Question: I neither accept nor reject the existence of my soul. Is there any sign that my soul exists?
Sri Chinmoy: The soul has already accepted your body. If the soul had rejected and then had left your body, immediately the body would have died. But the soul has come into this world inside your body and the soul is still functioning there, so the soul’s acceptance has already been made.But you have also accepted the soul. One who has accepted even unconsciously the necessity of Truth, the necessity of God, the necessity of Divinity and the necessity of spirituality can rest assured that he has accepted the soul because the soul lives and breathes in the very words “Divinity”, “Spirituality”, “Truth” and “God”. If you had not accepted the existence of the soul, then by this time you would have forgotten these words. So you have already accepted your soul and your soul has already accepted you.
How is it that you have accepted the soul but you are not consciously aware of it? It is because this acceptance can never be understood or felt by the mind. The mere mental awareness of the mind will not help you or me or anybody on earth; this ordinary awareness has to be transcended. What is necessary is the feeling of oneness. It is your very feeling of oneness with the soul that will immediately make you feel that you have accepted the soul and the soul has already accepted you.
Now, how can we develop this higher kind of awareness? If you live in a particular room, then you know what is in that room: a painting, a lamp, a bed and so forth. But if you live in some other room, then you cannot expect to know what is in the first room. In order to know about your soul’s acceptance of you or your acceptance of the soul; you have to live always in your soul and not in your physical consciousness. There have been hundreds of times in your life when you have had divine flashes. Where do the flashes come from? From the mind? Never! From the vital? Never! They come either from the psychic being or from the soul. The many times that you have seen these flashes you have been in tune with some other world, an inner world; and that world is the world of the soul, of your inner being. To have spiritual awareness you have to stay in the world of your soul constantly.
When a child is two or three years old his parents have to tell him that what he is eating is called candy and somebody else has to tell him what the candy is made of. It is not necessary to know how the soul came into existence or what it is in order to see and feel your soul, just as the child does not have to know what candy is in order to eat it. But even if you see the soul you may not know that it is the soul that you have seen. You may see a beautiful child, a most beautiful child, in your dream and think it is only a human child. Or you may think that you have seen the soul, you have conversed with the soul, but you will not be certain whether it is really the soul or not. Here, just as the child needs someone to tell him that what he is eating is called candy, so also in the spiritual life somebody has to tell you what your soul is and what kind of communication you are having with your soul. Somebody who is already in the soul’s region, a spiritual Master, is required to tell you that you have seen your own soul.
