WHAT IS SOUL AND OTHER QUESTIONS

 

WHAT IS SOUL?

      The other day  I was checking my messages on a group chat, I and there was a news of someone passing away. This was followed by RIP-RIP-RIP by many. Then someone texted me asking me as to what is the concept of soul in Vedic religion and what happens to soul after death - death of physical body. Then we had exchange of texts and I thought of doing this blog. What I thought was what I told him and that is what I am writing here.

      The soul is a reflection of the CONSCIOUSNESS. So then the question comes as to where is this reflection and what happens to it after the death. How can it be carried from one life to other life. The reflection is not ORIGINAL THING , but still has the properties of the original thing. Let us take example of the Sun. When the Sun is reflected in a mirror, the reflection has the qualities of the Sun ,it has heat and also light .If we use lens to concentrate the image of the sun, then we can burn a paper.. But it is not real SUN. If we have a mirror, we will have a reflection of anything including the sun. The same thing can be applied to the human body. As one may recollect, we have 3 bodies namely physical body ,astral body  and causal body - STHUL SHARIR-SUKSHMA SHARIR AND KARAN SHARIR . The physical body dies at the time of so called death. But the 2 other bodies - Astral and Causal bodies are carried from one life to other. The IMPRESSIONS of our lives and KARMA are stored in CAUSAL BODY. And that is why we have rebirth. The Reflection of the Consciousness is in the CAUSAL BODY and the Astral body . As long as we have the MIRROR of these bodies , we have existence. This is THE SOUL-THE REFLECTION OF THE CONSCILUSNESS . This is the light - energy or the cause why we can think -act have intellect etc Without the fuel of this CONSCIOUSNESS , ONE WILL NOT HAVE ANY VALUE TO THE 2 BODIES. This can be compared to electricity. The computer works - the AC unit works -the Heater works and so does the light bulb. None of them can function without electricity . But the electricity ITSELF does not heat or cool or give light etc. The same is true of the reflected consciousness. IT ITSELF DOES NOT DO ANYTHING . But for mind to think , we need the consciousness. ASLONG AS THE MIRRORS OF ASTRAL AND CAUSAL BODIES ARE THERE there will be reflection and the SOUL IS THERE as an separate  entity - separate but still dependent. The only way we can have MUKTI or FREEDOM is when we have broken the CAUSAL BODY MIRROR. The astral body exists due to causal body  and causal body is there as we continue to accumulate KARMIC IMPRESSIONS. So now you know ,how to achieve NIRVANA and what is the SOUL. 

    I wrote this blog on my other blog post-www.kathopnishad.blogpost.com and then I had several comments and questions on the soul and so I thought of doing some addition to the post here .

     The first question was about Mummies - they have Physical body but he Astral and Causal bodies along with soul have left. Even the Physical body is not what it was , so it is NONLIVABLE as normal life -normal life as we know.

    What about Ghosts? The Ghosts are combination of Astral body and Causal body and off course the Soul. But since it does not have Physical body, we cannot see it easily. But it still has EYES AND EARS AND REPLICA OF PHYSICAL BODY. Since it has some energy it ca be seen as outline but it does not have physical barriers. So it can 'pass through closed doors or walls etc. 

   The angels are nothing but evolved souls , which have some purpose in their life and so have not destroyed their causal body. If one believes in 7 levels of ASTRAL plains, there are close to 7th one - the highest one , but have decided to stay at little bellow that ,sometimes to help , educate , advice etc. One must have Astral body to be functioning and mind , intellect ,and Ego and CHITT are part of astral body. The Astral body is exact replica of Physical body and so it has structure but vey loosely bound and so it does not reflect light to be visible. But it can become visible if it becomes dense . Again this is my thinking. The soul is nothing but the REFLECTION and for the reflection , we need mirror or glass or something  as reflecting surface and that is Causal body . It provides fuel for the causal and astral bodies. 

DO WE HAVE FREE WILL ?

     In past I have talked about Free Will. There is also a debate on Free Will -is it really that Free? Many scientist have tried to do some experiments to show that the Free Will is not that Free. The experiments showed that before someone raises hand ,the decision is ALREADY made . But that is for experiments, and they really do not know the mind . All our legal system and moral laws are based on assumption that we have Free Will . We have a Freedom to drive above speed limit . We have free will to not slap someone or steal from someone etc.So The same is for moral actions and immorality. Cheating someone, infidelity may not be illegal , but may be not moral. But then again if we don't have free will, then we can not be held responsible for our actions. This is assumed but again we also talk about Karma and it's effects and how our present life is result of our past actions. So the question arises if we have our CURRENET path in life is determined by our Karmas from past life, then is there a Free Will , that can change or have effects on our current life's trajectory?

    The answer is Yes and NO. We have certain cards that we are dwelt with in this life and that is based on our pas Karma and the seeds of them that we are born with. But how we PLAY or use the cards is up to us. The karams do not have one to one effect. But the effects are resultants of many factors or effects of many Karmas. So it's not like I know what will be the suffering or the effects is going to be if I steal a pen from my work place. There are many Karmas which have effects - just like saying there are multiple 'pulls' and the direction that is final ,is result of all the 'pulls'. In addition to these Karmic effects , add to that the WILL. If the force of WILL is poor , then the Karmic effects will decide the our Life . And then it feels we have no FREE WILL. But if our desire to change or have willpower is strong, then we CAN CHANGE the direction of our life .Mind you the KARMIC effects are still there , but they will be changed or not as obvious as our life would have been if we did not use FREE WILL . 

    As I have stated in my some of the blogs and You Tube videos, do we have enough time - desire -efforts  and also how strong g is the Karmic effects to begin with - all of this will decide the LIFE - DIRECTION ETC . 

3 GOONAS AND CHANGES IN IT OR AVASTHA -ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE

      We all know 3 Goonas -namely SATVIC , RAJASIK AND TAMASIC. We also know that these are in dormant state after PRALAY or end of universe. and then they start activating at the beginning of the universe .But in doing so they go through some changes and each stage has some meaning ,when we talk about the origin of universe. To me that is fascinating and so I thought of TALKING ABOUT IT IN THIS BLOG. 

   The Vedic religion describes 4 different stages or AVASTHA of the 3 Goonas.These are 1. VISHESH, 2. AVISHESH ,3.LING MATRA , 4 . ALING 

   When UNMANIFESTED UNIVERSE becomes MANIFESTED , something happens. There is a disturbance in the calm state of un manifested. This is called GUNASHOBHINI. Until then the 3 Goonas are in perfect balance and calm. So there is no 'SIGN' of any Goonas. So that is called ALING AVASTHA. ;ALINGA means there is no sign of GOONAS . When the disturbance or imbalance starts , that state is called 'LINGA MATRA  AVASTHA' This means it has SIGN . So that state is called LING MATRA AVASTHA. This leads to origin or beginning of MAHAT TATVA When the universe ENDS with what we call PRALAY , all the livings things go dormant , in a singularity and their all desires are gone with them . We can compared this to FROZEN STATE that now a days some living things are 'kept alive. But since the 3 GOONAS are in balance now there is no movement and so that is called ALING AVASTHA    The 5 Great Elements - MAHABHUTE , 5 organs of Action, 5 Organs of perception and ANATHAKARAN . These 16  things together is called VISHESH AVASTHA of 3 Goonas. The 5 TANMATRA and ASMITA - EGO together these 6 elements is AVISHESH STAGE of 3 Goonas.The PRAKRUTI made of these 6 principles with MAHATATVA is the next stage called LINGMATRA AVASTHA . The state of Original PRAKRUTI -un manifested is the ALING AVASTHA.

   The 3 Goonas give rise to certain thing The TAMOGOON gives rise to 5 TANMATRA , namely words, or sound , touch, look, taste and smell.  

The RAJASIC GOONA gives rise to 5 organs of Action , namely hands . legs , speech, procreation and excretion. 

The SATWIC GOONA gives rise to 5 Organs of Perception, namely eyes, nose for smell, tongue for taste and skin for touch and ears for hearing 

SO at the beginning of the universe , the sequence is ALING AVASTHA TO LING MATRA AVASTHA TO AVIVESH AVASTHA TO VISHESH .   

     The disturbance in singularity leads to origin of MAHAT TARTV which gives rise to ASMITA and then the 3 GOONAS give rise to things that are mentioned above. 

   

EFRTILIZED OVUM AND SOUL

       There has been debate about fertilized egg and life. Now a days we have technology to  get ovum out of human body and the fertilize it out side the body and then stored it for future implantation in uterus. This technology is used when a couple  can not conceive naturally. The re are cases where there is a gap of years not days when the fertilized ovum is not implanted in uterus but continues to be frozen and stored in laboratory. So the question is 'is there a soul in this ovum - is there JIV ?' If there is a soul or JIV in this ovum then what is the fate - what kind of karmic influence caused it to be stored in such a sate , where there is no outlet for satisfying desires or get rid of bad Karma ?

   The answer that I am giving is my own opinion and not sure if everyone will agree. The difficulty is in defining the word SOUL. We know LIFE - JIVA but what exactly is the Hindu concept of JIVA ? What leaves when someone dies? I have talked about in my previous blogs either this one or my other ones BRAINSTORM-AVINASH1.BLOGSPOT.COM or PATANGJALISUTRAYOGA.BLOGSPOT.COM.There is a unit of  Physical Body or STHUL SHARIR, Astral body - SUKSHMA SHARIR and Causal body or KARAN SHARIR and there is reflection of Consciousness ABHAS CHAITANYA . When one dies - what is left is Physical body and the other 2 bodies and the reflected consciousness leave the physical body . This unit is looking for new body to fulfill it's desires and repay the debt. But this unit has Mind -Ego Intellect and so it wants to seek such an environment that will fulfill it's desires. This so called soul or JIVA will SELECT parents and family and circumstances where it can satisfy this. It will not come to any fertilized egg ,unless it is implanted in uterus of human being. So even though there is consciousness pervading EVRYTHING including this fertilized ovum, it is not having so called JIVA. Once this fertilized egg is implanted in uterus -now the unit or JIVA knows what to expect in that life and it will descend or enter the fertilized egg.

   In my thinking JIVA is consciousness - reflected which is ignorant and has itself decided to be confine with the Astral body- Causal body unit and does not realize the FREE nature. So it is confined to THAT BODY. 

THE ORIGIN OF THOUGHT OR 4 LANGUSGES IN VEDIC WAY

       I had done a story, where I had asked a question if something is an affair . Does a 'bad thought ' constitute an action or does it constitute KARAMA ? My answer was unless there are repeated thoughts , it does not cause KARMA .In comments someone states that we should have control over thoughts. My answer was we can try and sometimes the circumstances are such that we lose the control over our thoughts. Then I started thinking as to what is the origin of our thoughts ?That lead to today's blog.

    The question is how and why we get certain thoughts or for that matter any thought. The answer is in our law of Karma theory. For those who have not read my book on Amazon please check out 'LAW OF KARMA ,REINCARNATION AND GENETICS ' published by me. But every thought starts with a wave of thought or effects from our previous Karma, There are 4 levels - stages or states namely -PARAA -PASHYANTI-MADHYAMA- AND VAIKHARI. Noe let us see what these 4 levels are and how they are related to our Karma.

     When a thought wave comes in or arises , it may be due to EXTERNAL stimuli. Say for example I see a cake  and a desire arises in my mind . This is called  PARAA . Now this could be without me seeing a cake . When I am hungry, I will thinks of only things that I have tasted in past and LIKED it . If I had never tasted cake , a thought to eat it will never come to my mind . So that is what law of Karma or circle of mind is . I do an ACTION that causes  impression, that impression leads to Desire  and that leads to again action and so on .If the impression is Bad , then we try to avoid the action that caused bad impression. So that also has DESIRE - but this desire is to avoid what caused bad impression. e.g touching hot plate / fire - the impression of burn leads to Desire to avoid it. So when the circumstances are favorable to eat or materialize our Desires , the thought comes in our mind as a wave. The wave of  the thought is at such a level , that we can suppress it if the surroundings are not conducive to fulfill our desires and is suppressed . But if the circumstances are favorable, then that wave - PARRA  becomes PASHYANTI. PASHYANTI  means  VISUALISE. We visualize the wave that came as ripple in water or  wave in mind. Now we see the cake . That is transferred to next stage or level called MADHYAMA . The MADHYAMA MEANS MIDDLE This means what we see is now named and that now is a real thought  and then we say in whatever language we speak or think - verbalize - the verbalization is called VAIKHARI. This is last stage . 

  The mind cannot think unless it has been exposed to something in past . I will not have love or good feelings for someone or dislike  or hatred for someone , unless I have KNOWN and had some interaction with that person in past  and that meeting had left us with some IMPRESSIONS - love or hate , like or dislike. And sometimes the thoughts come so fast that we can not prevent it. 

   In my personal opinion , unless we have a repeated thoughts of hatred -dislike or lust for someone or something - it does not become a deep KARMA  as would be if we ACT on our thoughts. 

  So we have 4 languages or stages of thoughts before we have spoken words. 

CAN LIFE BE EXTENDED BY SAGES ?

      We have often seen stories of sages or great souls , blessing and then the life is extended. We have heard that some dying person was blessed by some sage and then he got cured and then he lived for long time. If we believe that the PRESENT LIFE duration is PRE DETERMINED  at the time of birth.. At  the time of birth , it is determined as to which Karma from Sanchit Karma are going to fruition, So when those Karma are fulfilled - come to fruition, then our life ends . Again at the same time the Karma hat we do in present life -some of them will come to fruition in this life and some will be STORED as Sanchit and some of them will come to fruition in this life . So our present life duration is combination of those 2.So how can this be changed by someone's blessings?  

     The highly evolved souls have knowledge and control over past lives and Karmas. No one can alter the effects of the karma , but one can select when they come to fruition. So when sage blesses someone to extend the life, he is in essence, he is BORROWING SOME EFFECTS OF KARAMA that was stored to be effective in some future life. So if more Karmas are added to come to fruition in this PRESENT LIFE , the present life will continue. Most of the time such extension is of limited duration. This does mean that next life may be shortened  or may stay same if one can get additional Karmas to come to fruition The priciple of 'every karma will have effect ' is still kept intact. .

  The principal is still true . One cannot escape the 

GIVING UP EVERYTHING

     In Hindu religion, we have a concept of 4 stages of life ,so called ASHRAMS. The life is divided in to 4 stages or segments where we are suppose to do certain Duties or function in certain stages. The 1st one is BRAHMACHARY - celibacy and do the study and get education .The second is GRUHASTHASHRAM -Having a family life and get married and have children and have a family. In the next one or 3rd one which is called VANAPRASTHASRAM. In this stage one needs to start disowning everything .and so one must 'give up ' everything . The next one is SANYAS ASHRAM In this stage of life one leaves EVERYTHING AND DEVOTES LIFE for God worship or meditating to achieve MOKSHA.

    So the question is why one has to GIVE UP EVERYTHING to do mediation or achieve MAKSHA ?Why can one live with family , have a home , car , bank account etc. and still do the mediation. We see the same thing . When we see sages or SWAMIES ,they  don't own anything and even when they change from householder's life to one of SANYASI - they change the name . In fact the ceremony that is done is 2 folds . One is to perform 'LAST RIGHTS'-So called SHRADHA and then naming ceremony. The idea is to start new life and have no connection with even the PREVIOUS LIFE. When we have family and possessions, we have Attachments and that not only binds us but also disturbs our n=mind. When one meditates , one is asked to do it at 4 am when environment is quite - for today  less traffic noise, TV , radio etc. are off and since every one is sleeping , the noise is less . We chant SHANTI for 3 times - is for the same reason - no disturbance from external and internal disturbance and also from our past karmas - that is 3 things. If we try to meditate, with the family and all the possessions , our mind will be disturbed by thinking about our car - home - our children and grand children , duties as householder and we cannot concentrate at the time of meditation. 

    So one has to have detachment from everything and I mean everything and that is why all the Swamies are not married , have family or own anything.