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The Need for a Sleepless Vigilance in the Yogic Sadhana · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Virtually everyone has had the experience at some point or
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  another of finally overcoming a particularly difficult internal
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  issue, whether it is the force of desire or not, responding
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  with anger to things that do not go as anticipated, or any number
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  of other activities that take place in the physical, the vital
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  or the mental elements of the being.
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  And then, when one is feeling satisfied that a real progress
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  has been made, there is a circumstance that demolishes
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  that sense of accomplishment with a recognition that one has
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  once again given in to the impulsion or the provocation and
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  repeated what one thought was done and gone.
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  We frequently forget that our inner psychology is not uniform
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  and stable, rather it is made-up of different parts of the being
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  which have their own different needs, desires, enjoyments and
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  responses. While at the same time there is
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  the constant play of the three gunas of nature, Thomas, Rajas
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  and Sapwa that influence the responses when Thomas is in the
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  ascendant. We can open ourselves at those
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  times through inattention, tiredness, carelessness, or
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  through a low energy state that is easily pushed into a
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  response. When rajas is in the ascendant,
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  we may respond through desire or a form of ambition, or some
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  attitude of pride, of vanity, and through our overconfidence,
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  our rajasic arrogance. We believe we can control and
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  overpower what comes and thus do not see how we are being
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  manipulated to respond when Suttwa is in the ascendant.
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  We may respond through a belief that we have overcome the
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  influence of certain forces, or we may have a response of the
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  Suttwick ego that believes it is passed.
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  Beyond all of these issues, these are simply examples of the
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  ways we can be ensnared and experience a return of movements
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  that we had previously succeeded in overcoming.
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  Another important factor is the way the work of transformation
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  tends to take place. The process is somewhat
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  cyclical. A progress is made in one area,
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  which opens up the opportunity for a next step in another part
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  of the being. The progress is not complete or
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  definitive, but simply sufficient to allow the
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  development to take place. Once the new capacity or energy
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  has been stabilized, the focus comes around again in a new
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  cycle to further upgrade the area that was initially changed.
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  The cyclical process ensures that each element of the being
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  is addressed at each succeeding stage of progress comes forward.
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  But it also means that what we may have thought were
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  accomplished changes were really only partial adjustments.
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  Until everything is completed, nothing is truly completed.
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  The same type of process takes place at the societal level,
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  such that any new level of consciousness or action of force
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  has to 1st have a prepared general level of consciousness.
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  Once it enters into the mainstream of human activity and
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  expands its action and influence, a next stage becomes
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  possible for a further widening, deepening and expanding of the
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  new consciousness. Thus change at the level of
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  humanity is also partial, progressive and cyclical in
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  nature, and it must be remembered that as long as a
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  force is active somewhere in the environment, in the generality
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  of humanity, it maintains A standpoint from which to
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  infiltrate and affect any specific individual if and when
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  they are ever open to that energy or vibration.
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  It is this complex set of interactions that makes the
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  transformation process so difficult and time consuming,
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  and which then requires the sleepless vigilance that
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  Shriorovindo describes. Shriorovindo notes quote only.
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  You must remain vigilant always, for when the condition is good,
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  the lower movements have a habit of subsiding and becoming
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  quiescent, hiding as it were, or they go out of the nature and
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  remain at a distance. But if they see that the sodic
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  is losing vigilance, then they slowly begin to rise or draw
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  near, most often unseen, and when he is quite off his guard,
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  surge up suddenly or make a sudden eruption.
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  This continues until the whole nature, mental, vital, physical,
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  down to the very subconscious, is enlightened, conscious, full
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  of the Divine. Till that happens, one must
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  always remain watchful in a sleepless vigilance.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother looking from within, Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, page 146.