Reconciling Difficulty of the Change of Human Nature With the Time and Patience Needed for the Change

The objective is almost unimaginably complex and difficult. Changing human nature, including the inheritance humanity brings from the animal evolutionary process, is not something that is quickly or easily accomplished. It cannot also be done entirely by the action of human mind and will power. If we waited on Nature to accomplish the change, it could take many thousands of years, as we have seen with the development of life, and its increasingly complex formulations out of matter, and the development of mind, and its impact on life and matter. The next stage of evolutionary development, which will have far-reaching impacts on mind, life and matter, even if Nature acts swiftly upon it, could take thousands of years without the active intervention of the next principle of the evolution and the conscious and willing receptivity and implementation of its action by those who take up the conscious yoga of spiritual evolution that can transform earthly life into a divine life.

The spiritual seeker can get so immersed in the close scrutiny and effort needed to address the limitations and weaknesses of mind, life and body, that he can easily lose sight of the ‘big picture’ and thus, may get distressed, even depressed, when he sees something that has not changed, or, possibly, has relapsed after he thought the change was accomplished. It is useful for him to remind himself (or be reminded) that this is not an overnight process and there is thus no need for any feelings of failure in the sadhana just because things do not change according to the limited human mind and will.

For example, due to the embedded difficulty of changing the action of the sex-centre, the seeker may be frequently confronted with what appear to be failures along the way. Given his own close scrutiny as the witness of the external nature, he may tend to become overly concerned, overly critical or overly distressed when sex-impulses arise, even if they only appear in the dream-state, which itself is evidence of substantial progress, by it being rejected by the active waking nature, rather than a sign of failure.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “There is no reason to be depressed to this extent or to have these imaginations about failure in the Yoga. It is not at all a sign that you are unfit for the Yoga. It simply means that the sexual impulse rejected by the conscious parts has taken refuge in the subconscient, somehwere probably in the lower vital-physical and the most physical consciousness where there are some regions not yet open to the aspiration and the light. The persistence in sleep of things rejected in the waking consciousness is a quite common occurrence in the course of the sadhana.”

“The remedy is: (i) to get the higher consciousness, its light and the workings of its power down into the obscurer parts of the nature, (ii) to become progressively more conscious in sleep, with an inner consciousness which is aware of the working of the sadhana in sleep as in waking, (iii) to bring to bear the waking will and aspiration on the body in sleep.”

“One way to do the last is to make a strong and conscious suggestion to the body, before sleeping, that the thing should not happen; the more concrete and physical the suggestion can be made and the more directly on the sexual centre, the better. The effect may not be quite immediate at first or invariable; but usually this kind of suggestion, if you know how to make it, prevails in the end: even when it does not prevent the dream, it very often awakes the consciousness within in time to prevent untoward consequences.”

“It is a mistake to allow yourself to be depressed in the sadhana even by repeated failures. One must be calm, persistent and more obstinate than the resistance.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 77-78