The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 8

The Surrender of an Inner Warrior

It means the the vital when it is converted. The converted vital is for the Divine like a warrior. The vital in man is the region of power and it is that which drives him to fight, to fight and conquer. It is the most difficult element to deal with: for it is this capacity to fight that also produces in the vital the spirit of revolt and independence, the will to follow its own will. But when the vital understands and is converted, if it is truly surrendered to the Divine Will, then its fighting capacity turns against anti-divine forces, the forces of obscurity that prevent the transformation: the powers of the vital are strong enough to conquer the enemies. The antidivine forces are in the vital world: from there they spread upon the physical. But their own seat is in the vital and it is the converted vital that can effectively deal with them. But the conversion is difficult.

The higher vital finds it much less difficult to surrender, for it is under the influence of the mind and sometimes even of the psychic; it understands them more easily. It is less difficult than the lower vital, for the latter is essentially the stronghold of desires and blind impulsions. The lower vital, even when it surrenders, when it does what it is asked to do, is not wholly happy, it suffers

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and only pushes down the impulse to revolt, it obeys unwillingly and does not collaborate. Unless it collaborates in joy and true love, nothing can be done, the transformation cannot come.

The surrender can be happy only when it is sincere. Or rather one can turn round the thing and say, if the vital is not happy, you must know for certain that it is not perfectly sincere. If it is not happy, that means there is some reservation, something that would like the thing to be otherwise, something with a will of its own, its own desire, its own aim and which is not satisfied, not completely surrendered, not sincere in its surrender. But if one is sincere in his surrender one is perfectly happy automatically: he enjoys an inexpressible happiness. Therefore if there is not this inexpressible happiness, it is a

Now if you wish to discover that part, you have to aspire, to insist, throw the light—pray, if need be. There are many other ways. Sometimes a surgical operation too is necessary, put the red hot iron into the wound, just as you have to do when there is a nasty abscess that does not want to burst.

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