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There are many times when people suddenly get a true ‘sense’ or a ‘feeling’ about something that is not directly perceptible to their senses. Sometimes one will feel that someone is watching or following, although the person cannot be seen or heard. There is some inner sense, with a wider and more subtle range than the physical sense organs, that can pick up these impressions.
We can clearly see the influence of the vital on the mind when we understand the lengths to which the mind will go to justify satisfaction of the needs, desires or actions of the vital nature. The defense mechanism of ‘rationalization’ is a clear example. We understand, intellectually, that something should not be done. In fact, if someone else were to do it, we would castigate them for the action. Yet, we find ourselves not only accepting, but justifying the action when our vital nature wants to do it (or has done it).
In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo concisely outlines the processes and steps of the integral yoga. The progress is based on a two-fold collaboration between the individual Soul and the divine Force, brought about through a tuning process for the human individual through what is called aspiration, and a responsive energy from the Divine which enters the being once it is properly tuned and prepared to receive it.
We are usually so busy focusing on the day to day lives we are living that we rarely take the time to reflect on the larger significance of the universal manifestation and what role we, as individuals play in this development. The concept of maya, the cosmic illusion, is based on our entanglement in this day to day activity without recognising the larger reality. We become attached, we are passionate about the small things that occupy us, and fail to see the ‘big picture’ of the universe.
In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo provides a detailed roadmap for understanding the relatively simple idea that one must have the ‘will to overcome all attachments’, etc. In order to do this, we need to be able to appreciate what is meant by ‘attachments’. Most people would associate this with exte al things or with exte al relationships, and they of course need to be looked at.
Once an individual recognises that there are three separate foundations of consciousness in the outer being, and that they are not simply part of one unified awareness, it becomes much easier to untangle the numerous strands of pressure internally and understand how to address and deal with the inner issues, conflicts, obstructions and difficulties. How many people struggle with issues such as kicking an addiction, or losing weight, only to blame themselves for a lack of will-power, when in fact it is not the will-power of the mind that is the issue, but some other physical or vital cause.
We can observe, in our own lives and in the lives of various individuals we see on the ‘world stage’, the difference between those who are driven primarily by the impulses of the exte al vital nature and the ego-personality, and those who have made contact with the inner being and has developed a new standpoint that is based on the harmony of the divine, or spiritual, consciousness. Those who are fixated on the exte al vital nature may exhibit various forces of the animal nature, may be filled with desire, lust, greed, and a power-hungry demand that can turn into bullying and intimidation.
It is frequently noted that certain individuals seem to accomplish more, and despite enormous commitments, they seem ready to take on more and do even more than they are doing. On the other hand, there are individuals who seem to have a low threshold of action and they seem to never have the time to take on anything else. The difference is found in the ability to concentrate, focus one’s time and attention, and organize the action to use time optimally. Planning is the first step in taking on more projects. Many things can actually be interwoven together without breaking the concentration.
In various places, Sri Aurobindo has noted that yoga is applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is confronted by all of the instincts, habits, trained responses and reactions of human nature and is asked to address and change these in order to uplift the human being to the next stage of the evolutionary cycle, thereby transforming the understanding, the response and the action of the individual.
We frequently try to judge the character of an individual based on physical characteristics. While it is true that there is an interaction and influence between the body, the life-force and the mind, for most people these are not at all absolute or determinative. There are well-known instances where someone is born with a massive, powerful body, and we assume he uses his physical strength to gain some type of power or ascendancy in the life he leads; and yet, we may find that the soul contained within this powerful physical frame is one of extreme kindness and gentleness.
We are very much creatures of habit, and thus, when it comes to our intake of energy, we tend to habitually turn to a preferred method of reception. For most people, the primary source is food. Most people engage in vital interchange with others, and there is a subtle interaction that can both give and take energy during this interchange. The more set we are in our habits, the less we explore opportunities for new avenues or directions from which to interact with the universal forces and receive them into our being.
When an individual turns his attention to the spiritual path, he may experience along the way certain doubts as to his suitability, his capacity, and his ability to attain the truth described by those who have experience along the path and who describe various steps and stages. The way is long and difficulties abound, no doubt, but only those who have reached a certain level of inner development even get a glimpse of what lies ahead.
There are numerous vested interests, spanning the entire globe, which make the issues surrounding the degradation of the ocean and the ability of the planet to sustain human life and civilization, virtually impossible to resolve from our normal perspectives. Any change that seems necessary or even critical for our future is opposed by those who profit by the status quo, or those who enjoy the results of the status quo. Yet, there are some very clear directions that can provide the difference between success and failure, and therefore, between life and death.
An individual reaches an absolute low point in his life. He may be suffering under intense grief, he may have made mistakes that led to catastrophic consequences, he may be faced with exposure and embarassment for actions he has undertaken, he may be in intense pain and suffering from a terminal disease. He may have been rejected by a person he was attached to. He may be under the influence of various disorienting drugs. These are all predisposing circumstances that lead some individuals to contemplate suicide.
We predict the times and the seasons, we can predict to a certainty physical and mechanical operations, and we can even predict within a range, the pattern and scope of a particular set of events we set in motion in various fields. We expect that the physical world in which we live follows certain laws and thus, we can understand in advance the pattern that is expected to appear.
The Rishis of the Rig Veda place Agni at the beginning and in a central role in the spiritual development they described. The flame of aspiration, the ‘knower of all things born’, the mystic fire is the starting point for spiritual growth. This flame resides in the psychic being, the soul, hidden deep within the mystic heart center, and making itself felt to the exte al formation of the mind-life-body, until eventually it becomes the leader of the powers of the exte al being, guiding and directing them through multiple births and countless steps of growth along the way.
Once we distinguish the lower forms of spontaneity that stem from the vital nature and its instincts and desires, from the higher form of spontaneity that is linked to unification of the being with the higher spiritual purpose, the question arises as to how the individual can develop this higher spiritual form of spontaneity rather than simply falling back to the vital form which the development of the mind was intended to control and counteract. The answer comes by shifting the standpoint of the being away from the ego-personality that inhabits and controls the body-life-mind complex. This is
During the 1980’s there were a number of scams carried out by US mail. An individual would receive a letter purporting to come from some high official in another country who had access to a large amount of money and needed a ‘partner’ to help take the funds out of the country and invest them in the USA under the control of the partner. The individual who received the mail laughed about how absurd the whole idea was, but an employee at the company was taken with the idea and was conce ed that it was just being thrown in the trash bin.
We like to believe that we are independent actors in control of our own destiny and our own lines of development. We want ‘freedom’ to express ourselves. The ego-personality acting in the outside world is very much a captive of past energies, whether those of the formation of physical and vital life, or those that have been acquired and developed through the process of evolution of the mental power. We have been educated, pressured, traumatized, and socialized to make certain decisions and act in certain ways, all while believing that we are free and independent actors.
While Sri Aurobindo created an enormous body of written materials regarding the integral yoga, the development of the next phase of consciousness growth in the earth-evolution, he also clearly recognized that there are limits to how much reading can aid the spiritual seeker.
When an individual awakens to the inner need for significance and meaning in life, he generally takes up one or more methods to try to understand the purpose of his life. Religious worship and belief systems tend to be quite exte al in their nature, trying to find a relationship between the individual and a separate powerful deity, a creator. Efforts are made to please this deity and the concepts of heaven and hell represent a system of reward and punishment to signify the success of the individual in pleasing God.
In our world today, we tend to doubt everything, question everything, trust in nothing. We recognise how much dissembling takes place, how many illusions are placed before our eyes, and we frequently have the experience that when we trust in someone or something, we tend to later see that we have been misled or manipulated. It is one of the sicknesses pervasive in the modern world, that everything breeds mistrust in us.
Some believe that it is impossible to change human nature. They repeat the proverb that one cannot straighten out a dog’s tail, but it will return to its former status time and again. Some become frustrated and essentially fight with their body, vital being or mind, wherever the movement they desire to change resides. Some try to suppress the movement with force, and some through intimidation of torturing the body when an impulse arises which they do not want to accept.
The Mother draws a clear distinction between the individual who is in contact with his own deepest inner truth of being, his swadharma, and the individual who does not pay attention to this deepest truth but lives what we may call a “transactional” existence focused on the aggrandisement and enjoyment of his outer being and personality.
We do not consider, for the most part, the reliance we have for all things in our lives in the world, upon invisible forces that are at work. We basically take these things for granted, give them names and treat them as a reality that we do not have to think about or reflect upon. No one can “see” gravity. It is an invisible force in the physical world, but we utilize this force and respond to this force and its effects. Similarly with electricity, we cannot see it, but we can see its effects when we flip the switch and the lights go on.
In one of his aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo observes: “…the ego was the helper, the ego is the bar.” For most spiritual seekers, the attachment to the ego-personality is the great hindrance which they must find a way to overcome. Some try extreme methods to minimize the role and power of the ego. But we must ask the question: Why does the ego exist in the first place in the Divine creation, if it has no purpose and must be done away with?
The pressure of both the habitual patterns established by the physical body, the vital life energy and the mental development, together with the pressure of society and the impact of past education, creates an enormous impediment to the radical change in standpoint necessitated for the manifestation of the supramental force and the transformation of the nature. Much of this is essentially unconscious or subconscious, making it even more difficult to identify and root it out, in order to be prepared for an entirely different working of consciousness in the practitioner.
In a chapter titled ‘Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge’ in The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes true knowledge as coming through identity, where the knower and the object of knowledge are one and unified. This occurs through the direct relation of the soul with the Divine in a state of oneness.
In the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we find human beings innocent and acting out of their natural instincts, predilections, and their basic intelligence as human beings. They have no social setting or training to which they need to conform. They are essentially ignorant about the forces at work in the world, their potential role in adopting or furthering any of those forces or their agenda.
The development of the human being takes place in several successive stages and as individuals mature they begin to manifest and express the powers of the nature as they successively come to the fore. Not every individual develops and expresses all the powers fully in a particular lifetime.
The great religious traditions of the world virtually all relate a battle betwee Powers of Darkness and the Powers of Light. Regardless of the specific names and forms each tradition adopts, the similarities speak to a human experience of a supraphysical reality that impacts life on earth.
When a spiritual seeker begins to appreciate the forces at work in the world that try to influence and manipulate his behaviour, one of the first reactions tends to be to try to close oneself off, wall oneself off, not take cognizance of these forces. This is the power of the anchorite meditating in the cave, the forest or the desert or the monk or devotee residing in the monastery, ashram, abbey or cloister. The removal of potential distractions can indeed be a powerful aid to protect the seeker at certain stages.
If the goal of the spiritual seeker is to attain liberation or realisation, the vital nature can be, for the most part, disregarded. For an integral yoga that has transformation of life through the implementation of the next phase of the evolutionary cycle, such a direction cannot be accepted. At some point, the intractable human nature needs to be viewed, managed, controlled and eventually transformed to respond to the higher consciousness and force directly and devote itself in its entirety to the direction laid down by that higher consciousness.
Family, friends, relatives, children, parents, siblings, community. It is both normal and generally accepted that people form attachments to those with whom they have close relations. Those attachments demand attention and effort. For those who have a calling to follow the religious life or a spiritual path, such attachments tend to distract and confuse the focus. The seeker wants to undertake meditation or prayer, or some form of contemplation, but the children demand attention and draw one out.
There are phenomena that are inexplicable under our normal understanding of life and death. The body dissolves, certainly, and the vital being and mental disperse soon thereafter and return into their native planes. Yet we find that occasionally it seems like a particular understanding or capacity has been continued as if from an earlier life, and we have to explore how this may occur.
In ancient Greek mythology, there is the tale of the 12 labours of Hercules, one of which was cleaning out the Augean stables. He needed to accomplish this task in one day, but there were so many cattle that it was considered an impossible task. And every day the mess was renewed after the cattle returned from pasture in the evening. Hercules was undaunted as he had the help of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. He made a hole on each end of the stables and dug trenches that allowed a river to flow into and out of the stable.
Nietzsche espoused the idea that the ‘superior man’ was, by definition, ‘beyond good and evil’ and was therefore not bound by the rules of society. This concept has led a number of people into serious trouble. Dostoevsky explored this idea in his novel Crime and Punishment, in which the protagonist took the position that he could disregard the rules that forbid theft and murder. Eventually, Raskolnikov broke down under the pressure and essentially had to acknowledge that he was not the ‘superior man’ he had imagined.
We tend to live our lives in the belief that we are separate and isolated from one another. We struggle to survive and thrive in a world where every other being is competing with us for their own survival and self-aggrandisement. In such a world, we suffer from self-doubt, anxiety, fear, and pressure. We subject ourselves to internal judgment when we fail to meet the standards we believe govern our lives, and we project our desires, needs, thoughts and conce s onto others and judge them on that standard as well.
It is essentially a universal experience that when we sit for meditation, we see clearly the constant running of thoughts, perceptions, feelings, emotions, desires etc. that occupies the mind all the time, but to which we pay little attention when going about the activities of daily life. There is a constant stream, which some have called “stream of consciousness” that creates a mental ‘running commentary’ that the mind is constantly asked to process. We tend to treat this as an obstacle to meditation, and generally blame ourselves with the thought that we simply are not able to meditate.
We bring into this life many propensities as well as genetic tendencies, which are compounded and accentuated by early learning that takes place in the family and in the society. Prenatal influences as well as learning that takes place after the birth process and in the very early childhood years all help form the individual and his actions and reactions. Many traits are locked in during this period that reverberate throughout the life of the individual, as they are stored in the subconscient, waiting for their opportunity to spring up and present themselves.
Almost everyone has the experience, from time to time, of acting out a different personality. We may say that someone “got out of bed on the wrong side this morning” when we see a normally cheerful and upbeat individual responding in a totally uncharacteristic way. We chalk this up to some mood or temporary circumstance, stress, sleeplessness, worry or some physical condition or imbalance, or even some mental focus that distracts.
Jules Verne, a writer who was not himself a scientist, nevertheless inspired generations of scientists. He did not invent the idea of the submarine, but in his book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, he worked out a number of conceptual issues so that submarine use could become widespread, and he opened up the wonder and beauty of the undersea world, so that people would be inspired to try.
Modern life moves at high speed. We expect things to take place virtually instantaneously. As a result, we judge things in the light of the time it takes to accomplish them. If we have to expend an effort, we hope and expect that we will immediately begin to see palpable results. We want an “easy button” or an “enlightenment pill”, something that will accomplish the goal quickly and without a lot stress.
If we examine closely our mental state when we undertake activities with which we are familiar, experienced and educated, we see that our minds are sharp, our perceptions are detailed and our understanding is precise. We find it easiest to achieve this status with exte al things, although some with a developed intellect can apply this to abstract matters such as mathematical formulae or complex games such as chess.
Sri Aurobindo describes two main areas of concentration within the being, the heart centre and the head. For most people, the concentration in the heart centre turns out to be the safest and easiest to achieve realisation. Yoga, to be effective, must move beyond either a purely mental exercise or emotional activity. Concentration can be an aid in this process.
As human beings live primarily in the exte al consciousness on the surface of the being, their experience of existence is centred around and focused on the body, life-force and mind. They do not generally see nor recognise the true soul deep behind the surface, and they see the coming and going of the life-force in and out of the physical body as the basis of existence. When the vital force departs, they see the body die and disintegrate.
As human beings, we are enamored of dynamic power. We want “action” and the powers of the body, the life energy and the mind are prized when they can accomplish visible results. We have proverbs such as “might makes right” which make it seem like strength in action is the most positive attribute. We carry this viewpoint into everyday interactions. If we feel challenged, we tend to respond with an aggressive, active response. The Old Testament of the Bible sets forth the idea of “an eye for an eye” as a way to respond to actions of others.
Dr. Dean Ornish held a webinar on Sunday November 20, 2022 with the Vegan Society of Honolulu, Hawaii, in which he succinctly explained the role of suffering in the progress of humanity. For those who do not know about his work, Dr. Ornish has spent decades studying the impact of diet and lifestyle on human wellness, and has conducted peer reviewed studies with literally thousands of patients with various forms of advanced heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.
Worship of an exte al deity, an avatar, savior or enlightened being is recognised as a sign of religious dedication on the part of an individual. In many instances, however, this form of worship is a more or less empty ritual that is part of a societal expectation or norm, or operates as a mechanism for indoctrination and control, but does not necessarily effectuate any deeper change in the being. Founders and leaders of some of the great religions speak of an inner change that must take place to follow their teachings.
The human lifetime is extremely short in the context of Nature’s evolutionary development. This leads us to several possible explanations or conclusions. We can posit that life is just random chance and there is no real significance or meaning to our lives, or the fact that we have developed self-awareness and can question the meaning of our own existence. We can choose to accept that there is a meaning to the evolutionary cycle, but that it relates to forms in a collective sense, but not necessarily to an individual, who, while self-aware, will not see the developments within his own lifetime