Addressing Food-Desire Effectively Without Over-Emphasizing the Focus on It

When an individual takes up the spiritual path, he seeks guidance, perhaps from books or through online blogs, podcasts, videos, webinars, perhaps from people who are treading the path, perhaps from a teacher or Guru who has come into his life. Generally he comes away with some guidelines to follow. In many instances, the guidelines set forth ultimate desired results but do not provide detailed instruction taking into account the individual’s starting point, situation and circumstances. This can lead to substantial anxiety in the seeker as he tries to measure his thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions against a standard that he is not able to meet at that moment. Substantial time, energy and focus is then dedicated to what may be, in the big picture, relatively small things.

It is part of the process of maturing along the path for the seeker to begin to refine the time and attention so that these matters can be seen in a more balanced light, and thus, not allowed to occupy the mind that should be ideally focused on the spiritual pursuits. While most people are more easily able to spot faults outside, in others, the spiritual seeker tends to take a more ‘close up’ view of his own reactions and thus, magnifies the faults he sees when he tries to compare them to the ideal as set forth in the teachings he may be attempting to implement.

Sri Aurobindo’s approach is to cultivate detachment and equality, thereby reducing or eliminating vital desires that arise, over the course of time. This standpoint helps the seeker to find that right balance where the focus remains on the spiritual effort, the aspiration, the consecration and the receptivity to the higher force and the rejection of unwanted vital reactions plays out through the action of the higher force responding to the call and the openness that the seeker eventually develops.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Neither neglect this turn of the nature (food-desire) nor make too much of it; it has to be dealt with, purified and mastered but without giving it too much importance. There are two ways of conquering it — one of detachment, learning to regard food as only a physical necessity and the vital satisfaction of the stomach and the palate as a thing of no importance; the other is to be able to take without insistence or seeking any food given and to find in it (whether pronounced good or bad by others) the equal rasa, not of the food for its own sake, but of the universal Ananda.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 67

Food, Fasting and Spiritual Development

It is tempting for a spiritual seeker to undertake some form of extreme fasting. The practice of fasting has been used since time immemorial all around the world to increase the vital force by reducing the ‘drag’ of the physical body and its operations around acquiring, preparing, eating and digesting food. Additionally, extreme fasting has been reported to help the seeker achieve various altered states of awareness, in what has been called a ‘vision quest’ in certain traditions. Fasting has also been used as a mechanism to interfere with the vital desire or craving for food or specific tastes, and it has been used by many traditions as a means of fixing the attention on the spiritual process and having the seeker learn how to rely on the Divine for his sustenance by whatever comes into the begging bowl that day during the time prescribed by the path for seeking nourishment for the body.

At the same time, there are limitations to the use of fasting and the imbalances it can create in the physical body, which, after all, is foundational for the life on earth and should be properly attended to in order to provide a solid support for the spiritual development. It should be noted that the Taittiriya Upanishad makes numerous references to the role that food plays in the spiritual practitioner’s sadhana: ‘Verily all sorts and races of creatures that have their refuge upon earth, are begotten from food; thereafter they live also by food and ’tis to food again that they return at the end and last. For food is the eldest of created things and therefore they name it the Green Stuff of the Universe. Verily they who worship the Eternal as food, attain the mastery of food to the uttermost… From food all creatures are born and being born they increase by food….’ and ‘Thou shalt not blame food; for that is thy commandment unto labour.’ ‘Thou shalt not reject food; for that too is the vow of thy labour.’ ‘Thou shalt increase and amass food; for that too is thy commandment unto labour.’ (translated by Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, excerpted from Brahmanandavalli and Bhriguvalli). There are numerous further references that make it clear that food is both the physical substance and, at various levels of the being, the life-energy, the other vibrational energies that sustain and support our overall being in all its parts.

There may be benefits to short-term fasting on occasion. Recent nutritional science shows that refraining from eating for a certain number of hours in a day can be a positive benefit to the body. This is not the same as long-term or extreme fasting, which tends eventually to weaken the body, reduce its substance and strength for most individuals.

It is of course possible that certain individuals have found a way to nourish the body without intake of much food, yet that does not answer the general situation. Paramahansa Yogananda, in his Autobiography of a Yogi, reports meeting such an individual!

Until and unless an individual can make a transition to a method that supports and strengthens the physical body without the need of physical food intake, the seeker should work to find a suitable balance that avoids the extremes and provides the body what it needs without awakening greed for food, desire or craving.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “The idea of giving up food is a wrong inspiration. You can go on with a small quantity of food, but not without food altogether, except for a comparatively short time. Remember what the Gita says, ‘Yoga is not for one who eats in excess nor for one who abstains from eating altogether.’ Vital energy is one thing — of that one can draw a great amount without food and often it increases with fasting; but physical substance, without which life loses its support, is of a different order.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 67

The Taste, or Rasa, of Food Can Be Enjoyed by the Yogic Practitioner If Desire Is Removed From the Experience

There is a factor of enjoyment of taste of various foods which is called rasa in Sanskrit. We experience this when we eat something that excites our taste buds and sends signals of pleasure to the brain. For many people, the sweet taste, and more particularly the taste of rich chocolate, seems to occupy such a position. Others however may find enjoyment in any of the other primary tastes identified by Ayurveda, salty, sour, sharp/spicy, astringent or bitter. Some of these tastes are considered to impact the doshas or predominant elements active in the being, vata, pitta and kapha. To the extent that they both satisfy the taste buds and positively impact the doshas, they lead to a positive response and acceptance in the being.

Many times, spiritual seekers who take up the practice of Yoga, in their attempt to bring the vital nature under control, will attempt to suppress enjoyment of any kind as being somehow ‘unspiritual’. They adopt a serious, oftentimes rigid demeanor, and refrain from anything that can bring enjoyment. This however, whether related to the enjoyment of taste, or other forms of enjoyment, is an extreme reaction that suppresses the natural state of enjoyment native to every human being.

Those who have come into contact with the XIV Dalai Lama often remark on his almost childlike enjoyment that spills out naturally when he experiences or sees something that sparks that type of reaction. We also see young children experiencing enjoyment from not only tasty foods, but from their games of play and their experience of animals, their experience of the scent of flowers, and through many other reactions that express the real ‘Ananda’ that underlies all life, and which expresses itself, albeit imperfectly and incompletely, in the mental-vital-physical realm as enjoyment..

The Taittiriya Upanishad emphasizes the role of Ananda: “Lo, this that is well and beautifully made, verily it is no other than the delight behind existence. When he hath gotten him this delight, then it is that this creature becometh a thing of bliss; for who could labour to draw in the breath or who could have strength to breathe it out, if there were not that Bliss in the heaven of his heart, the ether within his being?” (translated by Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, Brahmanandavalli Ch. 7) The Upanishad goes on to define the level and intensity of bliss, starting with that of a blessed and successful human individual and then magnified many times over as the comparison is made to higher manifestations of being. It concludes however, that “this is the bliss of the Vedawise, whose soul the blight of desire not toucheth.”

This leads us to conclude, then, that it is not the enjoyment of taste or other forms that Ananda may take in the human being, but the attachment and the grasping that comes with desire in the vital nature that needs to be eliminated.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “It is no part of this Yoga to suppress taste, rasa, altogether. What is to be got rid of is vital desire and attachment, the greed of food, being overjoyed at getting the food you like, sorry and discontented when you do not have it, giving an undue importance to it. Equality is here the test as in so many other matters.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 66

The Spiritual Seeker Can Change the Normal Human Focus on Food to a More Balanced Perspective That Supports His Focus on Sadhana

In the ordinary life in society, food plays an especially important and high profile role. We treat food as a centerpiece of our various celebrations, as rewards, as comfort when we are under stress and as something we consume out of boredom or inattention. Food taste, food preparation, food choices all become major topics of consideration and discussion.

For those who live in a circumstance with modest or low food availability, there is obviously a focus on acquiring enough food for the basic needs of the body. This is tempered by other life needs and a recognition of the scarcity in the first place. Despite the need, food cannot occupy a central place in the lives of people who simply do not have access to sufficient food, although it still occupies an important place as availability becomes possible.

For those who are in a position to reside in a society with an abundance of food and wide availability, however, we see the role and focus on food actually increasing. There may be some habit or instinct, carried over from a past filled with scarcity, that overcompensates beyond current actual need. There is however a lot of social interaction that accentuates the desire for food, for special tastes or types of foods and which uses food as a reward, as a solace and as a compensation for other needs. Health professionals and researchers bombard us constantly with information on various nutrients we need, and the risks attendant on not acquiring those nutrients, which further increases our anxiety about getting enough and the right type of foods, and our fixation on food. So much for the ordinary life in society. All of this focus on the physical body and its needs or demands tends to create a dullness in the consciousness, accentuating the action of the Guna of tamas.

For the spiritual seeker, this focus on food becomes a major distraction if it is not addressed. By definition, the spiritual aspirant needs to direct his focus on the sadhana, on the aspiration, on the receptivity, on the surrender to the higher transformative forces and on the rejection of various distractions that come through the background that all human beings bring to the process, which includes all of this enormous focus on food and its availability, its taste, its preparation and its role in our lives.

The spiritual seeker, as he shifts his focus away from the physical body and the vital nature and begins to adopt the standpoint of the psychic being which uses the human instrument but is not bound by it, can begin to have an entirely different relationship to food.

If we look at our use of an automobile, we treat it as a tool or instrument for achieving certain objectives. We need to ensure it gets the fuel it requires, when it requires it, but we do not generally think about ‘feeding’ it fuel until the tank is close to empty. Similarly, the various ‘nutrients’ in the form of other fluids such as steering fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, windshield cleaning fluid, are only addressed occasionally during times of maintenance generally.

If we begin to look at the physical body along similar lines, we can find a more balanced approach in our relationship to food and thus, we can reduce the time and attention and importance we give to it at present. This opens up more time, focus and attention for the spiritual pursuits.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Do not trouble your mind about food. Take it in the right quantity (neither too much nor too little), without greed or repulsion, as the means given you by the Mother for the maintenance of the body, in the right spirit, offering it to the Divine in you; then it need not create tamas.“

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 66

Dealing With the Desire or Craving Related to Food

Vast numbers of people face the difficulty of the craving for food, whether in the form of eating more than their body requires, or eating foods that carry little nutritional benefit but which represent large caloric content or which satisfy a particular craving for a specific taste. There are substantial downsides to indulgence in food cravings, including unnecessary weight gain and the health impacts that come along with that.

For the spiritual seeker, the physical impacts are just a part of the concern. The more an individual fixates on food, obtaining food, preparing food, enjoying food, the more it can act as a distraction to his spiritual sadhana. The concentration is diverted and time is invested in the food-craving cycle that could, and should be better spent in a focus on the development of the spiritual opening and its integration into the being.

There are many subtle triggers for the desire for food or the craving of specific foods. Some of these are the result of food being treated as an emotional support, a response to stress or as some kind of ‘reward’ mechanism trained into one as a child. In some cases, food represents a sublimation of an otherwise suppressed sexual energy which pushes the second chakra, the seat of the lower vital, with that unfulfilled energy rising slightly from the first chakra, but being prevented from its normal outlet by the action of suppression.

In some instances, cravings arise as a result of changes in hormonal balance or response to a stressful situation. The food acts to manage the reactions and in some cases helps to reduce the residual stress. As we host a population of bacteria in our digestive system, there are occasions when signals from this bacterial colony are sent for nourishment it needs, or craves.

In some instances, the vital enjoys the taste of the food as part of its normal human means of satisfaction, in the absence of the higher and more refined forms of enjoyment found in the experience of spiritual bliss.

The physical body is able to send signals to the brain about its needs for specific nutrients, so it is useful to be able to stand back and observe the various desires or cravings that arise and thereby distinguish the differential causes of the desire or craving, and respond appropriately as part of the process of managing the vital and physical nature and aiding in the eventual transformation of the body-vehicle.

With the eventual development of the supramental manifestation in the human being, vast changes in bodily functionality have been envisioned, including changes that might radically alter our relationship with food or even our need for obtaining nourishment through food. While this change is apparently not imminent, it is useful to recognise that past habits of interaction do not necessarily determine the shape of the future.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “It is the attachment to food, the greed and eagerness for it, making it an unduly important thing in the life, that is contrary to the spirit of Yoga. To be aware that something is pleasant to the palate is not wrong; only one must have no desire or hankering for it, no exultation in getting it, no displeasure or regret at not getting it. One must be calm and equal, not getting upset or dissatisfied when the food is not tasty or not in abundance — eating the fixed amount that is necessary, not less or more. There should be neither eagerness nor repugnance.”

“To be always thinking about food and troubling the mind is quite the wrong way of getting rid of the food-desire. Put the food element in the right place in the life, in a small corner, and don’t concentrate on it but on other things.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 66

Integral Yoga Method for Attaining Mastery Over the Force of Desire in the Lower Vital Nature

Humanity develops habits of response that tend to become ingrained in almost all approaches to any particular topic. This is found to be especially true when it comes to the question of religious dedication and spiritual aspiration. The default response to religious or spiritual devotion has historically been to give up, abandon, the focus on life in the material world. Whether it is the renunciate or the monk, or life in the desert, the cave, the monastery, cloister, ashram or abbey, humanity has created a fixed and habitual way of addressing the issue, to such a degree that this approach is rarely, if ever, challenged.

This habit is based on the mind-set that treats the physical being as the basis and the development of mental, religious and spiritual impulses as a development that seeks to transcend the physical body. This has led to many experiments such as extreme fasting, vows of silence, ascetic bareness, vows of poverty and other ways of making a clean break from the physical, material life to one of spiritual focus. People have experienced clear benefits from these approaches, which has led to their becoming embedded in the spiritual and religious development in the first place.

Sri Aurobindo’s approach represents a different, more nuanced approach to the issues, inasmuch as he sets the objective, not as the abandonment of life, but the upliftment and transformation of life. The need for focus on the spiritual effort remains, but all of these longstanding methods have to be looked at with a new understanding and from a perspective based on transformation rather than escape from the life of the world.

A devotee, living at Sri Aurobindo Ashram some years ago, recounted an experiment he made for a period of time. He determined to adopt a vow of silence to gain some control over the force of speech and the energy that was dispersed in idle talk on a day to day basis. He adopted carrying a notebook and pen with him to respond to people. The discipline helped keep him focused on the internal process. Yet he felt that he needed to adapt the vow of silence to allow him to carry out the tasks he was given as part of the ashram community. He thus adopted the process of speaking to the extent it was directly related to the work he was assigned, and then only the absolutely necessary speech, while refraining from all ‘social’ speech. He carried on this experiment for a period of some months and learned a great deal about the impulsion to speak and the habitual patterns of interaction. He also gained an insight about the use of the vow of silence itself and how it would need to be modified for an individual who did not want to cut the use of speech entirely.

Similar review could lead to a change from extreme fasting to a careful understanding of the actual needs of the body and life energy and a tailoring of the food intake to meet those needs without indulgence in the desires of the palate, the social habits of taking meals, the cravings of the lower vital nature or going to the extreme of fixating so much on this process of understanding that it becomes a distraction of its own..

Instead of avoidance of money and its power, the devotee could accept money from the standpoint of the trustee who does not assert ownership over the money. Money could flow to carry out activities that enhance the well-being of people and the balance of the environment, as well as bringing beauty, harmony and enrichment to life, without any sense of self-aggrandisement or individual ego-satisfaction.

All of these modified approaches imply a more conscious and subtle approach to both accomplish the objective and avoid creation of an excuse for indulgence. The practitioner needs to be inwardly awake and totally dedicated to the spiritual quest to align himself with the divine Will rather than the promptings of the ego-personality.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “If you want to do Yoga, you must take more and more in all matters, small or great, the Yogic attitude. In our path that attitude is not one of forceful suppression, but of detachment and equality with regard to the objects of desire. Forceful suppression (fasting comes under the head) stands on the same level as free indulgence; in both cases, the desire remains: in the one it is fed by indulgence; in the other it lies latent and exasperated by suppression. It is only when one stands back, separates oneself from the lower vital, refusing to regard its desires and clamours as one’s own, and cultivates an entire equality and equanimity in the consciousness with respect to them that the lower vital itself becomes gradually purified and itself also calm and equal. Each wave of desire as it comes must be observed, as quietly and with as much unmoved detachment as you would observe something going on outside you, and must be allowed to pass, rejected from the consciousness, and the true movement, the true consciousness steadily put in its place.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 65

Mastery Beyond Asceticism and Indulgence

Human beings have a tendency to move from one extreme to the other, like a pendulum swing. When we are faced with a particular concern we want to resolve, we apply this tendency. When it comes therefore to the force of desire and the attraction of material objects, we either become attached to them and try to grab and hold onto them (the materialist approach) or else, we try to remove their influence from our lives and thereby deny our relation to these objects (the ascetic approach). In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo provides a comprehensive overview of each of these extremes in the chapters on ‘The Materialist Denial’, and ‘The Refusal of the Ascetic’. His solution lies in the perception of unity as outlined in the chapter ‘Reality Omnipresent’.

A true solution to our relationship with material things and the desire to possess them is not in simply abandoning them, nor is it in losing oneself in the attempt to satisfy the desire for possession that we have when we come into relation with these material objects.

We find in Nature a widespread, seemingly wild dispersal of seeds in order to ensure the survival of the various species. As the mental power develops, we find a much more targeted action that does not require this type of (apparently) wasteful action. As the consciousness develops, there can come a point where action is directed, controlled and poised for achieving the intended purpose, without falling either to the side of ascetic denial of the force of the material creation, or to the side of Nature’s untrammeled dispersion.

For the spiritual seeker, too, there comes a point where indulgence in desire or in attachment to the objects of the senses needs to be curtailed so that the focus and energy can be directed toward the spiritual pursuits. Ideally, this can be done through non-attachment without going to the extreme of the ascetic refusal. In early stages it may be necessary for the seeker to cut himself off from the process until he is able to maintain his central focus and not be distracted. At that point, he may take up interfacing with material objects and activities if he is called upon to carry out his yogic development in the world.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Asceticism for its own sake is not the ideal of this Yoga, but self-control in the vital and right order in the material are a very important part of it — and even an ascetic discipline is better for our purpose than a loose absence of true control. Mastery of the material does not mean having plenty and profusely throwing it out or spoiling it as fast as it comes or faster. Mastery implies in it the right and careful utilisation of things and also a self-control in their use.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 65

Dealing With Material Possessions in the Spiritual Practice

Material possessions are always an issue for the spiritual aspirant, as they tend to distract the focus and lead to vital reactions that are not helpful to overcoming the pull of the external world and its measures of success which are attached to the acquisition, holding and use of the possessions. Dealing with objects directs the attention towards those objects and thus, away from the spiritual sadhana. They also tend to breed interpersonal conflict as an individual works to acquire possessions, and others respond with counter-attempts or forms of jealousy or envy, anger or dissatisfaction when they are faced with what appears to be an imbalance or unfair relation between the possession and the person of the possessor.

Many religious and spiritual traditions have treated wealth and material possessions at the individual level to be a serious distraction and thereby harmful to the seeker. Thus has arisen the idea of the vow of poverty, or the development of an austere lifestyle that reduces interaction with material objects to a bare minimum. This does not solve the underlying tensions between spiritual focus and living and acting in the material world, but simply avoids the solution.

In his book, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo discusses the role of money, which can be seen as a symbol for material possessions, as follows: “You must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking from the money power, the means it gives and the objects it brings, nor cherish a rajasic attachment to them or a spirit of enslaving self-indulgence in their gratifications.” and “The ideal Sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly can so live and no sense of want will affect him or interfere with the full play of the divine consciousness, and if he is required to live richly, can so live and never for a moment fall into desire or attachment to his wealth or to the things that he uses or servitude to self-indulgence or a weak bondage to the habits that the possession of riches creates. The divine Will is all for him and the divine Ananda.”

Working out the details of this ideal of the right relationship to possessions implies inner work to deal with issues of attachment, desire, demand, and any signs of upset, anger, resentment, jealousy, envy or self-dealing, any falsehood or dissimulation that is part of the external life for the normal acquisitive vital impulse.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “The necessities of a sadhak should be as few as possible; for there are only a very few things that are real necessities in life. The rest are either utilities or things decorative to life or luxuries. These a Yogin has a right to possess or enjoy only on one of two conditions — (i) If he uses them during his sadhana solely to train himself in possessing things without attachment or desire and learns to use them rightly, in harmony with the Divine Will, with a proper handling, a just organisation, arrangement and measure — or, (ii) if he has already attained a true freedom from desire and attachment and is not in the least moved or affected in any way by loss of withholding or deprival. If he has any greed, desire, demand, claim for possession or enjoyment, any anxiety, grief, anger or vexation when denied or deprived, he is not free in spirit and his use of the things he possesses is contrary to the spirit of sadhana. Even if he is free in spirit, he will not be fit for possession if he has not learned to use things not for himself, but for the Divine Will, as an instrument, with the right knowledge and action in the use, for the proper equipment of a life lived not for oneself but for and in the Divine.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 64

The Mother’s Force Is the Primary Aid in Overcoming the Force of Desire

There is a dual significance to the term ‘the Mother’s Force’. First, this is the Divine Shakti, which manifests the universal creation, and which acts to bring forth the sequential expression of the consciousness involved in Matter. At the same time, there is the specific reference to the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, who so embodied and focused this divine Force that those who came into her presence or aura of influence were profoundly impacted by that Force.

In his book, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo states: “The supramental change is a thing decreed and inevitable in the evolution of the earth-consciousness; for its upward ascent is not ended and mind is not its last summit. But that the change may arrive, take form and endure, there is needed the call from below with a will to recognise and not deny the Light when it comes, and there is needed the sanction of the Supreme from above. The power that mediates between the sanction and the call is the presence and power of the Divine Mother. The Mother’s power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda.”

As the seeker learns to tune his attention and open up his receptivity to the higher forces, he gains direct contact with, and benefit from, those forces operative there. This attention may be based on coming into contact inwardly with the psychic being, or through concentration that opens the higher chakras to direct influence of the spiritual energy; or, through a receptive contact with the Guru, or some individual who embodies that force to such a degree that a link is created and an opening established.

Large numbers of devotees around the world have had the experience, and reported it, that focusing on a photograph of the Mother could put them into a state of deep meditation. Receiving the Mother’s blessings could induce a state of distance from the awareness of the physical body and the demands of the vital being.

If one is struggling with the force of desire, and relying on one’s own ability to overcome that force through will-power, discipline or some form of control, there is a constant battle and an oscillation between the desire and the overcoming of that desire. Many have found, however, that putting oneself into direct and receptive contact with the Mother’s Force took one totally outside the vital desire and its influence, making this a direct and powerful method of educating the vital nature and moving beyond the promptings of the universal vital force that provokes the desire within the being.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Desire takes a long time to get rid of entirely. But, if you can once get it out of the nature and realise it as a force coming from outside and putting its claws into the vital and physical, it will be easier to get rid of the invader. You are too accustomed to feel it as part of yourself or planted in you — that makes it more difficult for you to deal with its movements and dismiss its ancient control over you.”

“You should not rely on anything else alone, however helpful it may seem, but chiefly, primarily, fundamentally on the Mother’s Force. The Sun and the Light may be a help, and will be if it is the true Light and the true Sun, but cannot take the place of the Mother’s Force.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 63-64

Distinguishing Vital or Mental Desire or Demand from Aspiration of the Psychic Being

Desire can take many forms, some of them subtle, inasmuch as they are linked to prayer and thus seem to confirm the aspiration. There is a subtle form of bargaining that can take place where the dedication of the seeker is tied to the Divine providing a specific anticipated form of realisation, support or result. In some cases this is couched in such a way as to make it seem that the bargaining is so that the individual can better carry out the Divine Will, as the individual understands it. This is a form of desire that stems from the mental or vital part of the nature, not directly from the soul or psychic being.

If we look carefully at the form that the aspiration or prayer takes, it is actually not too difficult to distinguish those that either originate in the mental or vital being, or which are at least influenced and colored by them. The psychic formation of aspiration is pure, undemanding, quiet and receptive and ready to give itself to the Divine without preconditions.

This implies that the seeker also does not have expectation about a particular form, type or time for a result to be given. The Divine acts according to his own light and his own time and the psychic being accepts that without impatience, disturbance or any loss of faith.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Demand and desire are only two different aspects of the same thing — nor is it necessary that a feeling should be agitated or restless to be a desire; it can be, on the contrary, quietly fixed and persistent or persistently recurrent. Demand or desire comes from the mental or the vital, but a psychic or spiritual need is a different thing. The psychic does not demand or desire — it aspires; it does not make conditions for its surrender or withdraw if its aspiration is not immediately satisfied — for the psychic has complete trust in the Divine or in the Guru and can wait for the right time or the hour of the Divine Grace. The psychic has an insistence of its own, but it puts its pressure not on the Divine, but on the nature, placing a finger of light on all the defects there that stand in the way of the realisation, sifting out all that is mixed, ignorant or imperfect in the experience or in the movements of the Yoga and never satisfied with itself or with the nature till it has got it perfectly open to the Divine, free from all forms of ego, surrendered, simple and right in the attitude and all the movements. This is what has to be established entirely in the mind and vital and in the physical consciousness before supramentalisation of the whole nature is possible. Otherwise what one gets is more or less brilliant, half-luminous, half-cloudy illuminations and experiences on the mental and vital and physical planes inspired either from some larger mind or larger vital or at the best from the mental reaches above the human that intervene between the intellect and the Overmind. These can be very stimulating and satisfying up to a certain point and are good for those who want some spiritual realisation on these planes; but the supramental realisation is something much more difficult and exacting in its conditions and the most difficult of all is to bring it down to the physical level.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 62-63