Question: When a person is crazy, is this condition the result of his soul's past karma?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, what kind of craziness do you mean? There are crazy people and there are insane people. Those who are insane or mad, those who are cases of a mental asylum, are altogether different from crazy people.

Ninety percent of those who are insane are that way because of a lack of purity in the vital being. Their impurity invites insanity. The body’s impurity, the vital’s impurity and the mind’s impurity invite all kinds of negative, destructive forces. Eventually these people are totally possessed by hostile forces and they become mad. In the case of insanity one has to know that the soul cannot influence the mind directly, without taking any help from the body or the vital.

In the case of crazy people, there is a dislocation either in the mind or in the vital or in the gross physical, but not in the soul. The soul is always perfect, in the sense that the soul cannot be crazy. Even a soul that is in the animal world can never be crazy. Souls simply differ in the degree of their manifestation,

The soul of a crazy person maintains its connection with the body and with the physical mind before coming to the earth plane. The difficulty develops when the mind becomes defective while entering the physical. You may ask, why does the soul, which knows everything, select or accept a defective mind? But that is not what actually happens. While descending to earth, the soul knows what kind of mental instrument it is going to use. But even if the soul brings with it a good mind, a sound and effective mind, very often it happens that disturbing vibrations from the earth-atmosphere, from the hungry vital or from the physical nature, enter into the being. At that time the mind may become defective although the person himself is not aware of what is happening to him. The defective mind does not have free access to the soul and the soul finds it extremely difficult to convey its message to the defective mind. But the soul, being the father and mother and guardian of the entire being, does not reject the mind. The soul tries its best to influence the mind, to bring down peace into the mind. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, it is peace that is wanting in the afflicted person. Even if he receives love, the condition of a crazy person may remain. But if soulful peace enters into him, then his problem will be solved.

There is no actual dislocation between the mind and the soul of a crazy person. The soul consciously identifies with the mind and tries its utmost to help the mind. But the poor mind is not aware of what the soul actually wants to offer. In such cases, if the soul takes the help of the body, the vital and the heart and if they jointly try to influence the mind, then the mind automatically gets relaxation. The crazy mind does not have the wealth that is called relaxation. If someone can offer it relaxation and peace, then it will become a sane mind that functions properly.