But what’s the mystery behind the cultivation of Powerful vital? In the evening talks, Sri Aurobindo remarks that this French general, Ferdinand Foch, in World War I, was a genius and out of curiosity I searched for his name. One thing that I was immediately struck by looking at his photo is that there’s some inexplicable, powerful vital atmosphere to this man; this has been my intuitive experience whenever I see eminent men, particularly from the military background. Similar response whenever I see any pictures of General Sam Manekshaw or photos/statues of Shivaji, etc… There’s something very hardy or steel-like about them. How should one go about cultivating the vital? What are the signs that it is growing?
The Mother describes how to develop and cultivate these different elements, – physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual. The physical does not develop only through exercise and food but also sleep and work. So too, the mind does not develop only through reading and concentration. There is also speech and mastery of thought and self-observation. So too the vital, which is the source of energy, develops through the practice of breath mastery, conserving energy, mastery of the senses, art, poetry and music (for refining), above all sexual mastery, brahmacharya. Speech control has a great impact not only on the mind but also on the vital.
There are, of course, certain persons who by nature have a strong vital, just as some are endowed with sharp intellect and a good physical body. While heredity plays a role, the vital and mental development does get affected and influenced by the persons one closely associates with.
It is a vast subject and I would advise you to read her writings on Education especially The Four Austerities and Four Liberations. You will also find quite a few talks on this subject on Auromaa.
Here is one such passage.
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Energy Inexhaustible
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One of the most powerful aids that yogic discipline can provide to the sportsman is to teach him how to renew his energies by drawing them from the inexhaustible source of universal energy.
Modern science has made great progress in the art of nourishment, which is the best known means of replenishing one’s energies. But this process is at best precarious and subject to all kinds of limitations. We shall not speak about it here, for the subject has already been discussed at great length. But it is quite obvious that so long as the world and men are what they are, food is an indispensable factor. Yogic science knows of other ways of acquiring energy, and we shall mention two of the most important.
The first is to put oneself in relation with the energies accumulated in the terrestrial material world and to draw freely from this inexhaustible source. These material energies are obscure and half unconscious; they encourage animality in man, but, at the same time, they establish a kind of harmonious relationship between the human being and material Nature. Those who know how to receive and use these energies are usually successful in life and succeed in everything they undertake. But they are still largely dependent on their living conditions and their state of bodily health. The harmony created in them is not immune from all attack; it usually vanishes when circumstances become adverse. The child spontaneously receives this energy from material Nature as he expends all his energies without calculating, joyfully and freely. But in most human beings, as they grow up, this faculty is blunted by the worries of life, as a result of the predominant place which mental activities come to occupy in the consciousness.
However, there is a source of energy which, once discovered, is never exhausted, whatever the outer circumstances and physical conditions of life may be. It is the energy that can be described as spiritual, and is received no longer from below, from the inconscient depths, but from above, from the supreme origin of the universe and man, from the all-powerful and eternal splendours of the superconscient. It is there, all around us, permeating everything; and to enter into contact with it and to receive it, it is enough to aspire sincerely for it, to open oneself to it in faith and trust, to widen one’s consciousness and identify it with the universal Consciousness.
At the outset, this may seem very difficult, if not impossible. Yet by examining this phenomenon more closely, one can see that it is not so alien, not so remote from the normally developed human consciousness. Indeed, there are very few people who have not felt, at least once in their lives, as if lifted up beyond themselves, filled with an unexpected and uncommon force which, for a time, has made them capable of doing anything whatever; at such moments nothing seems too difficult and the word “impossible” loses its meaning.
This experience, however fleeting it may be, gives a glimpse of the kind of contact with the higher energy that yogic discipline can secure and maintain.
The method of achieving this contact can hardly be given here. Besides, it is something individual and unique for each one, which starts from where he stands, adapting itself to his personal needs and helping him to take one more step forward. The path is sometimes long and slow, but the result is worth the trouble one takes. We can easily imagine the consequences of this power to draw at will and in all circumstances on the boundless source of an energy that is all-powerful in its luminous purity. Weariness, exhaustion, illness, old age and even death become mere obstacles on the way, which a persistent will is sure to overcome.
Bulletin, August 1949′
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/energy-inexhaustible)
Affectionately,
Alok Da
