Question: Does the soul make demands on a person so that he has to change his ways?

Sri Chinmoy: The soul does not make demands as such. It is not like a mother making demands of her child at every moment, saying, "I am telling you such and such for your own good." What the soul does is to send a kind of Divine Inspiration. This inspiration can, at times, be so vivid and spontaneous that the person may feel it to be a kind of inner imposition made by his inner self on his outer personality. The soul does not demand. On the contrary, it sympathises with human failings and imperfections and tries to identify itself with these failings, and then, with its inner light, it tries to help the person to change his ways.

Question: How different is this from the demands the ego makes?

Sri Chinmoy: We now know that the soul does not make any demands. When the ego makes a demand, it is all self-centered — 'I', 'me' and 'mine'. The ego wants to possess and be possessed. When the soul wants to have something, it is not for its own personal benefit, but is for the fulfilment of the Divine. The ego, by feeding the outer personality, wants to fulfil itself, and this is simply impossible, as there is no end to its cravings. The ego eventually meets with frustration; whereas the soul, by fulfilling the Divine Will, realises its own absolute fulfilment.