Question: What if the soul is really very good, very spiritual, and the rest of the being is creating problems for the soul?

Sri Chinmoy: At that time the soul will do something! If the soul is trying to manifest the Supreme at every second, but the rest of the being is not listening to the soul, at that time the soul will definitely do something. The soul may not have the power of a great spiritual Master, and the soul cannot have the power of the Supreme, but it has infinitely more power than the heart, vital, mind and body. So if these members are really interfering with its progress, the soul will punish them before it becomes a hopeless case. The soul will mercilessly punish the body, vital, mind and even the heart. It will give them an absolutely unthinkable punishment so that they will be forced to surrender to the soul.

It is like this. The father is begging the son to come home, but the son is delaying, delaying, delaying. Perhaps the heart is trying to come, but the vital or mind want to play football or something else. After waiting and waiting, finally the father will give the son a smart slap. At that time the son listens to his father and comes home.

So if the soul is very developed, and if it is desperately trying to please the Supreme, but the body, vital and mind are not, then the soul will use its divine strength. The soul does not want to accept defeat. It took human incarnation with this body, this vital and this mind in order to do something for the Supreme. If it cannot fulfil its purpose, then the soul feels miserable. But it all depends on the soul’s connection with the Highest. Not all souls have the same connection.

I know of one case where the soul punished an individual by not allowing him to speak for fifteen years. Just before this happened, that individual was talking with his Master, and the Master was crying inwardly because he could see that this punishment was about to begin. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. If you do not know anything about the soul, you can say the punishment was an accident, or you can blame it on natural causes or karmic reasons. But sometimes the soul is the real reason you have this problem and that problem, or why you have contracted a serious disease.

The soul is such a tiny thing — tinier than the tiniest. But it is also mightier than the mightiest. One of our most famous Indian mantras says: “Tinier than the tiniest, yet larger than the largest, the soul dwells in the secret heart of man.” Like a magician, at this moment it is tinier than the tiniest inside the heart. But when it becomes absolutely huge, like twenty lions right in front of you, at that time, how are you going to ignore it?