aren’t the nihilists partly right when they don’t see any fundamental meaning in all the things society tried to point towards with all its conventions like marriage, money, tradition etc.. but the only thing missing is how Sri Aurobindo in the essays on the Gita writes about Sri Krishna too shunning all the pragmatic queries of arjuna to fight the war and says that the only command is “take refuge in me alone”. Isn’t this alchemical transmutation the only fundamental distinction🤔?

Taking refuge in God is to be free from stain of fear and sin. It means to be awake powerful instrument of the Divine in the world. For a nihilist there is no ultimate purpose in creation. It is simply an illusion, a paradoxically non-existent reality that impinges upon the senses. But the Gita sees the world as a battlefield through which the progressive manifestation of the Divine is taking place. The ultimate reality is not Nothingness but the Purushottama, the Divine as Being who is driving the individual and the society through their ignorance towards a grand eventual purpose, lokasangrahartha. As long as the individual and the society is in ignorance there will be error and suffering. The goal is to emerge from the ignorance and live to fulfil the Divine Purpose by obeying the Divine Intent in us.

Affectionately,

Alok Da