Dealing With Periods of Dissipation and Distraction in the Spiritual Sadhana

Spiritual aspirants tend to have periods of concentration, intense experiences, positive forward movement centered around our deepest aspirations, only to find that after some time the energy withdraws, or they sink back into old habits or comfortable patterns of the past. They may look for activities that do not take serious concentration and they act as distractions or which dissipate the energy. In today’s world, scrolling social media or watching mindless video reels can be added to traditional forms of distraction.

There is a truth behind this alte
ation between spiritual focus and periods of dissipation. The human instrument is not normally capable of sustained concentration and focus over long periods of time. Until the mind, the vital and the physical being have been trained for endurance and provided with the core ability to hold a focus, they will naturally back off from time to time.

These periods of apparent retrogression may cause the seeker to experience feelings of guilt, or fear of incapacity, when in fact, they are natural periods of recovery and assimilation in the long and arduous process of the spiritual sadhana and the transformation of the nature. They also act as signs of where effort can be fruitfully expended to create a new development or expansion of the spiritual force. They highlight immediate areas of restriction or weakness that can become the spur towards a new leap forward.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “An occasional sinking of the consciousness happens to everybody. The causes are various, some touch from outside, something not yet changed or not sufficiently changed in the vital, especially the lower vital, some inertia or obscurity rising up from the physical parts of nature. When it comes, remain quiet, open yourself to the Mother and call back the true conditions and aspire for a clear and undisturbed discrimination showing you from within yourself the cause of the thing that needs to be set right.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, In Difficulty, pg. 49