The Attraction of the Spiritual Life to Beings of the Vital World

Beings of the vital worlds in many cases interact with and act upon the material world in which we live and act as embodied beings. What is the attraction? Vital beings generally crave energy, excitement, novelty, the ‘food’ of their existence. If they are seeking to harvest such energy from human beings, they look for individuals who can provide them sustenance with less cost and risk, as do predatory species we see in the world. Spiritual seekers tend to have more openness generally and less resistance to non-material forces, and thus, can become easier prey for the vital beings to feast upon. Add to this various types of confusion and basic ignorance about the functioning of these non-material forces and beings, and we have a recipe for spiritual aspirants to be turned into prey.

In some cases, there may be beings in the vital world who become dissatisfied with the limitations of their lives and who want to participate in the evolution. While this may be more rare, given the nature of these beings, it can occur.

In some cases the vital beings use a spiritual cloak to attract individuals, and this then is simply an act of pure deception. Thus, we may find that some beings take on the shape or form of a religious leader or even an angelic being of some sort in order to capture the gullible and get them to do what they are bidding to be done. They take on a dynamic, charismatic form, pretend to be great masters, and then either entertain themselves or treat their followers as food. They have no sincerity, no respect for those they capture, and no interest in actual spiritual progress in such cases.

The Mother describes various circumstances in response to a disciple’s questoin.

A disciple inquires: “You have said that these beings of the vital world are attracted by the spiritual life. Why?”

The Mother responds: They are attracted, but this does not mean that they have decided sincerely to follow the spiritual life. The chief characteristic of these beings is falsehood: their nature is made of deceit. They have a power for illusion; they can take the appearance of divine beings or higher beings, they can appear in a dazzling light, but truly sincere people are not deceived, they immediately feel something that warns them. But if one likes the marvellous, the unexpected, if one loves fantastic things, if one likes to live a romance, one is likely to be easily deceived.”

“Not long ago there was a historical instance, that of Hitler, who was in contact with a being whom he considered to be the Supreme: this being came and gave him advice, told him all that he had to do. Hitler used to retire into solitude and remain there as long as it was necessary to come into contact with his ‘guide’ and receive from him inspirations which he carried out later very faithfully. This being which Hitler took for the Supreme was quite plainly an Asura, one who is called the ‘Lord of Falsehood’ in occultism, but who proclaimed himself the ‘Lord of the Nations’. He had a shining appearance, he could mislead anybody except one who really had occult knowledge and could see what was there behind the appearance. Generally he used to appear to Hitler wearing a silver cuirass and helmet; a kind of flame came out of his head and there was an atmosphere of dazzling light around him, so dazzling that Hitler could hardly look at him. He used to tell Hitler everything that had to be done — he played with him as with a monkey or a mouse. He had decided clearly to make Hitler commit all possible extravagances till the day he would break his neck, which did happen. But cases like this are frequent, though on a smaller scale, of course.”

\”Hitler was a very good medium, he had great mediumistic capacities, but he lacked intelligence and discrimination. This being could tell him anything whatever and he swallowed it all. It was he who pushed Hitler little by little. And he was doing this as a distraction, he did not take life seriously. For these beings men are very tiny things with whom they play, as a cat plays with a mouse, till finally they eat them up.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 5 Occult Forces, pp. 115-116