Question: What does the soul consider when it chooses a particular day and a particular month to be born on earth?

Sri Chinmoy: It is not only the soul that chooses a particular day. It is like a conference. The Supreme and the higher beings will also help to select the day. As in a big conference there will be a chairman, a president and so on, in exactly the same way the decision is made in Heaven. Together they select the date.

When the soul accepts the body, vital, mind and heart, the soul becomes the captain and the Commander is the Supreme. The captain depends on the ordinary soldiers — the body, vital, mind and heart. The soul makes a promise to the Supreme that it will guide the members of its family to Him. Each member also makes a promise to the higher worlds. The soul wants constant obedience from these members. If they do not listen, problems arise. Then God-manifestation becomes almost impossible.

Let us say you run an office. You have appointed some workers, and they promise you that they will listen to you and be good workers. After a few days or a few months, some of them remain good workers while others enter into relaxation and become very bad. Then a day may come when everybody is relaxed, even the good workers.

Similarly, there may come a time when even the heart, who is dearest to the soul, does not listen to the soul. The soul made a promise to God that these members will run effectively, most satisfactorily. The body promised to be awakened, but instead the body wants to sleep. The vital promised to be dynamic, but instead it becomes aggressive. The mind promised that it would have one-pointed will, but instead the mind starts doubting everything. The heart promised it would maintain its oneness with others all the time. Instead of that it enters into the vital and is enjoying all the weaknesses of the vital. It does not want to enjoy the pristine purity and divinity of the soul.

The heart is supposed to stay in one room, where it is all safety. There everything is soulful in a divine way. Instead of that, the heart enjoys being one with the vital. Then emotional vital problems start. Oneness-love, oneness-fulfilment, universal oneness — that kind of divine love goes away. Then the love that the heart has goes to only one person or one thing. The heart starts loving only its body, its vital, its mind or one thing or one person, whereas the heart was meant to be universal. Here the heart is limiting itself and making itself insecure. If the heart establishes its oneness, constant oneness, with the soul, with God, then it becomes the universal heart. Instead of that, the heart starts limiting itself and binding itself. One by one, all the members of the soul’s family fail in their promise.

When God created the soul and the body, vital, mind and heart, it was God’s Vision that all of them would work together perfectly. They started well, they meant well, but one by one they became disobedient or treacherous or useless. They did not want to deliberately disobey, but they have not used their capacity properly, so now they have become useless. Then what does God do? God says, “All right, in this incarnation you have failed. Next incarnation again you will start.” God is dealing with Eternity, but if you as an individual can become an excellent instrument in this lifetime, then God will have more faith in you and God will give you more responsibility. He will prepare something infinitely greater for you.