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Vital Forces and Spiritual Forces and the Evolution of Consciousness · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Most people do not recognize the active role and intention of
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  conscious vital forces in their lives.
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  First, the physical body tends to shield them from direct
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  perception of these forces. While they may experience
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  emotions, feelings, thoughts, cravings, reactions, and
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  responses, they do not necessarily attribute them to
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  the action of conscious forces or entities that they cannot
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  easily perceive. Those who have the experience of
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  conscious awareness outside the physical body, however, report
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  interaction with these vital forces and formations.
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  Additionally, as an individual attains the standpoint of the
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  witness and observes closely how thoughts, feelings, perceptions
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  come to him, it becomes clear that universal forces bring them
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  to the being, which then accepts and internalizes them.
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  In most cases, these forces are not acting with directed
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  conscious attention on the individual, but are simply
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  manifesting the force that they carry generally, but in other
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  cases the intention can be felt and understood.
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  Opening up the lower chakras more subject to the influence of
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  vital forces can therefore lead to an individual facing serious
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  disturbances, disruptions and imbalances to the extent he
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  vibrates in sympathy with the vibrational pattern set up by
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  these forces and then rebroadcast them.
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  These forces gain an influence on others in the surrounding
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  environment. The experience of fear is a good
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  example of this. An individual recounted A
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  confrontation where law enforcement was attempting to
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  shut down a protest demonstration some time ago in
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  Washington, DC The protesters were surrounded by police with
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  Shields, Billy clubs, protective vests, and guns.
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  A sense of great fear for safety arose within the crowd.
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  When confronted with this situation, there was a clearly
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  communicated energy. Then something happened to
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  change that mood. Some people took up chanting OM
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  and brought a calming energy which then circulated in the
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  group and calmed the original reaction of fear.
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  We see here how the vital forces work to raise up in energy and
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  disseminate it. In this case, both a hostile
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  energy that brought fear and a supportive, calming energy that
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  brought peace. Turning our attention then to
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  the sexual energy, the opening up of receptivity of the first
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  chakra, which occurs with the focus on the sexual force, also
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  opens up the being to the influence of vital forces that
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  feed upon these energies or that actively oppose the spiritual
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  evolution that is taking place. Spiritual forces are active just
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  as vital or mental forces are active, and they come to those
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  who have tuned their focus to their action and who are openly
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  receptive to them. The action of these higher
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  forces, however, is very much conditioned on the overall
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  receptivity of the being. They are unwilling to be
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  diverted to the fulfilment of vital desires if that is how
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  they are being utilized by the individual.
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  They simply withdraw until they have a clear field within which
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  to act, Shrioro Bindu observes. Quote It is an error to imagine
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  that although the physical sexual action is to be
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  abandoned, yet some inward reproduction of it is part of
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  the transformation of the sex center, the action of the animal
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  sex. Energy in nature is a device for
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  a particular purpose in the economy of the material creation
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  in the ignorance, but the vital excitement that accompanies it
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  makes the most favorable opportunity and vibration in the
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  atmosphere for the inrush of those very vital forces and
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  beings whose whole business is to prevent the descent of the
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  supermental light. The pleasure attached to it is a
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  degradation and not a true form of the Divine Ananda.
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  The true Divine Ananda in the physical has a different quality
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  and movement and substance. Self existent in its essence,
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  its manifestation is dependent only on an inner union with the
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  Divine. You have spoken of Divine Love,
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  but Divine Love, when it touches the physical, does not awaken
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  the gross, lower vital propensities.
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  Indulgence of them would only repel it and make it withdraw
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  again to the heights from which it is already difficult enough
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  to draw it down into the coarseness of the material
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  creation which it alone can transform.
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  Seek the Divine Love through the only gate through which it will
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  consent to enter the gate of the psychic being, and castaway the
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  lower vital error. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4 Desire Food
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  Sex, pages 71 to 72.