When we consider the objective of the transformation of human nature, we begin to understand that it is not a simple or quick process. We carry within us the physical, vital and mental habits of life on earth, including instincts, set modes of action and response, and the result of the training and socialization we have received in the current lifetime, which represents the combined force of the past development of human society acting in the present.
We can appreciate that the “solidity” of matter adapts more slowly than vital energy or mental energy. This sets up the process of the transformation, starting with adjustments to the mental substance, moving subsequently to changing aspects of the vital nature, and only afterwards tackling the physical body.
Along the way, the physical body provides the foundation for the work on the more malleable elements of the being. If the physical body deteriorates, or is weakened, it reduces the amount of the divine force that can be effectively held and utilized. Thus, a dual process needs to be adopted. On the one side, the seeker tunes the focus through aspiration and widens the receptivity for the descent of the higher force. On the other side, the foundation of the physical, vital and mental nature has to be strengthened to hold this increase of force, while also widened to be able to accommodate the needed changes. As the process proceeds, the force can eventually begin to effectuate changes in the physical, material substance of the body itself, infusing the very cells with the higher energy. In the meantime, the body must be properly maintained and sustenance provided to ensure it is a fit vessel for the energies it is receiving.
Sri Aurobindo notes: “The transformation to which we aspire is too vast and complex to come at one stroke; it must be allowed to come by stages. The physical change is the last of these stages and is itself a progressive process.”
“The inner transformation cannot be brought about by physical means either of a positive or a negative nature. On the contrary, the physical change itself can only be brought about by a descent of the greater supramental consciousness into the cells of the body. Till then at least the body and its supporting energies have to be maintained in part by the ordinary means, food, sleep, etc. Food has to be taken in the right spirit, with the right consciousness; sleep has to be gradually transformed into the Yogic repose. A premature and excessive physical austerity, Tapasya, may endanger the process of the sadhana by establishing a disturbance and abnormality of the forces in the different parts of the system. A great energy may pour into the mental and vital parts, but the nerves and the body may be overstrained and lose the strength to support the play of these higher energies. This is the reason why an extreme physical austerity is not included here as a substantive part of the sadhana.”
“There is no harm in fasting from time to time for a day or two or in reducing the food taken to a small but sufficient modicum; but entire abstinence for a long period is not advisable.”
Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 68-69
Sri Aurobindo Studies 