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Illness Is a Deformation of the Physical Nature · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When an individual takes up a spiritual path, he has to work
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  through the seemingly fine lines of distinction that the various
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  prescriptions and directions for progress along the path appear
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  to carry. For example, equality and
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  equanimity are counselled as essential characteristics for
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  progress. This leads some individuals for
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  a time to take these terms to extremes that were never
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  intended due to the dogmatic nature of the mental
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  understanding, the desire to have a clear cut, uniform and
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  neatly defined process for the needed progress.
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  One of the extremes that we occasionally hear relates to
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  accepting illness rather than rejecting it outright.
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  The thinking goes that the individual has surrendered
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  himself to the divine, and whatever the divine chooses to
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  provide is to be accepted without question.
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  This is a form of temasic surrender that allows any force,
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  no matter how much it may weaken the being, to have sway without
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  discrimination or any filtering process.
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  Not every force that comes to an individual is of force for the
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  progressive manifestation of the divine in the world.
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  Some forces actively work to hold back that progress, to
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  maintain the status quo and to prevent the transformation of
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  life that will undermine their sway.
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  These forces may work on the mental level, the vital level,
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  or the physical level. Attacks of illness work to
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  undermine the strength and stability of the body.
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  For a practitioner of the Integral Yoga, the body needs to
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  be strong enough to hold and respond to the divine force.
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  When illness undermines this strength, it becomes an
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  obstacle. It is through our conscious
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  choices that we aid in the transformation process or become
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  tools of those forces that want to deny the transformation.
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  If we choose to accept and embrace mentally the vibrations
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  of any illness, we are opening the door to it, building grooves
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  of response in the physical cells and thereby making it
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  easier for those vibrations to act on the being.
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  If we reject those vibratory patterns, we strengthen the
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  barriers against the illness and thereby support the strong,
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  vibrant and receptive physical foundation needed to practice
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  this yogic endeavour. Sri Aurobindo notes quote Your
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  theory of illness is a rather a perilous creed, for illness is a
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  thing to be eliminated, not accepted or enjoyed.
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  There is something in the being that enjoys illness.
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  It is possible even to turn the pains of illness, like any other
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  pain, into a form of pleasure, For pain and pleasure are both
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  of them degradations of an original Ananda, and can be
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  reduced into terms of each other, or else sublimated into
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  their original principle of Ananda.
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  It is true also that one must be able to bear illness with calm,
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  equanimity, endurance, even recognition of it, since it has
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  come as something that has to be passed through in the course of
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  experience. But to accept and enjoy it means
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  to help it to last, and that will not do.
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  For illness is a deformation of the physical nature, just as
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  lust, anger, jealousy, et cetera are deformations of the vital
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  nature, and error and prejudice and indulgence of falsehood are
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  deformations of the mental nature.
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  All these things have to be eliminated, and rejection is the
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  first condition of their disappearance, while acceptance
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  has a contrary effect altogether.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Window Bases of
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  Yoga, Chapter 5. Physical consciousness,
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  subconscious sleep and dream illness.
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  Pages one O 6 to one O 7.