Depression is a very common problem
and most of us fall into this state at some time or
the other. We meet it often in our daily lives - some
times as a passing mood and some times as an acute
recurring problem. Even in the spiritual path it does
not leave us easily.
The Causes of Depression
It would help if you could first
understand the causes of depression. The Mother
explains so clearly:
"One is almost constantly
in an ordinary vital state where the least
unpleasant thing very spontaneously and easily
brings you depression -- depression if you are a
weak person, revolt if you are a strong one.
Every desire which is not satisfied, every
impulse which meets an obstacle, every unpleasant
contact with outside things, very easily and very
spontaneously creates depression or revolt, for
that is the normal state of things -- normal in
life as it is today."
And the Mother adds:
"Like a child who sulks,
becomes low-spirited, sad, unhappy, misunderstood,
abandoned, helpless; and then, refusing to
collaborate, and as I just said, indulging in his
depression, to show that he is not happy. It is
specially in order to show that one is not
satisfied that one becomes depressed. One can
show it to Nature, ... one can show it to the
Divine, one can show it to the people around one,
but it is always a kind of way of expressing one's
dissatisfaction. "I am not happy about what
you demand", but this means, "I am not
happy. And I shall make you too see it, that I am
not happy."
But a mere mental understanding is
not sufficient. You must try to look at yourself
objectively and see the form this movement takes in
you. You will notice that often you are aware that
you are getting depressedalso know that it is bad for
you, but yet some part in , you you wants to get
depressed. The Mother has described this state so
accurately.
"Depression is a sign of
weakness, of a bad will : somewherewill in the
sense of a refusal to receive help, and , and bad
a kind of weakness that's content to be weak. One
becomes slack. The bad will is obvious, because
there's a part of your being which tells you at
the moment, "Depression is bad." You
know that you shouldndepressed; well, the reply
of that part which is 't get depressed is almost"Shut
up! I want my depression." Try, you will ,
seealways like that. Eh, is it not true? and then
later , you can try. It is one says again"Afterwards,
afterwards I shall see.. for the moment I , want
itbesides I have my reasons." There you are.
It is a kind of , and revoltweak revolt, the
revolt of something weak in the being."
We must also realise that
depression is not only due to weakness,
dissatisfaction or revolt, but is also a sign of
egoism. As the Mother says:
"Those who do not khow to
accept defeat, who get angry : and bad when
things do not go according to their wish, lose -tempered
their energy more and more.
Also, If you slip into
depression, you cut every source of energy-- from
above, from below, from everywhere. That is the
best way of falling into inertia. You must
absolutely refuse to be depressed.
Depression is always the sign
of an acute egoism. When you feel that it is
coming near, tell yourself: "I am in a state
of egoistic illness, I must cure myself of it."
How to overcome Depression
The first step in overcoming
depression, therefore, is to want to get out of it.
We must know that, in the words of Sri Aurobindo,
"All depression is bad as
it lowers the consciousness, spends the energy,
opens to adverse forces."
We give below some excerpts from a
letter of Sri Aurobindo and two talks of the Mother,
which explain very practically how you should face
and handle your depression.
"To yield to depression
when things go wrong is the worst way of meeting
the difficulty. There must be some desire or
demand within you, conscious or subconscious,
that gets excited and revolts against its not
being satisfied. The best way is to be conscious
of it, face it calmly and steadily throw it out."
If the lower vital (not the
mind only) could permanently make up its mind
that all desire and demand are contrary to the
Truth and no longer call for them, these things
would lose very soon their force of return."
- Sri Aurobindo
"Depression occurs
generally in the vital, and one is overpowered by
depression only when one keeps the consciousness
in the vital, when one remains there. The only
thing to do is to get out of the vital and enter
a deeper consciousness. Even the higher mind, the
luminous, higher mind, the most lofty thoughts
have the power to drive away depression. Even
when one reaches just the highest domains of
thoughts, usually the depression disappears. But
in any case, if one seeks shelter in the psychic,
then there is no longer any room for depression.
Depression may come from two
causes: either from a want of vital satisfaction
or from a considerable nervous fatigue in the
body. Depression arising from physical fatigue is
set right fairly easily: one has but to take rest.
One goes to bed and sleeps until one feels well
again, or else one rests, dreams, lies down. The
want of vital satisfaction is pretty easily
produced and usually one must face it with one's
reason, must ferret out the cause of the
depression, what has brought about the lack of
satisfaction in the vital; and then one looks at
it straight in the face and asks oneself whether
that indeed has anything to do with one's inner
aspiration or whether it is simply quite an
ordinary movement. Generally one discovers that
it has nothing to do with the inner aspiration
and one can quite easily overcome it and resume
one's normal movement. If that does not suffice,
then one must go deeper and deeper until one
touches the psychic reality. Then one has only to
put this psychic reality in contact with the
movement of depression, and instantaneously it
will vanish into thin air."
*
"First of all one must be
conscious, then control, and by continuing the
mastery one changes one's character. Changing the
character is what comes last. One must control
bad habits, the old habits, for a very long time
for them to drop off and the character to change.
We may take the example of
someone who has frequent depressions. When things
are not exactly as he would like them to be, he
becomes depressed. So, to begin with, he must
become aware of his depression -- not only of the
depression but of the causes of depression, why
he gets depressed so easily. Then, once he has
become conscious, he must master the depressions,
must stop being depressed even when the cause of
depression is there -- he must master his
depression, stop it from coming. And finally,
after this work has been done for a sufficiently
long time, the nature loses the habit of having
depressions and no longer reacts in the same way,
the nature is changed."
- The Mother
If you read carefully all that has
been written above and sincerely try to put it into
practice, you will not only be able to throw away and
conquer your depression, but you will become an
entirely new person.
