During the last few weeks, I have felt so strongly how our body is constructed almost, one can say, with a perfection for expressing the vital world, all the vital impulses. Our mind is an accomplice of the vital; that is to say, it does everything to realise the vital urge through infinite ways. Our body responds to all the vital suggestions in a spontaneous way and is so much used to these vibrations that if deprived of them, it would rather die than live.
Spirituality is the awakening of the Divine being in us which is very rudimentary as yet in all human beings. This Divine being is working, one might say, in an instrument which is practically unfit for its own manifestation. Its vibrations of peace, harmony, joy, pure love are in conflict with the natural vital vibrations, violence, lust, greed, envy, jealousy, power, selfishness, etc. So, in the past, spiritual disciplines, and in present disciplines, if they are followed anywhere, the spiritual aspirants put themselves voluntarily in a Monastery and accepted severe rules in order to curb the natural activities of the vital being and the body. Probably we have gained a little spiritually, but even in the Saints and the Prophets, the vital is there fully powerful, unregenerated, but in chains. So we find the moment the spiritual vigilance is slackened, the beast takes over. In other words, our spiritual achievement is not secure as long as we have the old vital being, the old mind and the old body.
In the Vedas, the Rishis had a glimpse that if ever a power of the spirit which they call “the Truth Consciousness” beyond the mind could be brought down, then this mind, body and life could be really transformed. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have made this Consciousness active in the earth atmosphere. So for the first time there is the real possibility of a total transformation. The old spiritual powers known to man could not transform the animal,but once we get in touch with this highest force, then this is possible. But this yoga of transformation is extremely difficult, even dangerous, and can only be done if there is a strong aspiration in the soul to belong to the Divine, to surrender to the Divine so that He may gradually transform us. Vital impulses are quite natural to all of us, almost without exception. There is nothing good or bad about them. They are natural to us as we are constructed through evolution. They become undesirable, incompatible as we become conscious more and more of the Divine and our Divine possibility. Even with all good intentions and sincere aspirations, we cannot really get rid of them unless we come in touch with this highest Divine Force.
In our spiritual endeavour, we should not have any critical attitude towards anyone who is just a natural human being. Any contempt or disdain towards any human being on this account shows the lack of deep under- standing of the enormous difficulty. We cannot become Divine by our own effort. We are animal by nature and by the grace of the Divine, we aspire to be Divine one day, in this life or in many lives. The vital vibrations are incompatible to our spiritual aspiration and discipline. There is nothing wrong in them morally or ethically, they are just natural to human beings. As they are just unnatural, unacceptable to the soul growing in Divine Consciousness. In the meanwhile, we are struggling animals aspiring for Divinity.
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Niranjan Guha Roy