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Standing Back from the Reactions of the External Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The action of the three gunas rules our external nature.
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  Rajas, active in the vital being, tends to fixate on the
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  fulfillment and satisfaction of desires of whatever kind.
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  Desires, however, cannot ever be fully satisfied.
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  As the fulfillment of a desire simply increases, the vitals
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  push for more. A groove is more or less created
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  that is a known and easy pathway for energy to flow, and
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  thereafter it tends to go down that path more easily than
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  trying to take a different approach.
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  When a desire is not satisfied, it tends to recoil into the Guna
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  of Thomas, which can bring about dissatisfaction, depression,
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  weakness, lethargy, or feelings of incapacity or insufficiency.
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  The action of the gunas in the external nature is so automatic
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  that people tend to get caught up in them and just accept them
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  as the reality of their lives. The spiritual seeker has before
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  him the task of unraveling these reactions and responses and
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  rewiring the direction of the energy flow toward the Divine.
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  One of the most powerful methods is to create within oneself the
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  witness consciousness, which stands back and observes the
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  action of the external nature and is able to see these
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  reactions for what they are. He can also note that both
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  satisfaction of the desire and denial of the desire create
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  results that keep the attention focused on the outer nature
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  instead of on the spiritual aspiration itself.
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  Eventually, this witness can become more or less a neutral
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  observer and not provide any sanction or support to those
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  movements. Rather, he can consciously turn
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  his focus to the psychic being and support the soul's
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  aspiration and the link to the Divine Presence and reality.
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  Srioro Bindo notes quote The rule in yoga is not to let the
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  depression depress you, to stand back from it, observe its cause,
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  and remove the cause. For the cause is always in
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  oneself, perhaps a vital defect somewhere, a wrong movement
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  indulged, or a petty desire causing a recoil, sometimes by
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  its satisfaction, sometimes by its disappointment.
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  In yoga, a desire satisfied a false movement, given its head,
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  produces very often a worse recoil than disappointed desire.
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  What is needed for you is to live more deeply within, less in
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  the outer vital and mental part which is exposed to these
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  touches. The inmost psychic being is not
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  oppressed by them. It stands in its own closeness
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  to the divine and sees the small surface movements as surface
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  things foreign to the true being.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Vindo, Bases of
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  Yoga, Chapter 3 in difficulty, page 43.