Question: When we experience our soul, even though we might not be aware of it, why isn't the feeling sweet enough to satisfy us?

Sri Chinmoy: It is extremely difficult for an ordinary person to see the soul. If the person is aspiring and meditating under the guidance of someone who has realised God, even then he will first see only the representative of the soul, what we call the psychic being. Then he will see the soul proper and finally the Self.

If we see the soul, then we will have abundant inspiration. It wants to aspire, it wants to reveal and manifest Divinity here on earth. So if we see the soul, then we are bound to have the inspiration to run towards the Goal. We will feel that whatever goal we have already achieved is next to nothing and we have to go farther, deeper and higher. When you see the true soul, you can rest assured that you will be inundated with inspiration and aspiration.

But very often we make a mistake in our judgement. We may see a vital being inside us and think it is our soul. There are many vital beings in us; they hover around the soul and sometimes assume the form of the soul. Likewise, many people are misled when they see asuras, hostile forces, and they think that these beings are divine. When we see a luminous form during our meditation or our sleep, we have to observe whether purity is emanating from that particular form. If we see that there is no purity, then we know it is not a divine form. We also have to know not to bow down or show our devotion and admiration to such a being; that will be a great mistake. And we must never touch the being. I know of many times in India when aspirants have been praying and meditating, and evil forces have come to them in the form of our Indian gods and goddesses. Because the seekers were misled and showed devotion to these beings, the little aspiration these seekers had was taken away by these wrong forces. If we see that there is purity emanating from the being, however, then we can show our devotion to that spiritual Master or divine figure in any way we like.