Question: Guru, how can you know what was your soul's promise to the Supreme before you came into the earth?

Sri Chinmoy: You can know your soul’s promise to the Supreme before you came into the world only by constantly feeling that you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not even the heart; you are only the soul. If you feel that you don’t have the physical, if you feel that you have and you are only the soul, then naturally the soul’s vision will come forward and immediately you will know your soul’s promise. The soul is always conscious of its promise, but the mind is not aware of it. But when the soul gets the opportunity to come to the fore, then the mind is convinced. When the mind and the heart identify themselves with the soul, then they feel that the soul’s promise is also their promise.

Right now you live in the body. So, all your problems are in the physical world: where you will stay, what you will eat, how you will mix with people. Just because you live in the physical consciousness, you have all physical problems. But if you live in the soul, then you will have the so-called problems of the soul. If I feel that I am a spiritual Master, then I have all the problems of disciples and Centres. But if I believe I am a poet, then I will have very few problems. Some people will appreciate my poems and some people won’t appreciate them, but I won’t have to take any responsibility. But if I live in the soul, then the world becomes my problem.

The soul’s promise, its only promise, is to reveal, manifest and fulfil the Supreme at every moment in the Supreme’s own Way. To reveal and manifest God most perfectly on earth is the only promise that everybody’s soul makes. It makes this promise consciously and constantly. But according to one’s receptivity, according to the soul’s capacity, one reveals and manifests. So, remain in the soul and feel that you are the soul and without fail, you will know what your soul’s promise was, is and forever will be.

Again, you have to be wise. If you think that you can do all kinds of undivine things and then immediately escape by saying, “I am the soul, I am the soul,” then you are only deceiving yourself. If you are driving a taxi and turn on the meter so that the fare increases like anything, at that time you cannot say, “I am above this, I am the soul.” No, that is absurd.

Right now you have only to keep in mind that you are a chosen instrument; all the disciples are chosen instruments. Right now you are praying to the Supreme to give you Light so that you can come out of ignorance. You can say that you are the soul, but if somebody screams at you, your soul-realisation will immediately go away. So, it is not enough for your mind to say, “I am the soul, I am the soul.” It is only when you have major experiences of the highest Height, and when they become constant in your day-to-day activities, that you can feel that you are truly the soul. Otherwise, if your life-reality is all ignorance, just because you have read in a book that all is the Brahman, you cannot say, “I am the Brahman. I am the highest Height.”

So, if it is not natural and spontaneous for you to feel that you are the soul, try to use your imagination. Then pray most sincerely, meditate most sincerely and devotedly, and try to make it something permanent in your life.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The soul and the process of reincarnation, Agni Press, 1977
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