Part I — The soul and the afterlife

Question: What happens after one dies?

Sri Chinmoy: Each human being is composed of five elements: body, vital, mind, heart and soul. When we die, these five elements enter into their respective sheaths and the soul gradually goes back to the soul’s region. It starts its journey from the subtle physical. From the subtle physical it enters into the heart and the psychic region. Then finally the soul goes back to its own region. There it takes rest for some time, maybe six years, or ten years, or forty years; it entirely depends on the Will of God. Then again the soul comes back into the world; it assumes a new body and tries to manifest divinity on earth.