Question: Is there any significance as to when your disciples' souls came to earth? When disciples were born, was there any special significance?

Sri Chinmoy: There is a great significance to when the disciple was born and at which place the soul has taken human incarnation, not from the astrological point of view but from the pure spiritual point of view. Astrology, horoscopes, stars — they have their own way of judging the fate of the soul. But from the highest spiritual point of view there is tremendous significance in the circumstances in which the soul takes incarnation. But the most significant event takes place when the soul finds its Eternal Friend in the Guru’s soul.

Each soul comes into the world to do something special. Each soul is like a soldier, a divine soldier. The divine soldier can achieve the utmost, fulfil the Supreme to the utmost, only when the soldier has a commander-in-chief. If the soldier works under the direct guidance of the commander, then his mission — the manifestation of that particular human being who embodies the soul — is infinitely more successful, because the commander-in-chief can tell the soldier what is the right thing to do. If the individual soul wants to work, it will work like a tiny drop, with the capacity of a tiny drop. But if it works under the strict guidance of the commander-in-chief, with the assistance of all the forces at his command, then it will have the capacity of the entire ocean. The commander-in-chief is the Guru, who is in touch with the Absolute Supreme and represents the Absolute Supreme on earth. Each individual soul sees it and realises it according to the soul’s own evolution.

So first the individual soul makes a promise to the Absolute Supreme that it will do something really good, divine, illumining and fulfilling. And in order to fulfil that promise it needs constant guidance, encouragement, inspiration and help either directly from the Absolute Supreme or from the spiritual Master, who plays the role of the spiritual commander-in-chief, encouraging the individual soldier’s soul to fight against ignorance in the battlefield of life. The Master not only encourages the soul to fight, but also gives the soul constant support and capacity for the victory. And the victory is to become consciously and constantly aware of the Source, the Absolute Supreme. When the soul becomes inseparably, constantly, consciously aware of its Source, it becomes very easy for the individual to become part and parcel of the infinite Reality and to manifest the infinite Reality on earth.

So if the soul has reincarnated at a time and in a place where it will be able to get the guidance of a real Guru, it is a tremendous blessing. Very significant.