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Educating and Uplifting the Vital Nature: Part 1 Understanding the Issues · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When we recognize the difficulties of managing the
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  energy of the vital nature and its long habits of how it finds
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  fulfillment and satisfaction, we can appreciate that there are no
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  simple solutions available. The vital, when it is
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  cooperative with the mind and the psychic being, is an
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  incredible power of effectuation.
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  When it sets up obstacles, however, it can pose immense
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  difficulties for the seeker. We can gain an understanding of
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  the vital in its mode of operations as a basis for
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  bringing it to a place where it wants to and does Co operate
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  with the seeker. First, it is important to
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  formulate the intention or goal one has for the vital nature.
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  If the goal is the abandonment of the active external life,
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  then the vital can be suppressed and prevented from finding any
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  outlet. If, however, the goal is the
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  transformation of life both for the individual and for the
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  external life, then the vital needs to be understood and the
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  relationship with it managed carefully.
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  So, the first step is to define one's intention in relation to
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  the vital. Next, we can look at the concept
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  of vital management. There are numerous theories and
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  practices that have been tried in the past, some more
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  successful than others. We look therefore at the
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  principles involved in managing the vital.
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  Thereafter, it comes down to a matter of the techniques which
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  need to be adaptable and flexible to start, from where
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  the individual's vital nature is in its development, and what is
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  possible from that starting point and with the circumstances
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  that are extant for the secret to address and manage.
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  Educating the vital nature is actually an important element of
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  the process of educating children, who naturally have the
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  vital nature active and in most cases predominant over the
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  mental being in the earlier stages of their lives.
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  First principles of education require an understanding of the
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  habits of the vital, how they are formed and how they are
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  redirected. Thus, the first concern is to
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  develop the power of observation, both of one's own
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  reactions and the way significant individuals in one's
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  life, such as parents, siblings, friends, teachers, and others
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  with whom one relates, react to situations, as these all
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  represent influences that help shape one's own vital responses
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  to circumstances. It is through such detailed
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  observation, and particularly inner observation of one's own
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  vital impulses, urges and reactions that one can truly
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  begin to understand the forces at work and thus begin to
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  develop a plan to manage, train and guide the vital nature.
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  We find that through poor vital education in parents, they often
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  resort to violence and bullying of children in order to
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  accomplish some immediate act of submission.
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  This process tends either to deaden the vital or create
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  resistance and rebellion at some point or carries on the MIS
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  education of the vital into future generations.
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  This insight can aid the seeker in dealing with his own vital
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  nature which may have been subjected to such experiences
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  earlier in life. Similarly, the society may set
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  forth objectives that get internalized by the child to
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  obtain vital satisfaction through acquisition of material
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  objects, through obtaining wealth, power, fame and acclaim
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  or some other external reward, thus perverting the vital nature
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  in its expectations and focus. This too results in deeply
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  rooted obstacles and limitations for the secret to understand and
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  work out. An excellent mode of observation
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  is to attempt to implement a discipline and then observe how
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  the vital response to it. For instance, as a preliminary
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  practice in Raja Yoga, Patanjali describes the restraints known
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  as yamas and niyamas. These are practices that
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  restrain the vital being from some of the ordinary reactions.
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  The yamas are not harming others, abiding in truth and
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  thought, word and deed, non stealing including not coveting
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  possessions of others, continents to restrain the
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  sexual energy, and non receiving in the form of acceptance of
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  energies or gifts from others which can influence one's
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  energetic state. The niyamas include purification
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  both externally and inwardly to cleanse the body, mind and soul,
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  contentment so as to limit the force of desire, concentration
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  of conscious force known as tapas.
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  Observation for learning and study and bringing forward the
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  aspiration, love and gratitude for the Divine.
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  Each of these will bring up reactions in the vital nature,
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  and thus one can learn about the deformations that need to be
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  dealt with and the positive energies that provide a basis
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  for further progress. The Mother observes quote.
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  It is difficult to regulate it, yet naturally when you have
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  succeeded in taming it, you have something powerful in hand for
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  realization. It is that which can carry by
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  storm the biggest obstacles. It is that which is capable of
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  turning an idiot into an intelligent person.
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  It alone can do so. For if one yearns passionately
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  for progress, if the vital takes it into its head that one must
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  progress, even the greatest idiot can become intelligent.
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  I have seen this. I am not speaking from hearsay.
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  I have seen it. I have seen people who were
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  dull, stupid, incapable of understanding, who understood
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  nothing. You could go on explaining
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  something to them for months. It would not enter as though one
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  were speaking to a block of wood.
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  And then all of a sudden, their vital was caught in a passion.
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  They wanted simply to please someone or get something.
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  And for that, one had to understand.
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  One had to know it was necessary.
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  Well, they set everything moving.
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  They shook up the sleeping mind. They poured energy into all the
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  corners where there was none. And they understood.
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  They became intelligent. I knew someone who knew nothing,
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  practically understood nothing, and who, when the mind started
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  moving and the passion for progress took possession of him,
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  began to write wonderful things. I have them with me.
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  And when the movement withdrew, when the vital went on strike,
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  for sometimes it went on strike and withdrew, the person became
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  once again absolutely dull. End Quote Reference Shrioro
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  Bindu and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 17, The Vital,
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  pages 134 to 135.