Since the one-body-one-soul equation can have so many exceptions, the question of determining the number of souls in existence becomes complicated. There is another aspect to this question which lifts it beyond the ken of any need for enumeration. The number of souls from this point of view is infinite. There is one infinite, indivisible soul which, through illusion, appears as many separate souls. Just as the one real soul is infinite in its indivisible being, the many souls into which it appears to get split are infinite in number. The shadow of the Infinite is infinite and remains infinite. Though the number of souls who attain full or human consciousness is limited and growing, the total number of souls of all plants, animals, insects, atoms, etc. is infinite and cannot be counted.
When we say that the number of souls in the universe remains infinite, this does not mean that it is constant. It remains the same only in the sense of remaining infinite and not in the sense of barring creation of new or fresh souls. The number of human-conscious souls is not to be judged or arrived at by a census of living human bodies which dwell in the gross world at any one time. There are ever so many human-conscious souls who have just passed away or who are waiting to be born. Of course, the number of those souls who are freed from the round of births and deaths is very limited, compared with the number of those who are caught up in it. Which groups of souls will incarnate in a specific period or cycle, and in what manner they are accommodated so as to allow scope for their evolution, are all matters governed by the masters who represent the divine will. The example of shifts working by day and night in factories is appropriate in this context. It indicates the many ways in which complex adjustments can be made to provide for the spiritual evolution of one and all. Even the exceptions to the one-body-one-soul equation are only parts of adjustments, which ultimately serve the divine will.
– Beams, p47