Establishing a Foundational Basis of Sattwic Qualities Is Important in Protecting the Seeker During the Yogic Development Process

The importance of the development of a habit of quietude and reflection cannot be over-emphasized. The preliminary purifications of Patanjali’s yoga works to create this kind of foundational support to avoid imbalances and dangers that can arise when the seeker experiences openings to forces acting from other planes of existence, or obtains new powers of action and, without the necessary purification in place, allows the impulses and desires of the unpurified surface personality to take advantage of and distort the action of the higher forces for egoistic gratifications.

The sattwic qualities promote the action of light, harmony, peace and understanding, all of which counteract the impulses of rajas with can raise up desires and ambitions, or the impulses of tamas which descend into darkness and torpor.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “You did quite right in first developing the sattwic qualities and building up the inner meditative quietude. It is possible by strenuous meditation or by certain methods of tense endeavour to open doors on to the inner being or even break down some of the walls between the inner and outer self before finishing or even undertaking this preliminary self-discipline, but it is not always wise to do it as that may lead to conditions of sadhana which may be very turbid, chaotic, beset with unnecessary dangers. By adopting the more patient course you have arrived at a point at which the doors of the inner being have begun almost automatically to swing open. Now both processes can go on side by side, but it is necessary to keep the sattwic quietude, patience, vigilance, — to hurry nothing, to force nothing, not to be led away by any strong lure or call of the intermediate stage which is now beginning, before you are sure that it is the right call. For there are many vehement pulls from the forces of the inner planes which it is not safe to follow.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Growing Within: The Psychology of Inner Development, Chapter VII Growth of Consciousness, Inner Experiences, pg. 135