Page 16 - NAMAH-Apr-2023

Namah Vol. 31, Issue 1, 24th April 2023

the Divine (2).” Looking back, suppression has been the
usual means, but truly, it does not even
It is a long and difficult voyage to the offer a halfway solution. Sometimes this
harbour of the psychic realisation. The course will arouse even greater mental
journey is impossible without surrender. anguish. Its parsimony creates nothing
It is our love for the Mother that makes it but greyness inside and we might emerge
worthwhile. The psychic being alone can dry and drained of life. Every effort has its
show us the true context for desire and use, but a better way has to be found. The
aversion. Every human distortion finds its true answer is inside us. Even if we don’t
true place through the psychic influence. actively indulge and (perhaps even more

The psychic being exists in a different so!), we might carry this atmosphere
dimension and its realisation is surely around us wherever we go. Bottling a thing
the greatest achievement one can make in often exacerbates the problem. These tiny
a lifetime. Such ‘achievements’ produce little vital entities will swarm around us
more than just a ripple effect on the world for a lifetime. They become part of our
around. Indeed, they auger and herald the consciousness because our preoccupation
promised terrestrial transformation. The is continually there.
psychic does not work through coercion,
but through its innate power of harmony. Once we identify with desire, we only
Its reach is sublime and subtle and it is become it. It’s what we relate to but cannot
only there that we will ever find the true even begin to understand. The lack of true
solution: the transformation of all desire. understanding is the crux of the problem.
It has a deadly and deleterious effect on
So, given our present condition, what is the our entire being. Our balance and mental
best way of tackling this problematic energy? health get disrupted and the very part that
Clearly, we need to look at this state in a is feeding it, the vital, will become worthless
true but realistic light. Firstly, I don’t believe and ineffectual through persistent misuse.
desire can be tackled head-on. Neither (as Desire plagues and fatigues the body. The
discussed) can it effectively be dealt with final result amounts to a travesty of the tenets
in isolation. The whole of our nature has to of Vital Education, so clearly and explicitly
be placed under the lens of our observation described by the Mother .
1
and practice. Our trust in the Mother and the
process gives us the capacity to do this. Next, Desire can even become the catalyst for our
we cannot sit on these kinds of tendencies any spiritual downfall. So, the question is, how
longer. We are using an inferior instrument should we address desire, given our present
when we try to do this. The ordinary mind condition? It is imperative we find a way.
can only address superficialities and even I n truth, it sometimes seems that we are
that, to a very limited extent. embarking on a path of pain. Whichever way

1 As soon as you finish reading this article, it is recommended that you seek out Volume 12 of the
Mother’s Collected Works, (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Trust, 1978 or 2002) and read the article
on ‘Vital Education’, found on pages 23-28.

16