Western psychology has developed with the basis that the subconscious mind is extremely powerful and can determine actions and reactions of individuals that overcome the conscious intentions of those individuals. Events, circumstances, perceptions, and corresponding fears, hopes and excitement, deep-seated emotions, all wind up in the subconscient, ‘out of sight and out of mind’ so to speak. Because they are very much hidden from view, and are in many cases embedded to be triggered by specific circumstances, perceptions or events, they can come up for an individual when he least expects it to occur.
There are, in Western psychology, many who explore the murky depths of the subconscient in a variety of ways, such as study of dreams, study of childhood or other past life trauma, research into PTSD which can occur at any age through some kind of traumatic experience, frequently experienced by those involved in warfare or natural disasters of various sorts. In many cases these subconscious factors take over so much of the life focus and energy that they wind up dominating the individual and his response to life in the present time. Much of the therapy so prevalent in the West is an attempt to uncover and resolve these embedded subconscious factors.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have approached the issue of the subconscious levels from the viewpoint of those undertaking and proceeding with spiritual sadhana. Thus, the subconscious is not simply to be raised up as in psychotherapy, as that activity can actually strength the impulse that was hidden and allow it to embed deeply into the conscious levels of the awareness. Rather, they counsel an approach that first acquires the receptivity and ability to accept and utilize the higher forces of consciousness, and then only, to address the subconscious elements and expel them. They recognise that the seeds of all past life experiences and drives remain in place in the subconscious and that they can sprout up when given the right conditions. This explains, in fact, the issue of the yogic practitioner who spends years in deep meditation, believes he has conquered the lower vital drives, only to find out that when he engages with society he is subject to outbursts of anger, lust, greed, etc. These things, from the standpoint of yoga, need to be understood and systematically addressed. Eventually, the individual should be so attuned to the vibrational force of the higher consciousness that is manifesting that he is no longer susceptible to the attempts of the lower vital forces to disturb the focus or the balance of the being.
A disciple inquires: “Sweet Mother, is the subconscient stronger than the mind, vital and physical?”
The Mother notes: “…It has a greater power. Well, just because it is subconscient it is everywhere, everything seems steeped in the subconscient. And so, ‘subconscient’ means half conscious: not conscious and not unconscious. It just between the two; it is like that, half-way; so things slide down into it, one doesn’t know that they are there, and from there they act; and it is because one doesn’t know that they are there that they can remain there. There are many things which one doesn’t wish to keep and drives out from the active consciousness, but they go down there, hide there, and because it is subconscious one doesn’t notice them; but they haven’t gone out completely, and when they have a chance to come up again, they come up. For example, there are bad habits of the body, in the sense that the body is in the habit of upsetting its balance — we call that falling ill, you know; but still, the functioning becomes defective through a bad habit. You manage by concentrating the Force and applying it on this defect, to make it disappear but it doesn’t disappear completely, it enters the subconscient. And the, when you are off your guard, when you stop paying attention properly and preventing it from showing itself, it rises up and comes out. You thought for months perhaps or even for years, you thought you were completely rid of a certain kind of illness which you suffered from, and you no longer paid any attention, and suddenly one day it returns as though it had never gone; it springs up again from the subconscient and unless one enters into this subconscient and changes things there, that is, unless one changes the subconscient into the conscient, it always happens like this. And the method is to change the subconscient into the conscient — if each thing that rises to the surface becomes conscious, at that moment it must be changed. There is a more direct method still: it is to enter the subconscient in one’s full consciousness and work there, but this is difficult. Yet so long as this is not done, all the progress one has made — I mean physically, in one’s body — can always be undone.”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pp. 51-53
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 17 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.
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