WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Vital desire-soul

6 October 1954

Sweet Mother, what is the "vital desire-soul"?

My child, the vital soul is what animates the body, the life which animates the body. You see, in ordinary language it is said, "You die when your soul leaves your body" or "Your soul leaves your body when you die", in one way or the other; but it is not the soul, it is not only this soul--what we call soul, I mean the psychic being--it is the vital being. When the vital being leaves the body for whatever reason, the body dies or death cuts off [old p. 356]the [new p. 356]vital being from the body.... So it is in the sense of animating, that is, giving life.

Is this the "vital desire-soul", Sweet Mother?

Yes, the vital soul is full of desires. The vital being is full of desires. It is built of desires.