The Role of the Vital-Physical Aspect of Our Being

When we observe the nerves and their role in our actions, we see that they carry vital sensations within a physical frame to connect our senses and responses to external pressures to the brain, and then, carry impulses back to the organs of action. Most people do not recognise the essential role of this interface between the vital and the physical in determining how we react, and then how we respond to the situations of our lives.

The pressure on the nervous system has become dramatically more intense with the advent of modern society and its increased levels of noise, electronic impulses, and distractions, not to speak of the chemicals that impact the being and the drugs that are so commonly prescribed or used without prescription, to try to modulate certain conditions of the physical body or the mind.

The practitioner of yoga finds that nervous weakness and disturbance represents an enormous obstacle. There are methods recommended for the purification of the nerves, to calm them and prepare them to carry the force of an enhanced energetic flow in the being. Many of these methods, developed over many centuries, can be helpful; but they were frequently coupled with withdrawal from the external life and seclusion in quiet, concentrated environments. In today’s world, and with a focus on transformation of life rather than escape from life, it is essential that additional insight be brought to ensuring that the nervous system is solid, stable and calm.

Much of the disruption we note in the nervous system comes through what we consume, not just food, but also media, social interactions, the air we breathe, the thoughts we accept, the work we do, the constant bombardment of sights, sounds, and smells as we go through daily life. Some of these things are virtually impossible to avoid. Others can be modulated or moderated. Instead of imbibing a constant diet of television, radio, internet, social media, mobile phone use, the seeker can find a balance that reduces the impact of these disrupting factors. Many people do not recognise the impact that use of recreational drugs, as well as pharmaceutical prescription drugs actually have on the nervous system. The long-term impact of these inputs can take years to clear up, assuming they have been discontinued.

For the practitioner of yoga, the understanding of the vital-physical nervous system is of considerable importance in gaining mastery over the reactions, and the very health of the physical body as the foundation of the life in the material world.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The vital physical, on the other hand, is the vehicle of the nervous responses of our physical nature; it is the field and instrument of the smaller sensations, desires, reactions of all kinds to the impacts of the outer physical and gross material life. This vital physical part (supported by the lowest part of the vital proper) is therefore the agent of most of the lesser movements of our external life; its habitual reactions and obstinate pettinesses are the chief stumbling-block in the way of transformation of the outer consciousness by the yoga. It is also largely responsible for most of the suffering and disease of mind or body to which the physical being is subject in Nature.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pg. 16