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Overcoming the Distracting Force of Vital Desire, to Find and Live the Truth of One's Life · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Wind is a metaphor for the vital force.
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  The vital being is moved by desire.
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  When we covet or desire something, we are tossed about
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  as by a great gust of wind. This is the normal state for
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  most people and they just get tossed about from one focus to
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  another trying to achieve what is held before them as an object
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  of desire. The other great motive force and
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  the vital being is fear. Fears the sense that one may
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  lose what one has, whether life, well-being and health, family,
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  wealth, status or any other thing which is the object of
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  desire. Desire carries away the mind and
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  its ability to focus. People wind up suffering as a
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  result of decisions made or actions taken under the
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  impulsion of desire or fear. They then wind up wasting time,
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  energy and other resources which could be better applied if they
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  held their senses under control. When we reflect on the purpose
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  and significance of our lives, we eventually come to understand
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  that the pursuit of pleasure is not and should not be the
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  objective we put before ourselves.
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  We come to understand that there is a deeper intention that
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  eventually requires our support, attention, dedication, and
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  persevering efforts. The answer does not come out of
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  a book, a specific line of teaching, or adherence to a
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  particular doctrine. Rather, it comes from one
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  recognizing within oneself the divine nature of existence,
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  finding the spark within that represents our true self, and
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  learning how to adhere to and follow its guidance, the
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  Dhammapada states. Quote.
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  Just as the strong wind has no hold upon a mighty rock, so Mara
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  has no hold upon a man who does not live in pursuit of pleasure,
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  who has good control of his senses, who knows how to
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  moderate his appetite, who is endowed with unshakeable faith,
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  and who wastes not his energies. End Quote.
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  The mother writes. Quote What the Dhammapada means
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  when it speaks of faith is not at all the belief in a dogma or
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  a religion. It is not even faith in the
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  teaching of the Master. It is faith in one's own
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  possibilities, the certitude that whatever the difficulties,
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  whatever the obstacles, whatever the imperfections, even the
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  negations in the being, one is born for the realization and one
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  will realize. The will must never falter, the
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  effort must be persevering and the faith unshakable.
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  Then, instead of spending years to realize what one has to
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  realize, one can do it in a few months, sometimes even in a few
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  days, and if there is sufficient intensity, in a few hours.
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  That is to say, you can take a position within yourself, and no
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  bad will that attacks the realization will have any more
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  power over you than the storm has over a rock.
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  After that, the way is no longer difficult.
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  It becomes extraordinarily interesting.
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  End Quote. Reference.
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  Srioro Bindu and the Mother Looking from Within, Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, pages 126 to 127.