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Distinguishing the Vital Mind from the Mental Power of Reason, Thought and Will · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We may observe feelings, perceptions, thoughts, emotions,
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  ideas, imaginations, memories, etcetera, all arising in our
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  minds. And for most of us this is all
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  just mental activity. And for most people this is
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  clearly enough. For those taking up the
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  spiritual life and practice, however, it becomes difficult to
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  understand what is going on and what can and should be done
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  about it, to bring about the right mental texture of the
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  consciousness, to be receptive and able to handle the higher
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  inspirations, intuitions and powers as they enter into the
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  mind. It is thus highly useful to be
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  able to distinguish the different elements that bring
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  about the mental activity we experience, and thereby to
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  understand the source, the power and the intention of the forces
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  at work in our mind. Stuff.
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  A particular note is that the vital aspect of our lives has
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  tremendous power to convince the mind to support the fulfillment
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  of its desires and wishes. What may seem to be a form of
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  mental reasoning process may in fact be specious reasoning
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  driven by the vital nature and its bias towards its own
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  fulfillment. The true mental power focuses on
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  principles and concepts that are native to the mental world.
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  There is something of a separation from the life powers
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  that can create a process of logic and reasoning that is not
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  subject to the desire soul, but independent of individual ego
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  fulfillment. Shriorobindo writes Quote The
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  vital mind is that part of the vital being which builds plans,
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  imagines, arranges things and thoughts according to the life,
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  pushes desires will to power or possession will to action,
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  emotions, vital ego, reactions of the nature.
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  It must be distinguished from the reasoning will, which plans
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  and arranges things according to the dictates of the thinking
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  mind proper, the discriminating reason, or according to the
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  mental intuition, or a direct insight and judgment.
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  The vital mind uses thought for the service, not of reason, but
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  of life push and life power. And when it calls in reasoning,
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  it uses that for justifying the dictates of these powers,
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  imposes their dictates on the reason instead of governing by a
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  discriminating will, the action of the life forces end.
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  Quote Reference Shriorobindo and the Mother Our Many Selves
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  Practical Yogic Psychology Chapter 2 Planes and Parts of
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  the Being, page 47.