Restraining the Response to the Impulses Attractive to the Vital Nature Is the First Step Towards Mastery

A lesson in control of impulses was described by Homer in The Odyssey. The protagonist, Odysseus is on his ship trying to return home after the Trojan War. He approaches an area that was home to the Sirens, whose alluring voices would lure sailors to their death as the ships crashed among the rocks. He wanted to experience the call of the Sirens without succumbing to their force. He had his crew stuff their ears with wax, and then had himself tied firmly to the mast so that he could not do anything to steer the ship towards them. He successfully experienced the magnetic force of the Sirens’ call while saving his ship and crew from destruction.

We can learn several things from this. First, that survival sometimes requires the ability to ‘tune out’ the forces that try to get us to act. Second, even a mental knowledge, in advance, of the doom awaiting any response is insufficient to prevent an individual from reacting and responding to certain forces — thus necessitating restraints that prevent the response from manifesting. Third, some forces are so powerful that they are difficult, if not virtually impossible, to resist.

This tale illustrates the difficulty the seeker faces when he confronts the inducements and enjoyments that the vital nature seeks and tries to control them. The Mother advises us that development of the strength to resist these calls is something that can occur, but it takes time and continued effort, as one slowly builds up the inner strength of resistance, through repeated practice in exercising restraint. The first and most important step is to not give in to the impulse, one way or the other, similar to the steps Odysseus had to take to successfully resist the lure.

The shift to the witness consciousness of the nature is an enormous aid in accomplishing this, as the individual creates some amount of ‘distance’ between his conscious awareness and the actions of the nature, thus making it somewhat easier to detach oneself from the enjoyments and allures that the vital nature seeks and desires.

The Mother writes: “It happens only when you have decided: ‘Well, this time, I am going to try not to do it, and I shall not do it, I shall apply all my strength and I shall not do it.’ Even if you have just a little success, it is much. Not a big success, but just a small success, a very partial success: you do not carry out what you yearn to do; but the yearning, the desire, the passion is still there and that produces whirls within, but outside you resist, ‘I shall not do it, I shall not move; even if I have to bind myself hand and foot, I shall not do it.’ It is a partial success — but it is a great victory because, due to this, next time you will be able to do a little more. That is to say, instead of holding all the violent passions within yourself, you can begin calming them a little; and you will calm them slowly at first, with difficulty. They will remain long, they will come back, they will trouble you, vex you, produce in you a great disgust, all that, but if you resist well and say: ‘No, I shall carry out nothing; whatever the cost, I shall not carry out anything; I will stay like a rock’, then little by little, little by little, that thins out, thins out and you begin to learn the second attitude: ‘Now I want my consciousness to be above those things. There will still be many battles but if my consciousness stands above that, little by little there will come a time when this will return no longer.’ And then there is a time when you feel that you are absolutely free: you do not even perceive it, and then that is all. It may take a long time, it may come soon: that depends on the strength of character, on the sincerity of the aspiration. But even for people who have just a little sincerity, if they subject themselves to this process, they succeed. It takes time. They succeed in the first item: in not expressing. All forces upon earth tend towards expressing themselves. These forces come with the object of manifesting themselves and if you place a barrier and refuse expression, they may try to beat against the barrier for a time, but in the end, they will tire themselves out and not being manifested, they will withdraw and leave you quiet.”

“So you must never say: ‘I shall first purify my thought, purify my body, purify my vital and then later I shall purify my action…..’ That is the normal order, but it never succeeds. The effective order is to begin from the outside: ‘The very first thing is that I do not do it, and afterwards, I desire it no longer and next I close my doors completely to all impulses: they no longer exist for me, I am now outside all that.’ This is the true order, the order that is effective. First, not to do it. And then you will no longer desire and after that it will go out of your consciousness completely.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pp.78-80