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Suppression or Rejection of the Force of Desire · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When an individual takes up religious or spiritual
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  practices, he becomes aware of the force of desire and the need
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  to curb it. In some cases, particularly in
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  religious pursuits, there are a set of moral rules or monastic
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  rules that provide set guidelines for the practitioner.
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  Usually these things revolve around control of the impulse
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  for sex in some manner, including potentially complete
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  abstinence. In other cases there are vows of
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  silence, vows of poverty, reliance on divine Providence
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  through the practice of eating just what comes into the begging
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  bowl that day, as well as in many cases, rules about fasting
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  or taking meals only at certain times under certain conditions,
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  et cetera. Each religious order has its own
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  unique set of rules for followers to carry out.
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  In some cases, particularly in some of the more austere
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  monastic orders, the desires of the flesh lead to emotional and
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  mental distress, and various self torture methods are used to
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  discipline the body for its continued cravings.
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  The general practice is to use willpower, mental control, or
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  some kind of vital practice to suppress the desire.
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  This can however lead to unintended and unexpected
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  consequences as suppression does not get to the true solution of
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  the issue, but simply hides the issue for the time being.
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  The sexual abuse scandals rocking so many churches are
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  evidence that moral rules and suppression of desire simply do
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  not work for most people. When the seeker begins to
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  understand the universal nature of the forces that provoke the
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  rising of desire and they see that the desires are external to
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  them, simply being admitted and accepted by habit or by the
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  normal and trained responses 1 gets in the society.
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  As one grows and develops, the issue becomes somewhat simpler
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  to resolve, although serious effort must still be made to
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  reject the desire as or even before it arises and begins to
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  move the body, vital energy and mind to realize itself in an
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  overt action. One of the most effective
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  methods turns out to be shifting the attention away from the
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  energy center that is receiving the vibration that is
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  interpreted as a desire. The individual takes the
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  standpoint of the witness of the nature and rather than give in
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  to the force that is trying to move him, he shifts his
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  attention to his spiritual pursuits or to his deepest
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  aspiration. Sri Aurobindo observes quote The
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  rejection of desire is essentially the rejection of the
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  element of craving, putting that out from the consciousness
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  itself as a foreign element not belonging to the true self and
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  the inner nature. But refusal to indulge the
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  suggestions of desire is also a part of the rejection.
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  To abstain from the action suggested if it is not the right
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  action must be included in the yogic discipline.
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  It is only when this is done in the wrong way, by a mental
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  ascetic principle or a hard moral rule, that it can be
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  called suppression. The difference between
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  suppression and an inward essential rejection is the
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  difference between mental or moral control and a spiritual
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  purification. When one lives in the true
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  consciousness, 1 feels the desires outside oneself entering
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  from outside, from the universal lower procrity into the mind and
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  the vital parts. In the ordinary human condition
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  this is not felt. Men become aware of the desire
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  only when it is there, when it is come inside and found a
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  lodging or a habitual harbourage, and so they think it
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  is their own and a part of themselves.
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  The first condition for getting rid of desire is therefore to
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  become conscious with the true consciousness, for then it
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  becomes much easier to dismiss it than when one has to struggle
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  with it as if it were a constituent part of oneself to
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  be thrown out from the being. It is easier to cast off an
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  accretion than to excise what is felt as a parcel of our
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  substance. When the psychic being is in
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  front, then also to get rid of desire becomes easy, for the
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  psychic being has in itself no desires, it has only aspirations
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  and of seeking in love for the divine in all things that are or
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  tend towards the divine. The constant prominence of the
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  psychic being tends of itself to bring out the true consciousness
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  and set right almost automatically the movements of
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  the nature. End Quote Reference Sri
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  Aurobindo Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4 Desire Food Sex pages 61 to
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  62.