Mr. Robert Muller: I often think that U Thant's four categories of human qualities or needs — physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual — could well form the basis for a world agenda of human goals. From your writings, I notice that these categories are also quite fundamental to you, but you add to it a fifth which you call the "vital". Could you elaborate on it?

Sri Chinmoy: The existence of the vital-reality is between the physical and intellectual. As there are physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual worlds, even so, there is also a vital world. This vital world is situated between the physical and the intellectual worlds. Again, this vital world is divided into two: the human vital and the divine vital. The human vital is nothing short of aggression. It always says, “I know how to become, I know how to become.” But the divine vital says, “I know how to spread. I know how to spread. And also I know what to spread, why to spread and where to spread. What to spread? My love-wings. Why to spread? Because that is the only way I can have satisfaction. How to spread? Soulfully and unreservedly. Where to spread? Where there is a an urgent need, a sincere need, an undying need.”

When Julius Caesar said, “Veni, vidi, vici; I came, I saw, I conquered,” it was the human vital in him that was speaking. This is the vital that enjoys satisfaction through destruction. Needless to say, this kind of satisfaction is absurd. The other way is the way of the Saviour, the Christ, who said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Here the Christ teaches us that true satisfaction comes into existence only through oneness. This oneness can be discovered in any plane of consciousness. On the physical plane, for example, the head is at a particular place, the arms are at another place and the legs are at a third place. But they have established their oneness because they are all part and parcel of the body-reality. This same kind of oneness has to be discovered in the development of each individual. The divine statement of the Christ, with its fathomless magnanimity, identifies itself with the unlit reality of humanity as the Christ asks his Father for humanity’s redemption. For this, what he needs is his Father’s immediate Compassion and express Forgiveness.

The human vital says, “Behold, I have.” And when we see what it has, we are disappointed, distraught and disgusted; we curse ourselves for our stupid action. The divine vital says, “I am, because you have made me. And I shall remain always so by offering to you consciously and constantly a portion of what I have. In this way I become my own universal self.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,Flame-Waves, part 10, Agni Press, 1978
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