Spiritual Growth Articles

Just about anyone who has experienced a long trip with young children will relate to the question ‘Are We There Yet?’. Ten minutes into the journey, and every 5 or 10 minutes thereafter, the children ask if we are at the destination yet. They have no realistic sense of time, distance or process. They become bored and want to move on to whatever is next.

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When a spiritual seeker begins to appreciate the forces at work in the world that try to influence and manipulate his behaviour, one of the first reactions tends to be to try to close oneself off, wall oneself off, not take cognizance of these forces. This is the power of the anchorite meditating in the cave, the forest or the desert or the monk or devotee residing in the monastery, ashram, abbey or cloister. The removal of potential distractions can indeed be a powerful aid to protect the seeker at certain stages.

The vital forces that have, for the most part, gained substantial control of the earth-nature’s vital existence, are very protective of their ‘turf’, so to speak. They do not cede the ground easily, and once they are dismissed from an individual’s nature, they still maintain both their existence in the surrounding nature, and always try to either convince or overpower the seeker to regain their foothold in that individual.

Particularly (but not exclusively) in the beginning of the spiritual sadhana, the seeker has to find a way to navigate through the countless obstacles, resistances and difficulties that arise as he tries to transition from a focus on the exte al responses of the ego-personality and the embedded habits, instincts and trained responses that make up what he experiences on a day to day basis, to a new standpoint that can cut through the inevitable confusion and keep him focused on his spiritual practice.

There are so many obstacles and difficulties that confront the spiritual seeker, precisely because the work of transforming human nature in each element involves dealing with endless numbers of embedded habits, instincts, trained responses, etc. It is virtually a constant effort to address each and every one of these conce s as they arise.

Transforming human nature does not happen ove ight. There are thus periods when the spiritual force is actively experienced and descending into the being; and then, there are other periods where it needs to adjust the responses of the mind, the life energy and the physical body to both hold and accommodate the impact of the force and thereby create the needed changes. Sri Aurobindo describes this process as one of ascent and integration.

Spiritual aspirants tend to have periods of concentration, intense experiences, positive forward movement centered around our deepest aspirations, only to find that after some time the energy withdraws, or they sink back into old habits or comfortable patterns of the past. They may look for activities that do not take serious concentration and they act as distractions or which dissipate the energy. In today’s world, scrolling social media or watching mindless video reels can be added to traditional forms of distraction.

The normal human action is based in the ego-consciousness. We act as if we are fully independent, making our own decisions based on our own criteria, needs and conce s. We treat ourselves as something of a self-standing actor, working to survive in a somewhat hostile world and environment, maintaining our individuality against the pressures of both circumstances and our societal setting, while at the same time, finding ways to ‘fit in’ to our society.

The action of the three Gunas rules our exte al nature. Rajas active in the vital being tends to fixate on the fulfillment and satisfaction of desires of whatever kind. Desires, however, cannot ever be fully satisfied as the fulfillment of a desire simply increases the vital’s push for more. A ‘groove’ is more or less created that is a known and easy pathway for energy to flow and thereafter, it tends to go down that path more easily than trying to take a different approach.

As the three Gunas continue to rotate their action in the exte al personality, there are times when Rajas presides and there is potentially a sense of ambition and with it, a sustained effort. When Tamas presides, however, there is a tendency to fall into despondency or depression, seeing things from a viewpoint of general incapacity and without the energy to break out of the slump. The good thing is that neither of these two states are permanent as the Gunas are always in motion.

We make ‘new year’s resolutions’ with the idea that we will start the new year with a fresh dedication to undertaking some kind of change to our lives. This may be a mental change, such as a willingness to listen and try to truly understand what others say and think rather than jumping in our minds to our own ideas and engaging in arguments to convince others. It may be a vital change where we determine to not become angry, or jealous or envious of others in various situations.

The witness consciousness is an extremely useful mode for the seeker to adopt in any attempt to overcome the limitations and deformations of the exte al nature, whether to try to attain liberation and release from the world, or, as Sri Aurobindo suggests, to work toward the eventual divinsation of life on earth through the evolution of consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo’s famous aphorism, cited in the headline above, describes the issue that spiritual aspirants have to resolve as they take up the practice of Yoga. Human individuality was developed to create an apparently independent nexus of observation and action, thus providing a platform for development and progress through the individual that eventually communicates itself to humanity as a whole.

There is a real difference in motivation and intention between what may be considered to be ignorant responses, and those that are malignant. Seekers face a difficulty or some resistance in the exte al nature constantly. For the most part, this resistance is due to the long embedded habits and instincts and trained responses embedded in the mental, vital and physical nature.

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We are generally so tied to our exte al ego-personality that we identify with it as what we consider to be our ‘self’. We then refer to this body-life-mind complex as our reality and we say that we ‘have a soul’. The reality is far different. The reality is that the soul, the psychic being, takes on a particular existence for its own purposes of experience and growth. The difference in viewpoint is profound and has far-reaching implications.

The vital ego is impatient. It wants to keep pressing on regardless of the impact on the body or the mind, or even its own native energy. It wants to get somewhere and begrudges the journey and the time and the waypoints along the path. It believes that haste will achieve the goal sooner, while in fact, it usually sets the achievement further away, due to the inevitable breakdowns, and the very energy that is circulating, which does not permit the Divine Force to act in its own way and its own time to carry out the complex, detailed and enormous task of transformation of human nature.

The vital nature, under the influence of the Guna of Rajas, tends to create drama. Struggle, disruption, aggressive responses are all a part of this vital play. One of the manifestations of this drama is to raise the temperature about any resistance, obstacle, delay etc. that the individual experiences. Another is to seek out a culprit and label it as a ‘hostile force’ thereby accentuating the challenge being faced and increasing the dramatic effect.

The spiritual seeker tends to struggle with the constant recurrence of old thoughts, feelings, reactions and desires. He is also constantly confronted by changes in his energy levels and focus. Much of this is due to the underlying and deeply embedded energies that he has inherited as part of human nature as it has been developed and manifested. Some of this is due to education, expectations and societal pressures that have helped shape his being in this lifetime. Another portion are due to the constant changing of the three Gunas as they adjust their predominance from one moment to the next.

For the practitioner of the integral yoga, it becomes evident that the transformation of human nature is not something that can be done by his own capacity alone. His mental ideas, the will power, vital drives and physical powers have their limitations and remain relatively fixed within the framework of the untransformed human nature as we recognise it. Some progress can be made, but it reaches a point where the change cannot progress any farther and a new power needs to be brought into the picture to work through the subsequent steps.

As the seeker begins to go inwards in his awareness, theare are innumerable new experiences that take place. He generally is not able to determine exactly what they mean. In this case, the guidance of an experienced practitioner or of a Guru can be of immense assistance. If a seeker is proceeding without a guide, or if an experience comes upon an individual more or less suddenly without conscious intention or preparation, he needs to appreciate that the exploration of inner space with bring forward many things formerly unknon and unseen previously.

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.

There are powers at work in the world that have a vested interest in maintaining the current status. They have control, they have power, they can exult in their predominance. They do not want to see their power or influence wane or disappear. On the contrary, they may seek further control and domination. Thus, they treat any progressive development as a threat to their situation and even, in some cases, their very existence. These powers act to hold back change and progress.

When we reflect on our normal state of conscious awareness, we recognise a primary seat of awareness in the mind, while also finding that we respond to impulses that originate in the other chakras, subtle energy centres, from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. Yogic science has long recognised that energy traverses the sublte channels that connect the chakras.

Spiritual seekers face a long and difficult road trying to sort out what thoughts, emotions, feelings, movements, actions and responses are expressive of and related to their spiritual calling, and which ones are part of the old ways of the exte al nature and the vital ego. They frequently experience doubt, and during periods of difficulty when the old ways seem to overwhelm them, they may experience depression, despair or intense internal suffering. The ‘dark night of the soul’ is something that spiritual aspirants everywhere can relate to at some point along the way.

When an individual withdraws from most exte al activities to focus on spiritual sadhana, people tend to interpret this as a sign of weakness or failure in the outer life. They believe the seeker could not ‘make it’ in the competition in the exte al world and therefore retreated from it so he did not have to face it. This view, however, is inaccurate. While it is true that some individuals retreat from the difficulties they face in the world, they soon find that spiritual practice requires far more strength than they could have imagined.

An individual reaches an absolute low point in his life. He may be suffering under intense grief, he may have made mistakes that led to catastrophic consequences, he may be faced with exposure and embarassment for actions he has undertaken, he may be in intense pain and suffering from a terminal disease. He may have been rejected by a person he was attached to. He may be under the influence of various disorienting drugs. These are all predisposing circumstances that lead some individuals to contemplate suicide.

We frequently hear the advice that we could have much more peace and satisfaction in our lives if we were not always trying to ‘manage’ things. We are encouraged to just ‘go with the flow’. Even spiritual seekers are frequently asked to let the ‘force’ work without interference from our mind or vital being. At the same time, we are asked to exercise insight and discrimination to monitor the forces that are at work trying to move us, and to not accept whatever happens to come along. Not every force aids the sadhana. … some of them actually inhibit or distract from the spiritual pursuit.

The change of human nature does not happen all at once, nor does it change every aspect or part of the being instantaneously. Once the divine Force begins to descend, it works its way systematically through the various parts of the being, starting with those that are most receptive to its action and thereby presenting the least resistance. In the ordinary course, the mind and the emotional center tend to be the most receptive and able to begin to adapt their action under the influence of the psychic being and the descending Force.

We like to believe that we are independent actors in control of our own destiny and our own lines of development. We want ‘freedom’ to express ourselves. The ego-personality acting in the outside world is very much a captive of past energies, whether those of the formation of physical and vital life, or those that have been acquired and developed through the process of evolution of the mental power. We have been educated, pressured, traumatized, and socialized to make certain decisions and act in certain ways, all while believing that we are free and independent actors.

A human birth is prized as it is the gateway to evoution and development. In the Indian tradition, even the gods need to take a human birth if they want to achieve any new form of development or progress. The gods reside normally in a static world which does not have the impetus for change.

The first impulse of religious or spiritual paths with respect to the sex impulse has frequently been to simply suppress and deny it. When any form of energy is forcefully suppressed, it acts like a coiled spring, storing that energy and building up its potential power, until such time as it is able to overcome the force of the suppression and then is released with a tremendous uprising of that energy. The result can be explosive, similar to the eruption of a volcano. Pressures build up until the cover can no longer contain it and it bursts forth.

Desire can take many forms, some of them subtle, inasmuch as they are linked to prayer and thus seem to confirm the aspiration. There is a subtle form of bargaining that can take place where the dedication of the seeker is tied to the Divine providing a specific anticipated form of realisation, support or result. In some cases this is couched in such a way as to make it seem that the bargaining is so that the individual can better carry out the Divine Will, as the individual understands it.

There is a dual significance to the term ‘the Mother’s Force’. First, this is the Divine Shakti, which manifests the universal creation, and which acts to bring forth the sequential expression of the consciousness involved in Matter. At the same time, there is the specific reference to the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, who so embodied and focused this divine Force that those who came into her presence or aura of influence were profoundly impacted by that Force.

We feel a desire and try to fulfil it. It may be a desire or craving for some type of food or drink, or for a particular object of material enjoyment, or it may be a sexual desire, or a desire for companionship, excitement, or any other vital drive that wells up in us. In some cases we try to satisfy that desire. In other cases, we determine we would like to rid ourselves of that desire, not fulfill it, and be at peace without whatever it is that we crave.

Material possessions are always an issue for the spiritual aspirant, as they tend to distract the focus and lead to vital reactions that are not helpful to overcoming the pull of the exte al world and its measures of success which is attached to the acquisition, holding and use of the possessions. Dealing with objects directs the attention toward those objects and thus, away from the spiritual sadhana.

Every spiritual discipline, every path, has its unique challenges and difficulties. One cannot minimize the issues that anyone taking up the spiritual life must face. Almost all of these paths traditionally have focused on liberation of the individual seeker, regardless of the specific methodology employed. The stories are legendary.

In the ordinary life in society, food plays an especially important and high profile role. We treat food as a centerpiece of our various celebrations, as rewards, as comfort when we are under stress and as something we consumer out of boredom or inattention. Food taste, food preparation, food choices all become major topics of consideration and discussion.

When we consider the objective of the transformation of human nature, we begin to understand that it is not a simple or quick process. We carry within us the physical, vital and mental habits of life on earth, including instincts, set modes of action and response, and the rsult of the training and socialization we have received in the current lifetime, which represents the combined force of the past development of human society acting in the present.

When an individual takes up religious or spiritual practices, he becomes aware of the force of desire and the need to curb it. In some cases, particularly in religious pursuits, there are a set of moral rules or monastic rules that provide set guidelines for the practitioner. Usually these things revolve around control of the impulse for sex in some manner, including potentially complete abstinence.

It is tempting for a spiritual seeker to undertake some form of extreme fasting. The practice of fasting has been used since time immemorial all around the world to increase the vital force by reducing the ‘drag’ of the physical body and its operations around acquiring, preparing, eating and digesting food. Additionally, extreme fasting has been reported to help the seeker achieve various altered states of awareness, in what has been called a ‘vision quest’ in certain traditions.

Humanity develops habits of response that tend to become ingrained in almost all approaches to any particular topic. This is found to be especially true when it comes to the question of religious dedication and spiritual aspiration. The default response to religious or spiritual devotion has historically been to give up, abandon, the focus on life in the material world.

In his book, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo describes sex as one of the three forces, “power, wealth, sex — that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them.”

There is a factor of enjoyment of taste of various foods which is called rasa in Sanskrit. We experience this when we eat something that excites our taste buds and sends signals of pleasure to the brain. For many people, the sweet taste, and more particularly the taste of rich chocolate, seems to occupy such a position. Others however may find enjoyment in any of the other primary tastes identified by Ayurveda, salty, sour, sharp/spicy, astringent or bitter. Some of these tastes are considered to impact the doshas or predominant elements active in the being, vata, pitta and kapha.

People tend to get very defensive about the idea of celibacy, sexual abstinence, Brahmacharya, however it may be termed. They argue that it is unhealthy. They argue that this is a process in Nature that ensures the continuity of the race, they argue that the suppression of sexual expression leads to all kinds of perversions and criminality, including pedophilia, rape, or utilization of power dynamics to pressure others into sex. All of these arguments have some basis in fact.

A human birth is considered to be an important and valuable step in the growth of the soul and in the evolutionary development of consciousness in furtherance of the divine manifestation. It is not to be wasted. The traditions of India indicate that even the gods, who are static beings, would have to take birth in the body in order to evolve, change, transform and develop.

Dealing with the Desire or Craving Related to Foodr Posted on December 27, 2025 Vast numbers of people face the difficulty of the craving for food, whether in the form of eating more than their body requires, or eating foods that carry little nutritional benefit but which represent large caloric content or which satisfy a particular craving for a specific taste. There are substantial downsides to indulgence in food cravings, including unnecessary weight gain and the health impacts that come along with that.

Fasting has often been utilized by spiritual and religious practitioners as a way of gaining some measure of control over the vital desires, cravings and urges, as well as a means for increasing the vital and mental energy available to them. In some cases, it has been used to induce altered states of awareness to help achieve vision and clarity of purpose by the seeker.

Human beings have a tendency to move from one extreme to the other, like a pendulum swing. When we are faced with a particular conce we want to resolve, we apply this tendency. When it comes therefore to the force of desire and the attraction of material objects, we either become attached to them and try to grab and hold onto them (the materialist approach) or else, we try to remove their influence from our lives and thereby deny our relation to these objects (the ascetic approach).