The Action of the Higher Force As It Descends Into the Present Formulation of the Mind, Life and Body

When the higher spiritual forces begun to enter the being through any kind of opening, they interact with the existing framework of the body-life-mind. Any time energy is introduced into a system, it activates the existing patterns of response, so that the mind begins to create its thoughts and ideas, the vital being responds with its emotions, and vital reactions and the physical body responds with its normal actions. Any embedded habitual patterns or locked in reactions from past samskaras will naturally arise. When the energy enters into any particular chakra, or subtle energy center, it opens up the forces that vibrate at that level generally. Until such time as the energies are transformed, the usual reactions arise.

One of the reasons for establishing calm, peace, and equality and a wideness in the being as a foundational action for the yogic practice is to aid the seeker in holding these energies and not spilling them out through the old ways of action. The establishment of the witness poise of the consciousness allows the seeker to observe what comes up, and then to begin the process of modifying and transforming the responses, thus effectuating the needed changes that the descent of the spiritual force intends to achieve.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The Power does not descend with the object of raising up the lower forces, but in the way it has to work at present, that uprising comes in as a reaction to the working. What is needed is the establishment of the calm and wide consciousness at the base of the whole Nature, so that when the lower nature appears it will not be as an attack or struggle but as if a Master of forces were there seeing the defects of the present machinery and doing step by step what is necessary to remedy and change it.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 3, In Difficulty, pg. 56