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The Vital Nature: Transformation Not Suppression · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The vital has a natural tendency to seek for the fulfillment of
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  its being in some form of enjoyment in the external
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  surface being. This enjoyment takes the form of
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  a seeking after pleasure. With this seeking after
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  pleasure, however, comes also the experience of pain.
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  Pleasure and pain alternate and eventually the seeker
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  understands the transitory pleasures and pains.
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  The operation of the dualities of the life of the senses is not
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  actual fulfillment, nor does it solve the significance of
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  purpose of one's life. Many ideas arise as to the best
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  way to solve the issue of fulfillment of the vital without
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  the unfulfilling alternation of the dualities.
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  Many believe that it is not possible to overcome these
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  dualities, and they will indicate that any seeking after
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  pleasure necessarily involves the experience of its opposite
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  pain, and that this is the natural condition of life on
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  earth. In other words, just accept the
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  conditions and don't complain about it.
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  There are others who believe that the solution lies in not
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  seeking after pleasure at all by suppression of the vital
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  impulsions entirely. This approach is particularly
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  attractive to those who are focused on trying to attain the
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  Divine status through meditation, concentration, deep
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  spiritual experiences of samadhi, the inward spiritual
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  trance state. This approach, however, does not
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  solve the issue, but simply hides it from the seeker for
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  some period of time. Eventually, the larger purpose
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  of the universal creation and the individual's role in it
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  needs to be addressed. The issue comes down to how to
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  maintain the motivation of the vital nature while redirecting
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  its fulfillment away from the seeking of pleasure.
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  This eventually can yield the result of achieving the state of
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  ananda, bliss, delight of existence unconditioned by
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  specific causative factors that bring pleasure to the external
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  nature. The Mother observes, quote, One
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  must refuse pleasure if one wants to open to the delight of
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  existence in a total beauty and harmony.
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  This brings us quite naturally to vital austerity, the
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  austerity of the sensations, the tapasia of power.
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  For the vital being is the seed of power, of effective
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  enthusiasm. It is in the vital that thought
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  is transformed into will and becomes a dynamism for action.
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  It is also true that the vital is the seat of desires and
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  passions, of violent impulses and equally violent reactions,
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  of revolt and depression. The normal remedy is to strangle
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  and starve the vital by depriving it of all sensation.
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  Sensations are indeed its main sustenance and without them it
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  falls asleep, grows sluggish and starves to death.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Our
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  Many Selves. Practical Yogic Psychology,
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  Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pages 28 to 29.