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The Need to Employ the Searchlight on Every Aspect of One's Being · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In its essence, yoga is a form of applied psychology.
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  The practitioner of yoga is attempting to redirect the
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  focus, the responses and the reactions of the being, in many
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  cases having to overcome deeply rooted and embedded instincts,
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  habits and trained responses, as well as the forces of desire,
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  physical sensations, cravings and mental predilections.
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  The development takes place by a refocusing the being on the
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  higher principles or forces and then by a systematic rejection
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  of the uprising of lower forces which try to distract, distort
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  or dilute the action of the higher force.
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  The review of the normal and obscure reactions of the lower
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  being becomes an important part of the sadhna as the seeker
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  grapples with the realities of changing human nature within his
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  own being. The mother advises of the need
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  to turn the inner Searchlight on to all the hidden, obscure and
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  dark places in the nature. This is sometimes compared to
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  the process of psychotherapy in the West, but in reality it is a
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  vastly different process with dramatically different leverage
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  and outcomes. Psychotherapy does not start
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  from the principle of radically changing and upgrading human
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  nature. Rather, it tries to help an
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  individual cope with forces within the context of the normal
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  expectations of living in society.
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  Second, psychotherapy does not first develop the connection and
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  link to the psychic being or the spiritual force, so as it
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  explores the inner obscure depths, it does not have a power
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  already developed to deal with these forces and the uprisings
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  they precipitate. In many cases, psychotherapy is
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  stirring up things that can lead to serious confusion or setbacks
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  for an individual, whereas the systematic inner Searchlight is
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  based first and foremost on the ground of the separation of the
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  witness consciousness from the external nature, a place of
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  detachment and observation. This provides enormous leverage
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  for dealing with the reactions that arise during this review.
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  The mother notes quote. There is one part of the being
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  which has an aspiration, there is one part of the being which
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  gives itself, and there are other parts, sometimes a small
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  part, sometimes a big one, which hides nicely right at the bottom
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  and keeps absolutely quiet, so that it may not be found out,
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  but which resists with all its might so as not to change.
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  Hidden somewhere there is a tiny something which is well coiled
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  up in there, doubled up, turned in upon itself and well hidden
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  right at the bottom as at the bottom of a box which refuses to
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  stir. Mother speaks very softly.
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  So when the effort, the aspiration wave, die down, this
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  springs up like that, gently, and then it wants to impose its
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  will and makes you do exactly what you did not want to do,
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  what you had decided you would not do, and which you do without
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  knowing how or why. Because that thing was there.
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  It had its turn for small things, big things, for the
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  details, even for the direction of life.
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  There are people who see clearly, who know so well what
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  they ought to do, and who feel that they can't.
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  They don't know why. It is nothing else but that
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  there is a little spot which doesn't want to change, and this
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  little spot awaits its hour and the day.
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  It is allowed through laxity, fatigue, somnolence, through a
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  little inertia, allowed to show itself.
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  It will show itself with all concentrated, accumulated
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  energy, and will make you do, will make you say, will make you
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  feel, make you act. Exactly.
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  Contrary to what you had decided to do.
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  And you will stand there. Ah, how discouraging this is
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  then. Some people say fate.
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  They think it is their fate. It is not fate, it is
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  themselves. It is that they don't have
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  haven't used the light, the Searchlight.
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  They have not turned the Searchlight into the small
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  hidden corners of our being. They haven't discovered what was
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  well hidden. They have left it there, and
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  they have done this. Mother turns away her head so as
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  not to see it. How many times one suddenly
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  feels 1 is on the point of catching something.
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  It hurts a little. It is troublesome.
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  So one thinks of something else and that's all.
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  The opportunity has gone. One must wait for another
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  occasion again, commit a few stupidities before being able to
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  find an opportunity to catch the thing by the tail like this, or
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  by the ear or the nose, and hold it firmly and say no, you won't
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  hide any longer. Now I see you as you are, and
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  you must either get out or change.
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  End Quote Reference Crioro, Bindu and the Mother Looking
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  from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pages 81 to
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  83.