Neither Suppression, Indulgence, Blame-Shifting Nor Avoidance Solves the Issue of Overcoming the Vital Force of Desire

When a spring is compressed, it builds up a tremendous power of potential energy, which gets released when the force that is compressing the spring is released. This is essentially how the vital force of desire operates when we try to suppress a drive through will power or other forms of restraint. The resultant “explosion” of the force when it gets a chance to express itself sometimes goes far beyond what the normal drive would do if simply allowed to operate in the ‘normal’ course. It is no wonder that attempts to control the vital through mental will power eventually prove to not work. It is also no wonder that there are innumerable instances of individuals who have taken vows of chastity, for instance, who wind up engaging in pursuits that overcome the force of those vows.

We try to enforce moral laws or rules on people but find that somehow, the vital drive succeeds in manifesting itself. Some individuals attempt to bring their vital nature under control through various forms of punishment or even torture, such as with a hairshirt or the use of the cilise as a way to ‘mortify the flesh’. Some try to blame others for their failure to control various vital drives, leading to potential beatings, torture, ritual purifications or, murders in the name of some kind of moral purity. Witness the Salem witch trials or the burning of Joan of Arc as extreme examples of an attempt to enforce morality on others to make up for the individual failures of the people holding the power to solve the riddle of the vital drives.

Some try to simply avoid the issue entirely by renouncing the active life, withdrawing from social relatinships and thereby avoiding much of the pressure and impulsion of the vital nature when it is exposed to various forms of temptation. Unfortunately, this approach does not actually solve the issue, but simply puts off the issue to a future time, place or circumstance. And in some cases we have learned about, the renunciate, when suddenly exposed to temptation either through entering into a societal setting, or having the issue come before him where he has his retreat, has been shown to lose control of the vital nature and either indulge the desire or manifest anger that arises due to the energy being suppressed and not otherwise directed or dissipated.

Since it is clear that suppression does not work, nor does the use of punishment, torture or any attempt to blame others for one’s own inability to manage the vital forces in one’s life, there must be another way. This also has led to various attempted solutions. One of these is the idea that one should just let nature takes it course and indulge in these vital drives as they arise. That of course turns out to be a weak justification for a failure to address the need for development and change of human nature, and winds up distracting the individual from focus on the goal. Another even more radical method is to indulge the desire actively and purposely with the idea that through satiation it will be put to rest. Unfortunately, history of this approach tells us that it is the very rare individual who finds such a solution to actually succeed, and for the most part, the indulgence increases both the power of the drive and in many cases, increases the ‘dosage’ needed to achieve satiation as time goes on, leading to an ever-increasing cycle of indulgence and satiation, but certainly not to rejection and a redirection of the energies to other and higher pursuits..

If suppression, shifting of the blame, avoidance and indulgence do not work, we then have to find a way that does work. As Sri Aurobindo has noted, there is the separation of the Witness Consciousness from the exte
al active nature, which makes it easier to first remove any sanction for it and, eventually, reject the drive as something exte
al that is trying to invade, rather than something that is embedded as part of one’s own life and personality. He also points out that shifting the focus of the being to let the psychic being, the soul entity take charge of the life, and provide its objectives, its aspiration for spiritual fulfillment and a divine life, change the direction and focus of the vital energy. Each of these two methods have shown success in helping individuals overcome the force of desire without the negative effects of the other methods that have been attempted.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “It is true that the mere suppression or holding down of desire is not enough, not by itself truly effective, but that does not mean that desires are to be indulged; it means that desires have not merely to be suppressed, but to be rejected from the nature. In place of desire there must be a single-minded aspiration towards the Divine.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pp. 153-154