The Soul and the Evolutionary Nature of the Psychic Being

A seed contains the entire genetic code from which the exte
al form, energetic capacity and mental abilities of a living being develop. It can be seen as the most concentrated form of that being, a form that nevertheless has the capacity, through time, of manifesting a physical form, a vital form, and eventually a mental form. Each of these layers take the shape and carry out the energy and direction of the seed from which they developed. These levels are expressed over time, with some developments requiring what we consider to be a long time when looked at from the viewpoint of a single human lifetime. Since each of these levels operates under a set of guidelines that contain opportunities and limitations inherent in each sheath or layer, they only express imperfectly the genetic code contained in the seed. The living being may also be influenced by its environment and thus, despite the pattern requested by the code built into the seed, it may fall short of the ideal, or become twisted, warped or malformed. Mutations may occur which change the ability of that form or of seeds that eventuate to create future beings. Sexual reproduction, combining seed-elements from different beings, creates a framework for systematic, organised mutation built into the very process itself.

The analogy of the seed and the living being can be used to help us understand the soul, its role, and the development of the inner being that carries out the needs of the soul within the overall manifestation within which it is a participant. What is missing from the seed and its development, however, is the element of the soul and the psychic being. The soul, as the Mother indicates, is the ‘divine spark’ that uses the exte
al form to manifest itself and its divine nature. The psychic being answers the question about the purpose and significance of our existence. We are no longer a static ‘seed’ with a fixed genetic code, creating exte
al forms without any sense of purpose, mindlessly repeating the code in each formation; rather, we can see the psychic being as a dynamic evolution of the soul’s essential nature to harvest the fruit of experience, across lifetimes, and build a maturing and ever-increasing soul-manifestation.

As the psychic being matures and develops, it gains the power to more perfectly direct and control the body, life and mind that it takes on in a particular lifetime. It utilizes the instruments formed from the code embodied in the exte
al seed-form. It expresses the soul’s essential nature in the manifestation.

A disciple inquires: “In the human being, is the psychic being the entire soul or do both the soul (in its essence as a divine spark in all creatures) and the psychic being exist together?”

The Mother answers: “The soul is the ete
al essence at the centre of the psychic being. The soul is in fact like a divine spark which puts on many states of being of increasing density, down to the most material; it is inside the body, within the solar plexus, so to say* (*By ‘solar plexus’, the Mother is referring to the heart (not the navel) region; this is clear from statements she has made elsewhere; as for example, in the following statement: ‘Generally it is in the heart, behind the solar plexus, that one finds this luminous presence.’ (CWM, V. 16, p. 410). These states of being take form and develop, progress, become individualised and perfected in the course of many earthly lives and form the psychic being. When the psychic being is fully formed, it is aware of the consciousness of the soul and manifests it perfectly.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 1 Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pp. 8-9