The Vigilance Needed to Ensure That Sattwic Calm, Peaceful Focus Does Not Get Distracted Through the Rise of Rajasic or Tamasic Reactions in the Being

There is a dynamic that frequently occurs when an individual starts to actively take up the yogic path. At a certain stage of development, the need to bring peace into the being, and the need for a calm, quiet energy to support the practice of meditation may take center stage. At that point, the seeker may take steps to minimize exte
al contacts, create a quiet space, and increase the time spent in meditation and study. The active impulse of participation in exte
al affairs recedes.

This tendency, if it is a short-term action, and particularly if it remains dynamic and focused, can be extremely useful for the seeker, in fact, for many it may be a necessary stage. The danger arises if the individual either becomes so habituated to the attitude of withdrawal from an active life that he becomes imbalanced and unable to withstand the pressures of life in the world; or else, that the sattwic impulse that led to this focus in the first place gets mixed with tamas, and turns into a form of indolence or somnolence. In such a case the individual winds up opening himself to all manner of thoughts, impulses, feelings, emotions and desires that enter through the less vigilant and less conscious state of the tamasic energy.

It is very difficult to maintain dynamic and focused meditation constantly for long periods of time. When the concentration slips, it allows the mind to wander, various impulsions to arise and creates a form of mental fatigue that becomes a field for these opposing thoughts and tendencies to rise up. Similarly, the vital nature has an inherent bias towards activity and excitement; thus, it treats periods of calm, quiet reflection as unnatural and works to bring some ‘energy’ to the being. This energy is not always helpful to the sadhana, of course, so it can lead to undesirable consequences.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “It is perhaps that the attitude that you took of going on with the calm within and slowly changing what had to be changed, postponing certain things for the future, — though not a wrong attitude in itself, — made you somewhat lax, allowing things to play on the surface (desires, etc.) which should have been kept in check. This resolution may have opened the way for the old movements to rise through this part which was not yet ready to change at all and the hostile forces finding you off your guard took the opportunity to push the attack home. They are always vigilant for an opportunity and there must be a sufficient vigilance on the sadhak’s side to refuse it to them.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 147