So, what of the soul and being conscious of it and heeding its significant needs and deep requirements? ‘Twas this that E.M. Forster explored in his novels, especially Howards End and A Passage to India.
In the latter, Adela Questad of arrogant, uptight Europe encounters the mystical soul of India in the Marabar Caves scene, and her own hypocritical void receives a profound wake-up call and comeuppance (the latter later at the trial). Likewise, in the cave scene, the half-mystical Mrs. Moore realizes her own emptiness, later persuading Adela to drop her accusation, and moving toward a more Hindu state epitomized and practised by Professor Godbole. (All of this to do with the importance of the state of one’s soul in the context of the physical world.)