Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 18371

1936-37

Can you give some general characteristics of the different forms of Force?

I have never classified the different forms – they can be hundreds or thousands in number. Force varies its form according to the work it has to do.

I don’t know that there is any utility here in distinguishing between force and energy as in Science. Energy is simply force in action.

The lower nature is called lower because it is unenlightened – it can’t be enlightened and changed by ignoring it, the higher has to be brought there. So one must speak of both, not of the higher alone. The satisfaction of the vital desires is a normal feature of the ordinary life, only it must be controlled and regulated by the mental will, so that one may not be enslaved to the desires. It is only if one turns to the spiritual life that one has to get rid of vital desires.

Once one takes up the spiritual life, what is done in the worldly life can no longer be a standard to be followed.