Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / The Standpoint of the Individual Rooted in the Vital Nature

Transcript

The Standpoint of the Individual Rooted in the Vital Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:01
  Each individual is rooted primarily in one of the major
• 0:05
  component aspects of our human individuality.
• 0:10
  Some are clearly rooted in the physical, and their thoughts,
• 0:14
  actions, and needs are those called for by the physical
• 0:18
  being. The vast majority of people are
• 0:22
  moved by their vital being and are moved by their sensations,
• 0:27
  emotions, desires, and vital drives.
• 0:33
  A much smaller number are based in the mental range and their
• 0:37
  focus is then on concerns and issues of the mental being.
• 0:42
  There are also those who are rooted in either the psychic
• 0:45
  soul aspect or the spiritual aspect of the being.
• 0:51
  Wherever the individual finds his primary focus or standpoint,
• 0:55
  he tends to act from there and evaluate things based on that
• 0:59
  standpoint. Those who take up spiritual
• 1:03
  pursuits do not suddenly lose or abandon their natural
• 1:06
  standpoint. Rather, they tend to bring that
• 1:10
  frame with them into their spiritual endeavors.
• 1:14
  For the large number who live primarily in the vital being,
• 1:18
  they are consumed by feelings, emotions and relations, as well
• 1:22
  as desires, even if those desires are set forth under the
• 1:27
  guise of spiritual progress or the greater glory of the
• 1:32
  spiritual leader or path they are following.
• 1:36
  This standpoint, of course, has the effect of actually retarding
• 1:39
  the progress. In most cases, even desire for
• 1:43
  progress can become an obstacle if it disturbs or disrupts and
• 1:48
  brings in the unsettling energies associated with the
• 1:52
  guna of rajas. To any great degree, Sriorobindo
• 1:58
  observes, quote, Most people live in the vital.
• 2:02
  That means that they live in their desires, sensations,
• 2:06
  emotional feelings, vital imaginations, and see and
• 2:10
  experience and judge everything from that point of view.
• 2:15
  It is the vital that moves them, the mind being at its service,
• 2:20
  not its master. In yoga also many people do
• 2:24
  sadhana from that plane and their experience is full of
• 2:28
  vital visions, formations, experiences of all kinds.
• 2:33
  But there is no mental clarity or or order, neither do they
• 2:37
  rise above the mind. It is only the minority of men
• 2:42
  who live in the mind or in the psychic or try to live in the
• 2:46
  spiritual plane. In quote reference Sriorobindo
• 2:52
  and the Mother Our Many Selves, Practical Yogic Psychology,
• 2:57
  Chapter 2, Plains and Parts of the Being, page 31.