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The Quality of Rajas and Its Impact on the Spiritual Sadhana · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The quality of rajas, when it predominates in the action of
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  the individual seeking spiritual growth, can have quite
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  disruptive effects. A certain amount of focus and
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  energy is required for any spiritually endeavour, to be
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  sure, but there is a fine line between too little energy and
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  too much. Rajas is the guna that prods the
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  vital nature and can raise up desire as a motive force.
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  Desire in the sada can take the form of an attempt to attain
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  spiritual experiences or realizations with an emphasis on
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  doing it quickly and successfully from the standpoint
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  of the ego personality. If we examine how Rajas works,
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  it first lures the seeker into establishing a particular desire
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  as the purpose or result to be attained.
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  It tends to act with abandoned, without planning, without due
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  consideration for the right manner, right time, right place
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  and right circumstance. Which considerations are the
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  province of the Suttwick quality.
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  This can lead to considerable waste of energy, increase of
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  friction, development of unintended consequences or an
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  energetic atmosphere that is chaotic, pressured were overly
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  demanding. In fact, just the opposite of
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  what is needed by the spiritual force as it seeks for aspiration
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  and receptivity as the basis it needs to accomplish its purpose.
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  On the other side, when Rajas fails to achieve its desires, it
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  tends to fall back into a state of Thomas, characterized by
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  torpor, despondency, depression and fatigue.
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  This oscillation between rajas and Thomas is well known and
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  characteristic. Even if the rajasic effort bears
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  some fruit, it tends to have some serious potential negative
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  effects due to the energy that was deployed and the manner in
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  which it was deployed. There are seekers who attempt to
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  storm the gates of heaven. They may actually call forth
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  various forces, but at the risk of ill health, disharmony,
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  mental disturbances, or even death.
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  They frequently discover that calling forth the power into the
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  limited ego personality can be A2 edged sword.
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  On the one side, they acquire, at least temporarily, a new
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  power, a new great experience, a new energetic level.
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  On the other side, the human frame is not capable of holding
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  and managing that energy and may breakdown or spill the energy.
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  Goethe explored the issue of calling forth powerful forces
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  without the requisite readiness in Faust.
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  Doctor Faust uses various spells and formulae to bring forth a
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  great vital power. When the being embodying that
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  power actually appears, Faust is distressed to learn that he
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  cannot control that power, that it far exceeds the scope of his
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  human personality, and he quakes with fear.
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  He later accepts the guidance and leadership of
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  Mephistopheles, who opens the path to the fulfillment of his
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  desires, including his sexual exploitation of a young maiden,
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  his seeking for power and influence as he also undertook
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  to expand his knowledge and powers of action in the world.
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  Faust struggled with the forces he called forth through his
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  rajasic desire filled energy and only at the end, through the
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  strength of his soul was he able to be redeemed.
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  At the point of his death, many people, lured by the desire for
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  great new power, practice extremes of pranayam or other
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  methods and are thereby able to experience the influx of great
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  force. There are numerous cases of
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  hidden, unfulfilled desires rising up from the depths of the
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  subconscious when these forces come and shake the being to its
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  core. One of the characteristics of
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  rajas is the push to gain power, wealth or sexual dominance.
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  There are instances of mental or emotional imbalance, vital
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  disruptions and even physical imbalances and disturbances.
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  One of the reasons it is considered to be essential to
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  have an experienced guide or guru when 1 undertakes practices
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  of this sort is to help the seeker find and maintain a
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  suitable balance to integrate the new force and energy
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  effectively without this type of potentially harmful effects
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  ruining the individual's life and spiritual practice.
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  There are cases where people suddenly start hearing voices
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  that they believe are divine. As they begin to carry out the
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  guidance or direction provided by these voices, they may soon
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  find out that they were listening to deceptive beings
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  who are controlling them and feeding off their energy.
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  There are other cases where individuals find their nervous
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  being shaken and disrupted and they develop tremors or other
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  characteristics that speak to the inability to hold the energy
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  they are receiving. In other cases, there can be
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  mental or emotional breakdowns, mood swings, schizophrenic
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  episodes, emergence of multiple personalities, development of
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  feelings of dominance or greatness that mislead the
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  seeker into arrogating to his personal being.
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  A sense of some kind of destiny, of pre eminence or leadership,
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  or other manifestations of some kind of lack of integration in
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  the being and the corresponding lack of balance.
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  In some instances, lower impulses, including bullying,
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  sexual exploitation, exercising domination over others, anger
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  can come to the fore, particularly if the sodic has
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  left certain impulses unfulfilled or suppressed prior
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  to beginning the practice, Sri Aurobindo writes.
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  Quote. Desire often leads either to
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  excessive effort, meaning often much labor and a limited fruit,
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  with strain, exhaustion, and in case of difficulty or failure,
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  despondence, disbelief, or revolt, or else it leads to
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  pulling down the force. That can be done.
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  But except for the yogically strong and experienced, it is
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  not always safe, though it may be often very effective.
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  Not safe first because it may lead to violent reactions, or it
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  brings down contrary or wrong or mixed forces which the sodic is
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  not experienced enough to distinguish from the true ones.
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  Or else it may substitute the Sodic's own limited power of
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  experience, or his mental and vital constructions for the free
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  gift and true leading of the Divine.
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  End Quote. Reference.
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  Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, page 114.