The Soul, the Psychic Being and the External Nature

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Why do we not immediately
recognize the existence and

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centrality of the soul?
We tend to set our standpoint in

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the external consciousness,
which is directed outwards and

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which is constantly receiving
sense impressions and pressures

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impinging on our body, life,
mind, complex.

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The sense organs, nervous
system, and brain are wired to

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respond to impressions from
these external forces, and are

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not either directed toward nor
tuned to perceive the subtle

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energetic action of the inner
being and the soul, the inmost

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being.
Similarly, the external senses

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do not directly perceive the
superconscient spiritual

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energies that impinge upon us,
and thus may try to deny that

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they exist.
It is very simple, however, to

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recognize the error of this
conclusion.

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Just because we cannot perceive
something directly with our mind

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and senses, it does not mean
that the those things do not

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exist.
We do not perceive gravity,

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radiation, or electricity with
our senses directly, but we are

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clearly able to recognize the
effects of these forces.

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We also cannot perceive and
measure directly the impulses

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that we call love, physical
attraction, mutual chemistry, or

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the mechanisms that help create
these things, such as the

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secretion of pheromones.
When we turn our view inwards

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and quiet the promptings of the
external senses and the physical

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mind, we can begin to experience
and appreciate more directly and

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consistently the inner physical,
the inner vital, the inner

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mental, and the inner soul
aspects of our being.

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With Tapasya, we can understand
the causative role that the ever

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more subtle aspects of our
existence plays upon the more

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gross external aspects of the
being.

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The soul or psychic being is the
subtle and central causative

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link between the spiritual
existence and our external

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being.
We can certainly appreciate the

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effect of the soul, even if we
cannot measure it with our

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external senses.
Shriorobindo defines the forces

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that constitute the soul, forces
that we can appreciate in their

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expression.
Forces of truth, forces of

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beauty, forces of harmony, all
stem from the action of the

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soul.
The more influence it has on the

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external being, the more we tend
to align our appreciation and

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action to resonate to these
forces of coherence and

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harmonious development, and the
more we tend to reject and

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eliminate those forces that
bring forth disharmony, chaos,

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and falsehood.
Sriorobindo writes, Quote At the

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beginning, the soul and Nature,
the psychic entity whose

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unfolding is the first step
towards a spiritual change, is

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an entirely veiled part of us,
although it is that by which we

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exist and persist as individual
beings in nature, the other

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parts of our natural composition
are not only mutable but

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perishable.
But the psychic entity in US

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persists and is fundamentally
the same always.

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It contains all essential
possibilities of our

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manifestation, but is not
constituted by them.

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It is not limited by what it
manifests, not contained by the

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incomplete forms of the
manifestation, not tarnished by

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the imperfections and
impurities, the defects and

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deprivations of the surface
being.

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It is an ever pure flame of the
divinity in things, and nothing

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that comes to it.
Nothing that enters into our

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experience can pollute its
purity or extinguish the flame.

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This spiritual stuff is
Immaculate and luminous, and

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because it is perfectly
luminous, it is immediately,

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intimately directly aware of
truth of being and truth of

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nature.
It is deeply conscious of truth

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and good and beauty, because
truth and good and beauty are

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akin to its own native character
forms of something that is

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inherent in its own substance.
It is aware also of all that

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contradicts these things, of all
that deviates from its own

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native character of falsehood
and evil and the ugly and the

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unseemly.
But it does not become these

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things, nor is it touched or
changed by these opposites of

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itself, which so powerfully
affect its outer instrumentation

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of mind, life and body.
For the soul, the permanent

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being in US puts forth and uses
mind, life and body as its

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instruments, undergoes the
envelopment of their conditions.

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But it is other and greater than
its members.

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End Quote Reference Shriorobindo
and the Mother, The Hidden

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Forces of Life, Chapter 2.
Hidden Forces within pages 43 to

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44.