Dr Robert Muller: I often think that U Thant's four categories of human qualities — 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: 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 world. Again, this vital world has two aspects: the human vital and the divine vital. The human vital is nothing short of aggression; it wants only to devour the world. It always says, “I know how to conquer, I know how to possess.” But the divine or dynamic vital wants only to energise the world that is fast asleep. Millions of people are not aware of God, truth or light. With the divine vital we can arouse the slumbering humanity. The divine vital says, “I know how to spread; also I know what to spread, why to spread, how 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 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 no satisfaction at all. The other kind of satisfaction is what the Saviour taught us when out of his oneness with humanity he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Here the Christ teaches us that true satisfaction comes only through oneness.

Oneness can exist on 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 on every other plane. When the Christ, out of his fathomless magnanimity, asks his Father for humanity’s redemption, we see him identifying himself with humanity’s unlit reality. This is the reality that needs 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 all that I am and all that I have. In this way I become my own universal and transcendental Self.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,My meditation-service at the United Nations for twenty-five years, Agni Press, 1995
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mun