Question: Do a soul's qualities remain throughout Eternity?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, a soul’s qualities remain throughout Eternity. Again, they increase. Sometimes in one incarnation the good qualities of a particular soul may not be manifested as much as they are in other incarnations. That does not mean that those qualities do not exist. It is just that it is not necessary for them to come forward at that point in the soul’s evolution.

Suppose in this incarnation I aspire to be a great violinist. In my next incarnation I may not care for the violin at all. But the excellence that I acquired from studying the violin is still there in my soul, although my soul may not want to manifest that particular quality any more. My soul may want me to be an engineer or to do something else. But the good qualities the soul always keeps.

At the same time, the determination or the discipline that I needed in order to become a great violinist will also remain with me. In this lifetime if I want to enter another field and become a great athlete or something else, then if I can bring forward that discipline once more, it will definitely help.

Any good quality that the soul has acquired over the years through patience, perseverance and discipline, the soul will never lose. But the soul may not want to utilise all the good qualities that it has in a particular incarnation. The soul comes down to manifest particular good qualities in order to expedite God’s manifestation on earth. Only the good qualities that are needed in a particular incarnation will be chosen by God to be manifested.