The Soul Exists in All Living Beings

0:01 We frequently mistake the development of the external form as representing the state of the soul in human beings. This often takes the form of assigning worth or status based on education, race, social position within the societal hierarchy, wealth, or positions of power. None of these things, however, actually describe the soul's developmental stage. The soul exists, and over time and through experience, it develops a mature psychic being that gains the power to express the soul's essence through the outer forms it takes on. The outer forms, however, have their limitations, and thus the soul expression may be very much hidden or obscured or overshadowed by the external nature of the mind, life, and body.

0:55 The psychic being develops over innumerable lifetimes of experience, and thus may not be developed, or at least not fully developed at various points along the way. Living beings that do not have fully developed emotional or mental capabilities nevertheless have a soul essence that expresses itself as best it can through whatever that being is capable of. The Mother clarified, for instance, that flowers had a particular resonance that could express their soul. She actually described the spiritual properties of various flowers at great length, as set forth in various books on the subject, including flowers and Their Messages. She also mentioned the spiritual nature of a particular cat at the ashram.

1:51 The soul is not dependent on high intellectual expression, refined emotional capacities, or strong vital or physical powers. A lack of higher education does not act as an impediment to the action of the soul. On the contrary, sometimes academic or intellectual attainment can create an obstacle that the soul needs to overcome in order to come forward and guide the being directly, Sri Aurobindo writes. Quote. A distinction has to be made between the soul in its essence and the psychic being. Behind each and all there is the soul, which is the spark of the Divine. None could exist without that.

2:38 But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it. Still, one cannot make general statements that no aboriginal has a soul or there is no display of soul anywhere. The inner being is composed of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical. But that is not the psychic being. The psychic is the inmost being and quite distinct from these. The word psychic is indeed used in English to indicate anything that is other or deeper than the external mind, life and body, anything a cult or super physical. But that is a use which brings confusion and error, and we entirely discard it when we speak or write about yoga In ordinary parlance.

3:29 We may sometimes use the word psychic in the looser popular sense, or in poetry, which is not bound to intellectual accuracy. We may speak of the soul, sometimes in the ordinary and more external sense, or in the sense of the true psyche. The psychic being is veiled by the surface movements, and expresses itself as best it can through these outer instruments, which are more governed by the outer forces than by the inner influences of the psychic. But that does not mean that they are entirely isolated from the soul. The soul is in the body in the same way as the mind or vital, but the body it occupies is not this gross physical frame only, but the subtle body also.

4:18 When the gross sheath falls away, the vital and mental sheaths of the body still remain as the soul's vehicle till these two dissolve. The soul of a plant or an animal is not altogether dormant. Only its means of expression are less developed than those of a human being. There is much that is psychic in the plant, much that is psychic in the animal. The plant has only the vital physical evolved in its form, so it cannot express itself. The animal has a vital mind and can, but its consciousness is limited and its experiences are limited, so the psychic essence has a less developed consciousness and experience than is present or at least possible in man.

5:06 All the same animals have a soul and can respond very readily to the psychic in man. End Quote reference Srioro Bindo and the Mother. The psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution. Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being. Pages 9:00 to 11:00.