Transitioning From Mental Consciousness to Spiritual Consciousness While Controlling the Vital Nature

The mind provides a filter to manage and control the vital forces to a certain degree. While it is not perfect, without it, an individual can become subject to whatever vital energy is active and rising up within him. At the same time, the mind acts as a limitation on the ability of the individual to shift the standpoint to the spiritual level of existence. Those who take up spiritual practices, thus, have to navigate the issue of how to move beyond the mind, while not simultaneously becoming a victim of the resurgence of vital energies no longer restrained by the mental control.

The spiritual consciousness operates from an entirely different standpoint than the mental consciousness. It is capable, in its own, yet different, way, to manage the vital forces. So the real issue becomes one of how to make the transition from the mental level to the spiritual level without being overwhelmed.

In Questions and Answers, 1929, The Mother writes: “The first effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers that lie dormant are suddenly set free; they rush up and invade the being…. What you should do is to keep the thing away from you, to disassociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even if you happen to think of it, to remain indifferent and unconcerned.”

The Mother adds: “This is much more difficult than to sit upon a difficulty! It is much more difficult to stand back from the difficulty, [than to sit upon it] to look at it as something which does not concern you, which does not interest you, does not belong to you, which belongs to the world and not to you — but it is only by doing this that you can succeed. This demands a kind of liberation of spirit and a confidence in your inner being: you must believe that if you take the right attitude, it is the best that will happen to you; but if you are afraid when something unpleasant happens to you, then you can do nothing. You must have this confidence within you, whatever the difficulty, whatever the obstacle. Most of the time, when something unpleasant happens, you say, ‘Is it going to increase? What other accident is yet going to happen!’ and so on. You must tell yourself, ‘These things are not mine; they belong to the subconscious world; to be sure I have nothing to do with them and if they come again to seize me, I am going to give a fight.’ Naturally you will answer that this is easy to say but difficult to do. But if you truly take this attitude of confidence, there is no difficulty that you will not be able to conquer. Anxiety maeks the difficulty greater.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pp.87-88