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The Vital Being: Its Nature, Its Role and Its Mode of Action · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When the vital nature is involved, which individual has
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  the power to control its impulsions and demands and keep
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  it focused on the higher aims of life?
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  The vital nature is a powerful and essential component of life
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  on earth. It animates material nature and
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  functions through the force of desire.
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  There is an apocryphal tale of a man who has a magic lamp and can
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  summon a genie. When the genie appears before
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  the man, he asks what it is the man wants and lays out the
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  ground rules. The individual can ask anything
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  he likes and the genie will promptly carry it out.
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  However, the genie must be kept active.
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  If the man fails to keep the genie always active, the genie
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  will devour the individual. What a great description of the
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  vital nature. For most people there is an
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  intention to achieve objects of desire, but these objects of
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  desire are transitory and lead to temporary satiation and then
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  a renewal of the desire, perhaps in a more intensive form.
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  There is no peace possible as long as the vital nature is left
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  free to seek after the objects of desire.
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  Yet mental attempts to control the vital are in most cases
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  quite ineffective, partial, temporary, and may lead, if it
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  has been done through outright suppression, to a rebound with
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  even greater energy, like a spring that has been compressed
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  and thereby stores up additional force.
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  The vital is so powerful that it can influence the mind into
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  believing that it is in control, when in fact the vital is
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  biasing the mental function to such a degree that the mind will
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  justify anything the vital desires.
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  The vital is ruled primarily by the guna of rajas.
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  In most instances, this guna, or quality of nature is one of
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  action, desire and outreach. When it goes to its extreme, it
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  can lead to aggression and injury as it exceeds the limits
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  of the physical body within which it is active.
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  Rajas inevitably loses its force and generally the result is a
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  fall into the darkness and inaction of Thomas.
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  Rare is the individual who can manage the operation of Rajas
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  and Thomas through the application of satwa.
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  The guna of harmony, balance, light, and understanding, Sri
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  Aurobindo notes Quote Vital is a thing of desires, impulses,
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  force, pushes, emotions, sensations, seekings, afterlife,
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  fulfillment, possession, and enjoyment.
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  These are its functions and its nature.
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  It is that part of us which seeks afterlife and its
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  movements for their own sake, and it does not want to leave
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  hold of them if they bring its suffering as well as, or more
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  than pleasure. It is even capable of
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  luxuriating in tears and suffering as part of the drama
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  of life. What then is there in common
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  between the thinking, intelligence, and the vital?
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  And why should the latter obey the mind and not follow its own
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  nature? The disobedience is perfectly
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  normal. Instead of being, as Augustine
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  suggests, unintelligible, of course man can establish a
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  mental control over his vital, and in so far as he does he is a
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  man, because the thinking mind is a nobler and more enlightened
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  entity and consciousness than the vital and ought therefore to
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  rule, and if the mental will is strong, can rule.
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  But this rule is precarious, incomplete, and held only by
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  much self-discipline. For if the mind is more
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  enlightened, the vital is nearer to earth, more intense,
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  vehement, more directly able to touch the body.
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  There is too a vital mind which lives by imagination, thoughts
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  of desire, will to act and enjoy from its own impulse, and this
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  is able to seize on the reason itself and make it it's
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  auxiliary, and it's justifying council and supplier of pleas
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  and excuses. There is also the sheer force of
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  desire in man, which is the vitals principal, support and
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  strong enough to sweep off the reason, as the Gita says, like a
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  boat on stormy waters. End Quote.
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  Reference Triorobindo and the Mother Our Many Selves,
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  Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Plains and Parts of
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  the Being, pages 26 to 27.