Question: How can aspiration transform our body, vital and mind?

Sri Chinmoy: The physical likes to remain idle. The very nature of the physical is to remain inactive. The physical says, "I will sit here and everybody has to touch my feet. Everybody has to bring my food here." In every way the physical is like that. The ordinary vital, instead of being dynamic, becomes aggressive. It feels, "If somebody comes near me, then I want to show off how powerful I am. I will strike the person and show my strength." This is the vital's aggression. And what does the mind do? It immediately suspects. It suspects that somebody is insincere, that just ahead of us there is a rogue. If somebody comes, then immediately the mind will suspect that person, no matter how sincere he is. The very function of the mind is to suspect or belittle other people. It feels, "Only I can exist on earth. I am the greatest. I am the highest." This is how the mind will make us feel.

Now, what will we do? If we accept the spiritual life, then we will say that the body has to be active. Let the body run. Even if it is not running exactly towards the goal, even if it is going beside the goal, let there be some movement. If the body is taking a wrong direction, then somebody will immediately tell the body, "You have made a wrong turn. Come back and start again, run on the right path." So the body has to be energetic. Right now, the body is sleeping twenty-four hours a day. The physical body may not sleep, but what we call the body-consciousness is sleeping. When we don't meditate on God, spiritually we are fast asleep. He who does not aspire at all is absolutely dead according to the strict spiritual discipline. So the body is fast asleep. This body has to undertake some movement, it has to stand up, walk and run. While standing on its feet if it is not doing well, then our inner being will tell us that we are not doing the right thing.

What is the vital doing? The vital has become aggressive: it wants to destroy the world, absolutely destroy it. But if this vital becomes the dynamic vital instead of the aggressive vital, then it will try to energise and inspire the physical consciousness of others who are lethargic. It will say, "No, don't waste your precious time! Get up! Now do something good for yourself or for humanity." This is what the vital will say, the real dynamic vital.

Then the mind, the suspecting mind, the aggressive mind, the doubting mind, if it becomes the divine mind which is illumined by the soul's light, this illumined mind will say, "Let us be vast, let us be infinite. Let us think of everything in infinite measure. Let us think of ourselves as the vast sky or the vast ocean. We cannot be bound by anything. We won't suspect anybody, we won't belittle anybody. On the contrary, we shall expand our own consciousness and help others to expand their consciousness." This is the clear mind, the pure mind, the illumined mind.

So if we practise the spiritual life, then we will get this kind of active body, dynamic vital and illumined mind. If we do not take to the spiritual life, then we have to be satisfied with the body which does not aspire, which is fast asleep; with the vital which is all the time aggressive and wants to destroy the world; and with the mind which wants to suspect, criticise, doubt and strangle others with bad thoughts. This is our fate when we do not aspire.