Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Understanding and Addressing the Difficulties of Gaining Control of the Ordinary Human Nature and Life, Part 1
Transcript
- 0:01SRI aurobindo provided advice to an individual who was trying to
- 0:05sort out the direction for his life and how to face the
- 0:09difficulties that confronted him.
- 0:11Particularly with respect to certain vital weaknesses to
- 0:14which he was prom, SRI aurobindo analyze, the condition of this
- 0:19individual in great detail and provided both General and
- 0:24specific advice for addressing the situation.
- 0:28The general advice is here. SRI, aurobindo notes, quote,
- 0:34this ideal involves the building of mind and character and is
- 0:38always a slow and difficult process.
- 0:41Demanding patient, labor of years.
- 0:44Sometimes the better part of the lifetime, the chief difficulty
- 0:49in the way with almost everybody is the difficulty of controlling
- 0:53the desires, and impulses of the vital being in many cases, as in
- 0:58yours certain strong, impulses run persistently counter to the
- 1:02ideal and demand of the reason. And the will the causes almost
- 1:08always a weakness of the vital being itself.
- 1:12For when there is this weakness, it finds itself unable to obey
- 1:16the dictates of the higher mind and obliged.
- 1:19Instead to act under waves of impulsion that come from certain
- 1:24forces in nature. These forces are really external
- 1:29to the person but find in this part of him.
- 1:33A sort of mechanical Readiness to satisfy and Obey them.
- 1:37The difficulty is aggravated, if the seat of the weakness is in
- 1:42the nervous system, there is then what is called by European
- 1:46science and neurasthenia tendency and under certain
- 1:50circumstances, it leads to nervous, breakdowns and
- 1:54collapse. This happens when there's two
- 1:57greatest strain on the nerves or when there is excessive
- 2:00Indulgence of the sexual or other propensities.
- 2:04And sometimes also, when there is two acute and prolonged us,
- 2:07Go between the restraining mental will.
- 2:10And these propensities, this is the illness from which you are
- 2:14suffering and if you consider these facts you will see the
- 2:18real reason why you broke down at, pondicherry the nervous
- 2:23system in, you was weak. It could not obey the will and
- 2:27resist the demand of the external vital forces.
- 2:30And in the struggle, there came an over strain of the mind and
- 2:33the nerves and it collapse taking the form of an Acute
- 2:37attack of neurasthenia. These difficulties do not mean
- 2:42that you cannot Prevail and bring about a control of your
- 2:45nerves and vital being and build up a Harmony of mind and
- 2:50character, only, you must understand the thing, rightly
- 2:55not indulging in false and morbid ideas about it and you
- 2:59must use the right means. What is needed is a quiet mind
- 3:04and a quiet will Patient, persistent refusing to yield
- 3:10either to excitement or discouragement but always
- 3:14insisting tranquilly on the change needed in the being.
- 3:18A quiet will of this kind cannot fail in the end.
- 3:23Its effect is inevitable, it must first reject in the waking
- 3:27State. Not only the acts a bitch will
- 3:30to the vital being but the impulses behind them, which it
- 3:34must understand to be External to the person even though
- 3:38manifested in him and also the suggestions which are behind the
- 3:43impulses. When thus rejected the once a
- 3:47bitch will thoughts and movements may still manifest in
- 3:51the dream state because it is a well-known psychological law,
- 3:56that what is suppressed or rejected in the waking state may
- 4:00still recur in sleep and dream because they are still there in
- 4:04the subcontinent being. But if the waking state is
- 4:08Thoroughly, cleared, these dream movements must gradually
- 4:12disappear because they lose their food.
- 4:15And the impressions in the subcontinent are gradually
- 4:18effaced. This is the cause of the dreams
- 4:22of which you are so much afraid. You should see that they are
- 4:26only a subordinate symptom which need not alarm you.
- 4:30If you can once get control of your waking condition, And
- 4:35quote, reference SRI aurobindo in the mother living within the
- 4:41yoga approach to psychological health and growth, disturbances
- 4:45of the body and physical Consciousness.
- 4:48Healing the nerves Pages 101 to 107.