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The Soul Exists in All Living Beings · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We frequently mistake the development of the external form
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  as representing the state of the soul in human beings.
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  This often takes the form of assigning worth or status based
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  on education, race, social position within the societal
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  hierarchy, wealth, or positions of power.
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  None of these things, however, actually describe the soul's
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  developmental stage. The soul exists, and over time
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  and through experience, it develops a mature psychic being
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  that gains the power to express the soul's essence through the
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  outer forms it takes on. The outer forms, however, have
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  their limitations, and thus the soul expression may be very much
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  hidden or obscured or overshadowed by the external
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  nature of the mind, life, and body.
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  The psychic being develops over innumerable lifetimes of
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  experience, and thus may not be developed, or at least not fully
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  developed at various points along the way.
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  Living beings that do not have fully developed emotional or
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  mental capabilities nevertheless have a soul essence that
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  expresses itself as best it can through whatever that being is
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  capable of. The Mother clarified, for
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  instance, that flowers had a particular resonance that could
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  express their soul. She actually described the
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  spiritual properties of various flowers at great length, as set
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  forth in various books on the subject, including flowers and
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  Their Messages. She also mentioned the spiritual
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  nature of a particular cat at the ashram.
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  The soul is not dependent on high intellectual expression,
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  refined emotional capacities, or strong vital or physical powers.
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  A lack of higher education does not act as an impediment to the
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  action of the soul. On the contrary, sometimes
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  academic or intellectual attainment can create an
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  obstacle that the soul needs to overcome in order to come
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  forward and guide the being directly, Sri Aurobindo writes.
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  Quote. A distinction has to be made
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  between the soul in its essence and the psychic being.
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  Behind each and all there is the soul, which is the spark of the
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  Divine. None could exist without that.
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  But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being
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  without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it.
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  Still, one cannot make general statements that no aboriginal
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  has a soul or there is no display of soul anywhere.
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  The inner being is composed of the inner mental, inner vital,
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  inner physical. But that is not the psychic
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  being. The psychic is the inmost being
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  and quite distinct from these. The word psychic is indeed used
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  in English to indicate anything that is other or deeper than the
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  external mind, life and body, anything a cult or super
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  physical. But that is a use which brings
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  confusion and error, and we entirely discard it when we
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  speak or write about yoga In ordinary parlance.
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  We may sometimes use the word psychic in the looser popular
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  sense, or in poetry, which is not bound to intellectual
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  accuracy. We may speak of the soul,
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  sometimes in the ordinary and more external sense, or in the
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  sense of the true psyche. The psychic being is veiled by
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  the surface movements, and expresses itself as best it can
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  through these outer instruments, which are more governed by the
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  outer forces than by the inner influences of the psychic.
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  But that does not mean that they are entirely isolated from the
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  soul. The soul is in the body in the
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  same way as the mind or vital, but the body it occupies is not
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  this gross physical frame only, but the subtle body also.
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  When the gross sheath falls away, the vital and mental
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  sheaths of the body still remain as the soul's vehicle till these
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  two dissolve. The soul of a plant or an animal
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  is not altogether dormant. Only its means of expression are
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  less developed than those of a human being.
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  There is much that is psychic in the plant, much that is psychic
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  in the animal. The plant has only the vital
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  physical evolved in its form, so it cannot express itself.
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  The animal has a vital mind and can, but its consciousness is
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  limited and its experiences are limited, so the psychic essence
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  has a less developed consciousness and experience
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  than is present or at least possible in man.
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  All the same animals have a soul and can respond very readily to
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  the psychic in man. End Quote reference Srioro Bindo
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  and the Mother. The psychic being soul, its
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  nature, mission and evolution. Section 1.
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  Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being.
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  Pages 9:00 to 11:00.