Question: Is it true that you see a difference between the mind with its ideas, and the soul? Could you please explain the difference between the soul and the mind?

Sri Chinmoy: The soul is absolutely conscious of God. When we speak of the soul we speak of the conscious representative of God on earth. But it is not so with the mind. In this lifetime you have your present mind, and in your next incarnation you will have a totally different mind. But in each incarnation of yours, it is the same soul that is evolving in the process of ever-increasing perfection.

When the soul sees the truth, the soul feels that the truth is something of its very own because of the soul's own conscious oneness with the truth. Unfortunately, the mind does not have this indivisible consciousness or conscious oneness with truth or light. The mind is groping in the darkness, searching for the truth. And when it sees an iota of light it feels it has discovered God. But that is not enough. The soul, on the other hand, always sees infinity all around, and it tries to bring down the possibilities of infinite light into the field of manifestation.

The mind is very limited. It cannot think of infinity. It can think only of a finite object or person. It cannot think of two things at one time. We say that someone is thinking of so many things, but if we ask him whether he is actually thinking of two things at once, he will say no.

The soul does not think: the soul sees. In this room there is light, electric light, and I am seeing it with my eyes. But my two eyes cannot see everyone. Now I am looking at you, and I cannot see the other people. But we have another eye, the third eye, which is located between and a little above the eyebrows. This eye sees everything. It sees the past, the present and the future. The soul is in constant communion with this eye, the third eye, the eye of real vision. But the poor mind can never have free access to the third eye. That is why we say that we should either go beyond the mind or catch the mind and place it at the feet of the heart, which has a free access to the soul.

In conclusion, the difference between the mind and the soul is that the mind is bound and it is trying to bind others, whereas the soul is boundless and it is trying to free us. If I am bound, I will try to bind you also. Misery loves company. But as the soul is already free from the meshes of ignorance, naturally it will try to free the rest of the being and to free other human beings as well.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The silent mind, Agni Press, 1977
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