Suppression or Rejection of the Force of Desire

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. In other cases, there are vows of silence, vows of poverty, reliance on divine providence through the practice of eating just what comes into the begging bowl that day, as well as in many cases rules about fasting, or taking meals only at certain times, under certain conditions, etc. Each religious order has its own unique set of rules for followers to carry out. In some cases, particularly in some of the more austere monastic orders, the ‘desires of the flesh’ lead to emotional and mental distress and various self-torture methods are used to discipline the body for its continued cravings. The general practice is to use will-power, mental control, or some kind of vital practice to suppress the desire. This can, however, lead to unintended and unexpected consequences, as suppression does not get to the true solution of the issue, but simply hides the issue for the time being. The sexual abuse scandals rocking so many churches are evidence that moral rules and suppression of desire simply does not work for most people.

When the seeker begins to understand the universal nature of the forces that provoke the rising of desire, and they see that the desires are exte
al to them, simply being admitted and accepted by habit or by the normal and trained responses one gets in the society as one grows and develops, the issue becomes somewhat simpler to resolve, although serious effort must still be made to reject the desire as, or even before, it arises and begins to move the body, vital energy and mind to realise itself in an overt action.

One of the most effective methods turns out to be shifting the attention away from the energy center that is receiving the vibration that is interpreted as a desire. The individual takes the standpoint of the witness of the nature and rather than give in to the force that is trying to move him, he shifts his attention to his spiritual pursuits, or to his deepest aspiration.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “The rejection of desire is essentially the rejection of the element of craving, putting that out from the consciousness itself as a foreign element not belonging to the true self and the inner nature. But refusal to indulge the suggestions of desire is also a part of the rejection; to abstain from the action suggested, if it is not the right action, must be included in the Yogic discipline. It is only when this is done in the wrong way, by a mental ascetic principle or a hard moral rule, that it can be called suppression. The difference between suppression and an inward essential rejection is the difference between mental or moral control and a spiritual purification.”

“When one lives in the true consciousness one feels the desires outside oneself, entering from outside, from the universal lower Prakriti, into the mind and the vital parts. In the ordinary human condition this is not felt; men become aware of the desire only when it is there, when it has come inside and found a lodging or a habitual harbourage and so they think it is their own and a part of themselves. The first condition for getting rid of desire is, therefore, to become conscious with the true consciousness; for then it becomes much easier to dismiss it than when one has to struggle with it as if it were a constituent part of oneself to be thrown out from the being. it is easier to cast off an accretion than to excise what is felt as a parcel of our substance.”

“When the psychic being is in front, then also to get rid of desire becomes easy; for the psychic being has in itself no desires, it has only aspirations and a seeking and love for the Divine and all things that are or tend towards the Divine. The constant prominence of the psychic being tends of itself to bring out the true consciousness and set right almost automatically the movements of the nature.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pp. 61-62