Nature of
the vital realm
An important stage on the way to
transformation.
Botanical Name: Alcea rosea
Common
Name: Hollyhock
Spiritual Significance: Integral
offering of the Vital
-
The
Mother
Vital well-being
From the Editor’s Desk (Oct 2016)
This October issue of our Newsletter takes a look at the Vital being. It is vital to establish at the beginning, what is meant by the vital, in this context. The root word of vital is “vit” or “vita” meaning, in Latin, life or live (https://www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=meaning20of%20 vital). In Sanskrit, it may be denoted as “PranaShakti”. The vital may entail “life-force”. In the parlance of Integral Psychology, it is a term used to denote one of the 5 primary parts and planes of the being, the others being the physical, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual. Sri Aurobindo defines the vital as that in us “…which seeks after life and its movements for their own sake and it does not want to leave hold of them if they bring suffering … or …. pleasure.” Desire is the vital’s principle support. All in us that is the substance of desire is, therefore, the vital. Further to this, Sri Aurobindo characterises the vital with these phrases: impulses, force-pushes, emotions, sensations, seeking after life-fulfillment, possession and enjoyment. Being the seat of desire and therefore passions, one can understand then the related tendencies of the vital towards disappointments and envisage violent impulses, violent reactions, revolt and depression as results of these disappointments.
According to Sri Aurobindo, many people live in their desires. They are wrapped in their own desires, in the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and the imaginations that these desires evoke and support. In The Synthesis of Yoga, he states that most of our works of life are a result of this soul of desire, including the ethical or religious and all those works that are garbed in altruism, philanthropy, self-sacrifice and self-denial. The desire soul is said to be a separative soul of the ego itself and therefore does everything for its own separate self–existence. What is our state of being like? Can we relate to this and arrive at some understanding at the way in which we operate?
On the opposite pole of Depression stands Enthusiasm as the vital’s driving force. When there is this enthusiasm, driven by whatever reason, one finds oneself full of power, of energy to get up and pursue the object of desire relentlessly. At such times, when one steps back to look within, one would recognize this force, this energy or power in us that drives us to carry out actions and actualize what was desired.
The Mother adds that the vital has three sources of subsistence. Firstly, the subsistence comes “from below, from the physical energies through the sensations”. This is probably best known to most of us, in the way we experience sensations received first by the sense organs of the body, the physical entity, and then translated into an enhanced experience, no matter of what level, by the brain. Secondly, the subsistence comes from the vital plane itself, from the universal vital forces. However, this is effected only when the vital is itself widened and vast enough, open and receptive enough to receive the forces from the universe. Thirdly, the subsistence comes from above, from spiritual forces and inspiration. To receive these high forces is possible only to a vital that is in a deep state of aspiration for progress.
What kind of vital does one wants to cultivate in oneself? The vital is said to be a great store-house of energy and of power when its instruments become more cultivated, sensitive, subtle, refined and illumined. This vital too can be “noble and heroic and disinterested” and ultimately turn exclusively to a high and elevated living, serving the Divine alone and not the ego.
Savitri
Their anger rushed
galloping in brute attack,
A
charge of trampling hooves on shaken soil;
Hate gripped hate and love
broke in on love,
Will wrestled with will on
mind's invisible ground;
Other's sensations passing
through like waves
Left
quivering the subtle body's frame.
He tore desire up from its
bleeding roots
And
offered to the gods the vacant place.
(Book three, Canto three)
An abyss yawned suddenly
beneath her heart.
A vast nameless fear
dragged at her nerves
As drags a wild beast its
half-slaughtered prey.
(Book seven, Canto six)
Questions and Answers (Oct 2016)
Q: Sweet Mother,
how can one draw on “the universal vital Force”?
The
Mother: One can
do it in many ways.
First of all, you must know that it exists
and that one can enter into contact with it. Secondly, you must try to make
this contact, to feel it circulating everywhere, through everything, in all
persons and all circumstances; to have this experience, for example, when you
are in the countryside among trees, to see it circulating in the whole of
Nature, in trees and things, and then commune with it, feel yourself close to
it, and each time you want to deal with it, recall that impression you had and
try to enter into contact.
Some people discover that with certain
movements, certain gestures, certain activities, they enter into contact more
closely. I knew people who gesticulated while walking… this truly gave them the
impression that they were in contact—certain gestures they made while walking…
But children do this spontaneously: when they give themselves completely in
their games, running, playing, jumping, shouting; when they spend all their
energies like that, they give themselves entirely, and in the joy of playing
and moving and running they put themselves in contact with this universal vital
force; they don’t know it, but they spend their vital force in a contact with
the universal vital force and that is why they can run without really feeling
very tired, except after a very long time. That is, they spend so much that if
they were not in contact with the universal force, they would be absolutely
exhausted, immediately. And that is why, besides, they grow up; it is also
because they receive more than they spend; they know how to receive more than
they spend. And this does not correspond to any knowledge. It is a natural,
spontaneous movement. It is the movement… a movement of joy in what they are
doing—of joyful expenditure. One can do many things with that.
I knew young people who had always lived in
cities—in a city and in those little rooms one has in the big cities in which
everyone is huddled. Now, they had come to spend their holidays in the
countryside, in the south of France, and there the sun is hot, naturally not as
here but all the same it is very hot (when we compare the sun of the
Mediterranean coasts with that of Paris, for example, it truly makes a
difference), and so, when they walked around the countryside the first few days
they really began to get a terrible headache and to feel absolutely uneasy
because of the sun; but they suddenly thought: “Why, if we make friends with
the sun it won’t harm us any more!” And they began to make a kind of inner
effort of friendship and trust in the sun, and when they were out in the sun,
instead of trying to bend double and tell themselves, “Oh! How hot it is, how
it burns!”, they said, “Oh, how full of force and joy and love the sun is!”
etc., they opened themselves like this (gesture), and not only did
they not suffer any longer but they felt so strong afterwards that they went
round telling everyone who said “It is hot”—telling them “Do as we do, you will
see how good it is.” And they could remain for hours in the full sun,
bare-headed and without feeling any discomfort. It is the same principle.
It is the same principle. They linked
themselves to the universal vital force which is in the sun and received this
force which took away all that was unpleasant to them.
When one is in the countryside, when one walks
under the trees and feels so close to Nature, to the trees, the sky, all the
leaves, all the branches, all the herbs, when one feels a great friendship with
these things and breathes that air which is so good, perfumed with all the
plants, then one opens oneself, and by opening oneself communes with the
universal forces. And for all things it is like that.
Can one do the same thing when it is
cold?
Yes, I think so. I think one can always do
the same thing in all cases.
The sun is a very powerful symbol in the organization
of Nature. So it is not altogether the same thing; it possesses in itself an
extraordinary condensation of energy. Cold seems to me a more negative thing:
it is an absence of something. But in any case, if one knows how to enter the rhythm
of the movements of Nature, one avoids many discomforts. What makes men suffer,
what disturbs the balance of the body is a narrowness, it is always a
narrowness. It happens because one is shut up in limits, and so there is, as
Sri Aurobindo writes here, a force which presses too strongly for these
limits—it upsets everything.
Q: How can one conquer the obscure vital? Rather, how is
it possible to change the obscure vital into a luminous vital?
The Mother: By
the surrender of the vital, its opening to the light, and by the growth of
consciousness.
Q: I have become very sensitive and get upset for
the slightest reason.
The Mother: These
are vital perturbations which show themselves in the course of the Sadhana and
have to be eliminated. They must not be regarded as natural movements justified
by the wrong actions of others and bound to continue so long as there is an
external cause. The real cause is internal and it can be got rid of by yogic
discipline, vigilance, self-detachment and a quiet but strict rejection.
(CWM, Volume 7&14, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)
Opening to the Universal Vital forces
When one is in the countryside, when one
walks under the trees and feels so close to Nature, to the trees, the sky, all
the leaves, all the branches, all the herbs, when one feels a great friendship
with these things and breathes that air which is so good, perfumed with all the
plants, then one opens oneself, and by opening oneself communes with the universal
forces. And for all things it is like that.
-
The Mother
(CWM, Volume 7, Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)
The Mother says … on Vital well-being
Cheerful
Vital Enthusiasm - Very precious if it persists in
spite of difficulties.
It is the vital that gives enthusiasm, but
the vital by nature is unsteady and always wants new things. Unless it is
converted and becomes a docile servant of the Divine, things are always
fluctuating.
***
Right attitude in the vital:
Self-confidence, mental and vital quiet faith in your own
realisation and in the Divine’s help.
***
To harmonize the vital is a psychological
masterpiece.
Happy is he who accomplishes it.
***
The vital governed by the Presence: the
vital force rendered peaceful and disciplined by the Divine Presence.
***
Vital consecration: delightfully modest and
fragrant, it smiles at life without wanting to draw attention to itself.
***
Spiritual awakening of the vital: it soars
towards the heights in the hope of reaching them.
Trust in the Divine: very indispensable for
the impulsive vital.
Vital trust in the Divine: full of courage
and energy, no longer fears anything.
Vital joy in matter: the reward for
abolishing selfishness.
Peace in the vital: the result of
abolishing desires.
Silence in the vital: a powerful help for
inner peace.
Sincerity in the vital: the sure road to
realisation.
Light in the vital: one of the first steps
on the long road.
-
The Mother
(CWM,
Volume 14, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Puducherry)
August - September Sunday Activities at the Centre- A glimpse
August
21st – Study of Secret of Veda:
Sukta 2 of Mandala 1 of the Rig Veda was chanted, translated and discussed. For our interpretation of the Veda, we drew on the Secret of the Veda by Sri Aurobindo and the Siddanjana of Sri Kapali Sastry. Translations and transliterations of the verses were made available.
1. Come,
O Life beautiful, these soma-pressings are made ready. Drink of them. Hear the
call.
2. Life,
thy lovers laud thee with words that express Thee. They have pressed the Soma,
they have known the Day.
3. Life,
thy filling stream moves towards the giver, widening to drink the Soma.
4. Indra
and Vayu, here are the pressings of Soma: come with your satisfying things: for
the gladdeners desire you.
5. Vayu,
O Indra, become conscious of the pressing of Soma, O rich in plenitude, hither
running approach.
6. Vayu
and Indra, come to the perfected gift of the presser of Soma, soon with thought
inclined, O Leaders.
7. Mitra
of purified understanding I call, and Varuna who destroys our hurters, together
effecting a clear luminous thought.
8. By
the Truth Mitra and Varuna whose touch is on the Truth, and who increase the
Truth, enjoy a vast will-power.
9. For
us Mitra and Varuna, seers, multiply-born, wide-housed, uphold the strength
that does the work.
Translated by Sri Kapali
Sastry, Sri M.P. Pandit and Sri Aurobindo (line 9).
We discussed the Mother’s Q&A, focusing on why true joy is so
transient while depression can be much more prolonged. We also explored why
there is the mixture of pure psychic emotion and vital feeling in the heart.
September
11th - Study of Secret of Veda:
The final 6 lines of Sukta 2 of Mandala 1 of the Rig Veda were
chanted, translated and discussed, with many relevant quotations from Sri
Aurobindo’s Secret of the Veda and some input from the Siddanjana.
-
Jayalakshmi
Along the Way…Sep 2016 Walk Review
I had taken the
responsibility to lead the September walk as Mr. Ramanathan was away. To me, it
was a challenge as usually I do not go for the walks. The walk was at the usual
East Coast Park. The park is a beautiful place and is always enchanting. We
were 10 of us, including Uncle Kashyap. It is always a sheer pleasure to see
his zeal and enthusiasm even at his age to attend the walks and take pictures
of the participants. For this walk, we also had a very young participant,
daughter of our young members, Anuvrat and Auropriya - probably one of the
youngest participant till now.
I was walking
with Uncle Krishnamurthy and Mr. Kiran. Uncle Krishnamurthy narrated his career
life. It was yet another fine example of how life flourishes with sincerity,
dedication and hard work. As we finished the walk, we realised that we had
walked for about 6.3 kms. It is truly said that the journey of life becomes
easy and pleasant with the right travellers.
We then
proceeded to Arjun Madan's residence for prayers and brunch. He had created a
very serene atmosphere and arranged for a delicious brunch.
The morning
ended with watching Deepika, Ananya, Akash, Shiv and Priyanka rehearsing for an
upcoming offering based on Gita for Krishna Manjari. Swati had taken up the
challenge to prepare it with these 5 children.
It was yet
another lovely Sunday which left me feeling blessed.
Om Namo Bhagvate
Shri Aravindaya Sharnam Mama.
-
Anand Patel
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