Understanding and Addressing Desire, Hunger and Food

Sri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter One, Section Two, Verse 1:  “Formerly there was nothing here; this was concealed by Death — by Hunger, for it is Hunger that is Death.  That created mind, and he said, ‘Let me have substance.’  He moved about working and as he worked the waters were born and he said, ‘Felicity was born to me as I worked.’  This verily is the activity in action.  Therefore felicity cometh to him who thus knoweth this soul of activity in action.”

“Hunger is Death.” In this case, the Upanishad is not referring directly to the physical hunger for food, but to the much deeper and broader issue of desire and how the individual fulfilling the desire, in his attempt to consume the object of its desires, is itself eventually consumed. A wise man [anecdotally considered to be the Buddha] once indicated that a bird, while it is alive and satisfying its hunger, may eat ants. When it dies, however, ants eat the bird. Everything that eats, everything that consumes, is part of the cycle of eating. Concisely stated: “The Eater, eating, is eaten.”

The Taittiriya Upanishad states: “I am food! I am the eater of food! … He who giveth me, verily he preserveth me; for I being food, eat him that eateth.” [Taittiriya Upanishad, Bhriguvalli, chapter 10, translated by Sri Aurobindo]

Sri Aurobindo clarifies this in his discussion of the Upanishads: “If God is everywhere, He must be in the food we eat. Not only is God the eaten, but He is the eater and eventually, says the Vedanta, when you come to the bottom fact of existence there is neither eaten or eater, but all is God.”

It is one thing to address these issues on a philosophical level, but when the seeker is called upon to address the force of desire which he experiences in his life, he comes up against the reality that desire is embedded deeply in the mind-life-body complex and he experiences desire, cravings, unsatisfied yearnings and hungers, of various sorts. The desire for food is illustrative but not exclusive.

Sri Aurobindo advises that the seeker should shift his standpoint to one of the witness and experrience hunger, or craving for a specific food, as something external to his true being. It may be helpful to reflect that the human being is not a unified whole, but an amalgamation of parts, and not all these parts are actually the human being himself. For example, our digestive system is populated by a symbiotic colony of bacteria, without which we would have a hard time digesting anything. The question arises, ‘whose hunger is it’ when we experience the sensation or the impulse to hunger, or a craving for a particular food? Is it our own habit of response to the force of desire, or is it indeed the prompting of the bacterial colony seeking to satisfy ITS hunger? Either way, this is part of the process of understanding, addressing and transcending desire as the motive force of life and action.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “It is certainly not very yogic to be so harassed by the importunity of the palate…. In this as in many other matters…, 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; it is of no use for this purpose. Abandon that idea altogether.] 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 allowed to pass, rejected from the consciousness, and the true movement, the true consciousness steadily put in its place.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pp. 165-166

Indulgence of Desire Does Not Lead to Rejection

If we reflect on how we learn, how we gain skills, we find that one of the key elements is repetition. We train our muscles through repetition of an exercise regimen. We train our minds through repetition and we train our responses through repetition. At some point we embed the results of the repetition into what we call ‘muscle memory’ or ‘cellular memory’. Our immune systems respond more effectively to provocations that have been seen before. There is thus a ‘memory’ in our immune system. Events and perceptions create a cascade of hormones, neurotransmitters and nervous impulses, all of which can be, and mainly are, encapsulated in our cells as memories which can be ‘triggered’ by similar circumstances, events or perceptions.

This same mechanism of repetition has been explored in the field of human psychology. A general understanding has arisen that we build neural pathways, ‘grooves’ if you will, that move repeated impulses and stimuli more easily and swiftly than anything we experience for the first time, which requires new pathways and linkages to be created.

We can apply this understanding to our vital nature. Repetition builds a pathway for easier entry and response. Our vital nature ‘recognises’ the stimulus and based on prior experience, automatically ‘admits’ it. Eventually this creates a fixed habit of response. Over long periods of evolutionary time, fixed habits tend to become embedded as what we call ‘instincts’. We find that in many cases the idea that indulgence will help eliminate the desire eventually is simply a way the vital nature finds to try to justify the indulgence to the mind. This is frequently supported by cultural and societal norms that may justify the fulfillment of certain types of desires as being something ‘natural’ and ‘necessary’ for health and well-being of the individual. Of course, what may be ‘natural’ based on long vital habit, and therefore, acceptable to normal life in the world, is not the objective or goal of the spiritual seeker; rather, the seeker aspires to transform and uplift human nature to a next level of evolutionary development.

Once a habit of response has been created, it becomes more difficult to reject it than if we make a choice the first time to not accept the impulsion that is asking the vital nature to respond. The deeper the habit becomes embedded, the more strenuous the effort needed to effectuate the rejection later, necessitating patience and perseverance on the part of the seeker.. This is the reason why indulgence is not generally a suitable mechanism for overcoming the force of vital desire.

There is sometimes confusion about the experience of indulgence leading to a sense of satiation, which leads the individual to believe that the action has led to the intended result of rejection. This is simply a shift from the rajasic quality which reaches out to experience the object of desire, and the fall back to the tamasic quality when the desire is fulfilled. This is a temporary experience and when rajas once again comes to the fore, it once again reaches out for the fulfillment of the desire. This repetitive cycle does not lead to rejection, but to an endless series of indulgences followed by the lassitude that follows the fulfilled desire.

There are a variety of methods to change this dynamic over time. Shifting to the witness consciousness and rejecting the entry of the desire when it tries to invade is one method. Opening to the psychic being and changing the focus to the spiritual realisation is another. There are also ‘short-term’ methods that can aid the seeker in particular situations, such as remembering and calling on the Guru or the Divine Presence, which immediately moves the awareness away from the fulfillment of the desire. Some seekers flood the being with the force of a mantra for short-term immediate relief from pressure of an insistent desire. The vibrations overwhelm the nervous and vital pathways that otherwise would be carrying the desire impulse to the being. Another frequently used method is what is called ‘nadi shuddhi’, the purification of the nerve channels through the use of focused breathing techniques, pranayama. Eventually a new habit can be built up to not accept the desire-impulse, or to substitute it with a devotional, spiritual or psycho-spiritual alternative.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Your theory is a mistaken one. The free expression of a passion may relieve the vital for a time, but at the same time it gives it a right to return always. It is not reduced at all. Suppression with inner indulgence in subtle forms is not a cure, but expression in outer indulgence is still less a cure. It is perfectly possible to go on without manifestation if one is resolute to arrive at a complete control, the control being not a mere suppression but an inner and outer rejection.”

“Vital desire grows by being indulged, it does not become satisfied. If your desire were indulged, it would begin to grow more and more and ask for more and more. That has been our constant experience with the sadhaks and it confirms what has always been known about desire. Desire and envy have to be thrown out of the consciousness — there is no other way to deal with them.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 154