The Need for a Sleepless Vigilance in the Yogic Sadhana

Virtually everyone has had the experience, at some point or another of finally overcoming a particularly difficult internal issue, whether it is the force of desire, or not responding with anger to things that do not go as anticipated, or any number of other activities that take place in the physical, the vital or the mental elements of the being; and then, when one is feeling satisfied that a real progress has been made, there is a circumstance that demolishes that sense of accomplishment with a recognition that one has once again given in to the impulsion or the provocation and repeated what one thought was done and gone.

We frequently forget that our inner psychology is not uniform and stable; rather, it is made up of different parts of the being which have their own different needs, desires, enjoyments and responses; while at the same time, there is the constant play of the three Gunas of Nature, Tamas, Rajas and Sattva, that influence the responses. When Tamas is in the ascendent, we can open ourselves at those times through inattention, tiredness, carelessness or through a low energy state that is easily pushed into a response. When Rajas is in the ascendent, we may respond through desire or a form of ambition, or some attitude of pride of vanity, and through our over-confidence, our rajasic arrogance, we believe we can control and overpower what comes, and thus, do not see how we are being manipulated to respond. When Sattva is in the ascendent we may respond through a belief that we have overcome the influence of certain forces, or we may have a response of the sattwic ego that believes it has passed beyond all of these issues. These are simply examples of the ways we can be ensnared and experience a return of movements that we had previously succeeded in overcoming.

Another important factor is the way the work of transformation tends to take place. The process is somewhat cyclical. A progress is made in one area which opens up the opportunity for a next step in another part of the being. The progress is not complete or definitive, but simply sufficient to allow the development to take place. Once the new capacity or energy has been stabilised, the focus comes around again, in a new cycle, to further upgrade the area that was initially changed. This cyclical process ensures that each element of the being is addressed as each succeeding stage of progress comes forward, but it also means that what we may have thought were accomplished changes were really only partial adjustments. Until everything is completed, nothing is truly completed.

The same type of process takes place at the societal level such that any new level of consciousness or action of force has to first have a prepared general level of consciousness. Once it enters into the mainstream of human activity and expands its action and influence, a next stage becomes possible for a further widening, deepening and expanding of the new consciousness. Thus, change at the level of humanity is also partial, progressive and cyclical in nature. And it must be remembered that as long as a force is active somewhere in the environment, in the generality of humanity, it maintains a standpoint from which to infiltrate and affect any specific individual, if and when they are ever open to that energy or vibration. It is this complex set of interactions that makes the transformation process so difficult and time-consuming and which then requires the “sleepless vigilance” that Sri Aurobindo describes.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “… only you must remain vigilant always. For when the condition is good, the loewr movements have a habit of subsiding and becoming quiescent, hiding as it were, — or they go out of the nature and remain at a distance. But if they see that the sadhak is losing vigilance, then they slowly begin to rise or draw near, most often unseen, and when he is quite off his guard, surge up suddenly or make a sudden irruption. This continues until the whole nature, mental, vital, physical down to the very subconscient is enlightened, conscious, full of the Divine. Till that happens, one must always remain watchful in a sleepless vigilance.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 146