Part II — God and everyday life

Question: Should we pay more respect to the divinity inside a man than the divinity inside an animal, or is it all the same?

Sri Chinmoy: Here on earth everything is evolving. A stone has a soul, but the development of the soul is not so clear, so vivid. Then comes the plant life, the animal life and finally the human life. We are not satisfied even with the human life; we are crying for the divine life. God is everywhere, even in this branch. But in you the soul is infinitely more developed than in this branch. So we have to see where the manifestation of God is more vivid. We have to pay more respect to a human being than to an animal. Again, when we are in the presence of a spiritual man, we show a little more respect to him than to an ordinary human being, because in him we see and feel more development, more manifestation of divinity.