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 .