Part II — The soul's evolution

Question: Can you please explain the nature and the purpose of the soul?

Sri Chinmoy: Each soul is a direct representative of God. God is One, but He wants to taste Himself or enjoy Himself divinely and supremely in infinite forms. Here on earth we aspire in order to realise the Highest. There are many worlds, but God-discovery can take place only here on earth. In order to reach the Highest, the Absolute, we have to come here. Each person has a soul, and each soul has a nature of its own. The soul, the inner bird, the direct representative of God, comes down to earth in order to fulfil the promise that it has made to the Absolute in the highest plane of consciousness, Heaven. Each soul has to discover and manifest its inner divinity here on earth in a specific way. It is through the revelation of its own light that the soul manifests its inner divinity.

A farmer needs a field in order to cultivate his crops. The soul comes down here on earth to farm and Mother Earth, Mother Nature, is the field. The body is a field, the vital is a field, the mind is a field, the heart is a field. The soul, the divine farmer, cultivates each field with Light, Peace, Bliss and Delight and from each field it expects a bumper crop of realisation. When the cultivation is over in each part of the being, the soul fulfils its promise to God to manifest divinity here on earth. When the body-consciousness or the body-field becomes fertile, and the vital becomes fertile, and the mind becomes fertile, and the heart becomes fertile, at that time the soul gets the greatest opportunity to manifest its divinity. So nature and soul go together. One is the farmer, the other is the ground for cultivation.