The vital desire-soul animates the external being. When it enters the physical frame, we say that there is life in the body. When it departs, we say that the person has died. This is distinguishable from the true soul, the psychic being, which is not dependent on either the life or death of a particular body, which transcends and survives the life of the body, and which takes on new forms as needed to carry out its role in the universal manifestation.
For those who have experienced an ‘out of body’ experience, there is the sense of the vital being separating from the physical body. In some cases it can view the body and its surroundings from outside. Sensitive individuals speak of a silver cord or thread that ties the vital being to the physical body. If the thread snaps while the vital being is outside the physical frame, the death of the body occurs.
The true soul, meanwhile, does not act to animate or remove life from the body; rather, it uses the body for its purposes, and can shift to a new physical frame when its purpose here is concluded in this form.
The Mother writes: “… 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 the 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.”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pg. 28
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 17 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.