Understanding the Stage of Striving and the Role of Instincts in Response to External Events

Beyond the stage of “flight or fight” we see in panic and the eventual recoil into inertia, where we see the initial reactions of instinct at play, the stage of ‘striving’ begins to harness energy of response by the vital being, albeit still very much under the influence and control of the power of instinctive behaviour. Striving, however, implies marshalling of the vital forces to try to address and overcome the perceived threat or obstacle in the way of the being’s desire, and thus, goes beyond pure instinct to a type of vital focus or attention, characterised by the Guna of rajas.

Dr. Dalal writes: “In this stage (‘striving’), an individual, still living primarily in the vital consciousness, struggles against difficulties with the reactions of the vital consciousness, namely instincts and impulses. But instinctive reactions, which serve the animal marvellously well in its struggle for existence, are inadequate guides for a human being because, in the first place, instincts in man are far inferior to those in the animal, and, secondly, because the problems which a human being has to tackle are far more complex than those faced by an animal, calling for an intelligence which can see beyond a limited sphere, where instincts are proverbially regarded as blind. Moreover, instincts in themselves pose a problem to the human being because of the perpetual conflicts between one instinct and another, and between instinct and reason. Thus, besides being inadequate for helping man in mastering the problems of life, instincts create an additional problem for the human being — the problem of self-mastery. Feelings and emotions, which, like instincts, also pertain to the vital consciousness, are indeed much more highly developed in the human being than even in the highest species of animal, but they have the same essential drawbacks as instincts: they operate within too narrow a sphere — primarily that of inter-personal relations — and, like instincts, they are fraught with conflict.”

“In the stage of Striving, during which human beings try to come to grips with the problems of life-mastery and self-mastery while still living predominantly in the vital consciousness, life is more or less a blind struggle, a groping towards ill-perceived and ever-eluding goals. The course of life is determined mostly by forces other than one’s conscious choices and deliberate decisions. Therefore one’s internal state is characterised by feelings of uncertainty, insecurity, conflict, anxiety and tension.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Introduction by Dr. Dalal, pp. x-xi