Question: Can there be any life without spirit?
Sri Chinmoy: No, there cannot be any life without spirit. Here spirit refers to the divine, the transcendental Spirit with a capital “S”, and not to the vital beings that we call spirits. The transcendental Spirit is all-pervading; it is light, life-energy, silence. Without that, nothing can exist on earth. Without having a connection to the transcendental Reality, the transcendental Spirit, there cannot be any life either on earth or in Heaven.
Sri Chinmoy, AUM — Vol.II-2, No. 6, 27 June 1975, Vishma Press, 1975