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Overcoming the Force of Desire · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  If we reflect on the course of human life, it is easy to
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  determine that we fixate upon different things at different
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  stages of life. As a child, our desires tend to
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  be centered around physical and vital satisfactions.
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  We may desire a specific food, or a specific toy, or a specific
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  form of entertainment. As we grow into later stages,
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  the form our desires take will tend to change and we may be
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  interested in various types of games, competitive sports,
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  intellectual pursuits of various sorts, et cetera.
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  Post puberty we may fixate our desires for a time on
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  experiencing and fulfilling our sexual desires or in succeeding
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  in our education, experiencing more of the world directly
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  through travel or planning for a career.
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  We may later adjust our desires to include a successful life as
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  a householder, including possibly marriage, career,
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  children, etcetera. Health becomes a focus of desire
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  at certain stages. This change in focus takes place
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  successively across our consecutive stages of life, and
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  with each change in focus comes a change in the nature of the
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  things we choose to desire or crave.
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  While the specifics of our desires may change, what does
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  not tend to change is the existence of desires in and of
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  themselves, regardless of the object at any point in time.
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  It is this force of desire that drives us along and captivates
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  our vital nature to such an extent that we tend to be
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  consumed by desire. The vital nature is able to
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  convince the mind of the need and rightness of the desired
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  object or objective, and thus we become distracted by what the
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  sages have called the illusion of the external world, Maya or
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  samsara. Several questions then arise.
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  First, if desire is a distraction from our ability to
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  understand and live the truth of our existence, is there a
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  different motive force that can direct our vital energies to
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  achieve the actual fulfillment of the meaning of our lives?
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  Second, is the issue the force of desire or the element of
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  craving, which can drive the focus far beyond a simple
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  desire? Third, how do we go about
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  accomplishing this change of motive force?
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  Given the pervasiveness and power of the force of desire, we
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  can see one possible line of approach in the changing object
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  of desire over time. When the psychic being becomes
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  conscious and comes to the forefront, it changes its focus
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  to aspiration for the divine. And just as we see with the
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  different objects of desire through our stages of life, this
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  change can redirect us away from external satisfaction of desires
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  to a burning aspiration for the divine.
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  We hear Krishna's flute and forget about all our worldly
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  goals and objectives. Another line of approach is for
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  the witness consciousness, the Purusha, to remove its sanction
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  from the play of desire and the vital and over time redirect the
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  focus toward the spiritual realization.
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  We observe instances, for example, where an individual is
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  raised in a non vegetarian family and society, but
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  eventually concludes he wants to become vegetarian.
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  He first removes the sanction to eat non vegetarian foods.
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  He substitutes vegetarian options into his diet.
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  He may occasionally experience a craving.
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  If he denies the momentary craving, he continues on his way
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  along the line of vegetarian lifestyle.
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  If the craving is extremely powerful, he may indulge it one
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  time without however, giving it sanction.
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  The food may by that time make him feel unwell, and it
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  reinforces his intention to reject it in future.
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  This sequence happens frequently as the ranks of vegetarians and
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  vagans continue to expand across the world.
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  We see here a potential model for addressing various sorts of
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  desires with conscious intention to change.
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  Srioro Bindu observes quote. The rejection of desire is
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  essentially the rejection of the element of craving, putting that
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  out from the consciousness itself as a foreign element not
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  belonging to the true self and the inner nature.
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  But refusal to indulge the suggestions of desire is also a
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  part of the rejection. To abstain from the action
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  suggested if it is not the right action must be included in the
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  yogic discipline. It is only when this is done in
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  the wrong way, but a mental ascetic principle or a hard
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  moral rule that it can be called suppression.
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  The difference between suppression and an inward
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  essential rejection is the difference between mental or
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  moral control and a spiritual purification.
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  When one lives in the true consciousness. 1 feels the
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  desires outside oneself, entering from outside, from the
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  universal lower prakruti into the mind and the vital parts.
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  In the ordinary human condition this is not felt.
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  Men become aware of the desire only when it is there, when it
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  has come inside and found a lodging or a habitual
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  harbourage, and so they think it is their own and a part of
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  themselves. The first condition for getting
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  rid of desire is therefore to become conscious with the true
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  consciousness, for then it becomes much easier to dismiss
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  it than when one has to struggle with it as if it were a
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  constituent part of oneself to be thrown out from the being.
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  It is easier to cast off an accretion than to excise what is
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  felt as a parcel of our substance.
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  When the psychic being is in front, then also to get rid of
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  desire becomes easy, for the psychic being has in itself no
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  desires, it has only aspirations and a seeking and love for the
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  divine and all things that are were tend towards the divine.
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  The constant prominence of the psychic being tends of itself to
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  bring out the true consciousness and set right almost
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  automatically the movements of the nature.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Looking
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  from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pages 152
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  to 153.