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The Vital Nature Can Go On Strike When It Does Not Get What It Wants · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Most people have had the experience.
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  An individual has a dispute with a friend, a relative, a spouse.
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  No resolution takes place. An attempt to convince or
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  control the other person is met with resistance.
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  There may be aggression or threats of violence, or a period
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  of silent avoidance may result. This latter response is an
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  example of what we might consider to be an individual
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  going on strike in relation to another individual.
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  This same process takes place within ourselves.
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  We experience a desire of some type, possibly for a feeling of
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  being wanted and supported, possibly for something like
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  recognition or fame, possibly for wealth or power, sex or
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  entertainment. It could be a desire for a
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  specific type of food or drink, or a desire for an intoxicant.
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  In order to experience the state of consciousness that
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  accompanies the drug, whatever it might be, we are confronted
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  each moment with a choice. We can follow the impulse and
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  fulfill the desire. Afterwards, we may feel satiated
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  for a time, and the vital nature is willing to cooperate and
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  participate in actions that the mind and will or the psychic
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  aspiration would like to see accomplished.
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  We may determine that carrying out the impulse, however, is not
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  something we would like to do. So we rebuff the vital nature
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  and ask it one way or the other to desist from that desire and
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  to carry out the mind's will or other action that speaks to our
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  deeper aspirations. At this moment we find that the
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  vital can either intensify its insistence on its desire, or
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  else if it is not successful, it may simply withdraw energy and
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  begin to sulk, to avoid engagement and to feel
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  depressed, discouraged or dismissed.
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  At that moment there is either a struggle to face off against the
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  desire of the vital, or else there is a period of feeling
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  lost, dispersed, distracted, seeking for some form of
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  diversion or psychological oblivion, unable to accomplish
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  anything. Finding a way to tame the vital
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  nature is one of the serious challenges faced by spiritual
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  aspirants throughout the world. Avoidance of opportunity has
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  shown to be a failed approach as it does not solve the problem.
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  Indulgence, the satisfying of the desire, is also a failed
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  approach as desire tends to burn hotter the more fuel it is
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  provided. The question then arises whether
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  there is another way, such as, can the vital nature be
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  educated, raised up and its focus upgraded to support the
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  higher aspiration of the being and find its fulfillment there
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  instead of in its heretofore normal pursuits and
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  satisfactions? The mother writes quote.
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  Therefore it depends on which side it turns.
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  And I tell you it has a very strong habit of going on strike.
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  That is its most powerful weapon.
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  Ah, you're not doing what I want.
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  Well, I'm not going to move. I shall sham dead.
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  And it does that for the least reason.
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  It has a very bad character. It is very touchy and it is very
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  spiteful. Yes, it is very ill nature, for
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  I believe it is very conscious of its power, and it feels
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  clearly that if it gives itself wholly, there is nothing that
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  will resist the momentum of its force.
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  And like all people who have a weight in the balance, the vital
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  also bargains. I shall give you my energy, but
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  you must do what I want. If you do not give me what I ask
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  for, well, I withdraw my energy, and you will be flat as a
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  pancake. And it is true, it happens like
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  that. End Quote reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother powers within Chapter 17, The Vital,
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  page 134.