The Vital Desire-Soul and the True Soul

0:00 We generally confuse the vital nature with the soul. We look at the external life of the body and recognize that when the life force departs, the body dies and the lifetime and personality associated with that existence comes to an end. Some scientists decided that they could identify the existence of the soul by actually weighing the body just before and just after the time of death with a highly sensitive scale, and the difference in weight between the living and the dead body would represent the presence and the departure of the soul. This idea, however, is very much a product of the confusion between the vital nature and its external manifestation in what Sri Robindo calls the desire soul and the actual soul, which is not actually part of the mechanism of the external existence.

0:57 This confusion leads to some notable consequences. An example not purely fictional is provided by John Steinbeck in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. A very short section early in the book provides insight to a man who had been a preacher of the Christian gospel in the Oklahoma Territory. He eventually discontinued his role as a preacher and described for his listener exactly what caused him to give up this work. He had a strong calling to rouse people to the faith, and he was good at it. He motivated crowds and raised the emotional, vital force of the people.

1:38 People would speak in tongues and roll on the ground, all manifestations of the kind of extreme vital pitch to which preachers of certain backgrounds could bring their flock. He noted, however, that however strong his own spiritual calling and the energy he was able to elicit in others, he found that his own sexual drive was awakened strongly, and he invariably had sexual relations with young women after the sessions, as they were more or less intoxicated with the energy that arose. This preacher, however, seemed to have a true calling in his being and experienced tension for the obvious misuse of the force of his spiritual calling.

2:24 So he gave up preaching to avoid the connection, which he found he could not deny, between the emotional force and the sexual energy. He then began a period of serious introspection that moved him toward a much more grounded and focused spiritual development. This experience, while recounted as a fictional character, actually mirrors that. Many have found that if they mistake the desire soul of the vital for the true soul, they wind up fulfilling the desires of the vital and losing touch with the deeper spiritual calling within.

3:06 In his famous book Faust, Goethe recounts the story of a seeker after truth and power who calls forth various powers and eventually is entangled with mephistophiles who tempt him with vital fulfillments, including power, wealth, success, fame, sex, et cetera. In his deepest being, however, he maintained some spark of a deeper dedication and continue striving for evermore knowledge and fulfillment. Eventually he is saved from eternal suffering by his connection to the Divine through his true soul.

3:47 Hermann Hesse wrote extensively across a number of his books on seekers who became entangled in the desire Soul as they sought for some deeper meaning for their lives. They eventually in many cases grew to recognize the soul and were able to be liberated from the entrapping forces of the external life as presented to them by the desire soul. This was a theme worked out in detail in his book Sidarta, but also in much more complex life context that encompassed also intellectual focus and discipline. In Magister Ludi or the Glass Bead Game, Sri Orbindo notes quote the soul and the life are two quite different powers.

4:36 The soul is a spark of the Divine Spirit which supports the individual nature. Mind, life, body are the instruments for the manifestation of the nature. In most men the soul is hidden and covered over by the action of the external nature. They mistake the vital being for the soul, because it is the vital which animates and moves the body. But this vital being is a thing made-up of desires and executive forces, good and bad. It is the desire soul, not the true thing. It is when the true soul psyche comes forward and begins first to influence and then govern the actions of the instrumental nature that man begins to overcome vital desire and grow towards a divine nature. End Quote.

5:31 Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution. Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pages 25 to 26.