Understanding and Addressing Resistance in the Lower Being to the Descent of the Divine Force

There is a physical sensation that often accompanies the descent of the higher Force into the being. Some people relate this as a type of pressure in the head. Some experience headaches initially. Some find their being shaking to some degree as the nervous system absorbs and distributes the impulses. Some find that the sensation is as if there is a drilling process taking place at the top of the head. Other experiences are also related from time to time. by those experiencing this descent.

Sri Aurobindo clarifies that these experiences are not due to the Force, per se, but due to the resistance it finds in the being as it descends. In most cases this is just in an initial stage as the individual is going through an entirely new experience. An important point is to widen the being to accommodate the force that is descending. Most people, when they experience anything new or even moderately painful, tend to “narrow” the being, to pull in upon their core body-life-mind and try to block the energy that is pressuring them. This habitual reaction may work to protect from external attacks, but eventually, it must be overridden by a conscious process of relaxing, widening and accepting the force as it enters. Once that occurs, the experience of pressure, or headache, etc. tends to disappear.

Similarly, any pressure that begins to open any of the chakras will tend to lead to an expression of the energy held within that centre. To the extent there are habitual patterns of expression, these will tend to arise. This is one concern, and rationale, for opening the higher centres, and bringing the psychic being in front, so as to mitigate the lower energies that would otherwise take advantage of the force for their own patterns of action. This will require some amount of effort to manage these lower energies should they arise, and redirect their focus and action based on the needs of the divine force.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The power does not descend with the object of raising up the lower forces, but in the way it has to work at present, that uprising comes in as a reaction to the working. What is needed is the establishment of the calm and wide consciousness at the base of the whole Nature, so that when the lower nature appears it will not be as an attack or struggle but as if a Master of forces were there seeing the defects of the present machinery and doing step by step what is necessary to remedy and change it.”

“The quiet flow is necessary for permeating the lower parts. The big descents open the way and bring constant reinforcement and the culminating force at the end — but the quiet flow is also needed.”

“Probably the accumulated Force became more than the physical being could receive. When that happens the right thing to do is to widen oneself (one can do it by a little practice). If the consciousness is in a state of wideness then it can receive any amount of force without inconvenience.” Sri Aurobindo, Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice, Chapter 8, The Triple Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental, The Spiritual Transformation, pp. 209-229