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Reconciling Difficulty of the Change of Human Nature With the Time and Patience Needed for the Change · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The objective is almost unimaginably complex and
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  difficult. Changing human nature, including
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  the inheritance humanity brings from the animal evolutionary
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  process, is not something that is quickly or easily
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  accomplished. It cannot also be done entirely
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  by the action of human mind and willpower.
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  If we waited on nature to accomplish the change, it could
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  take many thousands of years. As we have seen with the
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  development of life and its increasingly complex
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  formulations out of matter and the development of mind and its
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  impact on life and matter, the next stage of evolutionary
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  development which will have far reaching impacts on mind, life
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  and matter, even if nature acts swiftly upon it, could take
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  thousands of years without the active intervention of the next
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  principle of the evolution and the conscious and willing
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  receptivity and implementation of its action by those who take
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  up the conscious yoga of spiritual evolution that can
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  transform earthly life into a divine life.
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  The spiritual seeker can get so immersed in the close scrutiny
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  and effort needed to address the limitations and weaknesses of
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  mind, life and body that he can easily lose sight of the big
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  picture and thus may get distressed, even depressed, when
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  he sees something that has not changed or possibly has relapsed
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  after he thought the change was accomplished.
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  It is useful for him to remind himself or be reminded that this
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  is not an overnight process and there is thus no need for any
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  feelings of failure in the sadhna just because things do
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  not change according to the limited human mind and will.
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  For example, due to the embedded difficulty of changing the
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  action of the sex centre, the seeker may be frequently
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  confronted with what appear to be failures along the way.
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  Given his own close scrutiny as the witness of the external
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  nature, he may tend to become overly concerned, overly
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  critical or overly distressed when sex impulses arise, even if
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  they only appear in the dream state, which itself is evidence
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  of substantial progress, by it being rejected by the act of
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  waking nature rather than a sign of failure, Sri Aurobindo notes
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  quote. There is no reason to be
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  depressed to this extent or to have these imaginations about
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  failure in the yoga. It is not at all a sign that you
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  are unfit for the yoga. It simply means that the sexual
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  impulse rejected by the conscious parts has taken refuge
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  in the subconscious somewhere, probably in the lower vital
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  physical and the most physical consciousness, where there are
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  some regions not yet open to the aspiration and the light.
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  The persistence in sleep of things rejected in the waking
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  consciousness is a quite common occurrence in the course of the
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  sadhna. The remedy is 1.
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  To get the higher consciousness, its light, and the workings of
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  its power down into the obscure parts of the nature. 2.
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  To become progressively more conscious in sleep, with an
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  inner consciousness which is aware of the working of the
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  sadhna in sleep as in waking, and three, to bring to bear the
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  waking will and aspiration on the body in sleep.
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  One way to do the last is to make a strong and conscious
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  suggestion to the body before sleeping that the thing should
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  not happen. The more concrete and physical
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  the suggestion can be made, and the more directly on the sexual
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  centre, the better. The effect may not be quite
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  immediate at first or invariable, but usually this
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  kind of suggestion, if you know how to make it, prevails in the
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  end. Even when it does not prevent
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  the dream, it very often awakes the consciousness within in time
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  to prevent untoward consequences.
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  It is a mistake to allow yourself to be depressed in the
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  sadhna even by repeated failures.
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  One must be calm, persistent and more obstinate than the
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  resistance. End Quote.
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  Reference. Srioro Bindo.
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  Bases of Yoga Chapter 4. Desire Food, Sex, pages 77 to
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  78.