SOUL

[amandeep]

When man knew not how to speak or how to clothe himself, he must have
known the dreadful end of his life and of the animals he hunted for
his food. He had learnt that there is "Something" apart from the
physical body which departs at the time of death and there is a
continuous change in the body from the birth to death and that which
moves, grows, decays and dies. And long before he invented the
religion and God of whatever kind or sort, he had learnt the knowledge
of Spirit and Matter because this was the first wonder on which he had
to ponder and muse, besides other natural happenings and phenomena
confronting him. Whatever sports out of the primordial matter changes,
decays and dies and what departs at the time of death came to be known
as soul. Man has lived on this earth for many millennia of years. The
soul must have been debated and discussed by all great philosophers,
but in the Western thought soul has remained the soul only. With the
advent of Vedic Period an impersonal kind of Supreme Reality is hinted
in the famous Nasadiya Hymn. This hymn (RV X:129) is the most
important in the history of the philosophy of India. I am quoting from
the Hindu Religious Thought by Yakub Masih, Page 43 (Motilal
Banarsidas)
Rgveda X: 129 Nasadiya:
1. Then was not non-existent nor existent:
There was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in and where? and what gave shelter?
Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
2. Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal:
No sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature; apart from it
was nothing whatsoever.
3. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was
indiscriminate chaos.
All that existed then was void and formless: by the great power of
Warmth was born that Unit.
4. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed
and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the
existent's kinship in the non-existent.
5. Transversely was their severing line extended:
What was above it then, and what below it?
There was begetters, there was mighty forces, free action here and
energy up yonder.
6. Who verily knows and who can here declare it, Whence it was born
and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production, who knows then whence
it first came into being?
7. He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or
did not form it, whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he
verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
This hymn strongly suggests a Being, which is essentially impersonal
and which cannot be described either existent or non-existent. By the
time we reach Upanisadic Period, when Brahman (God) was perceived, a
further bold step was taken by holding that Brahman is Atman. The
Self, which is within each and everyone of us, and within everything
else that moves. It is held that Atman (Soul) is beyond senses, mind
and intellect. This Atman is not an individual soul, yours or mine,
but is cosmic in nature and is best defined as Bliss. However, this
discovery was made gradually and successively. At first it was
identified with body (annamaya), then with vital powers (Prenamays),
then with conscious will (manomaya), afterwards with knowledge
(vijnanamaya). And, finally, it was found to be Pure Bliss
(anandamaya). The knowledge of Brahman is sought to take a man away
form the endless cycle of miserable lives to a state of bliss. This is
based on the formula that a knower of Brahman becomes Brahman which is
absolute bliss. This Brahman when conditioned (manifested into
physical appearance) is called Jiva (Atman) which corresponds to the
Western word soul. This soul reaps the fruits of his deeds and to
clear his debt or credit balance of good or evil doings, he goes on
passing through births till he realizes the Self and attains to
Brahman, the ultimate goal. According to Gita, The Essence in man is
the Atman, the birthless, the deathless, the eternal spirit whom
weapon cannot cleave, fire cannot burn and air cannot dry. Birth and
death are only of the body and not of the soul, and the body in
relation to the Atman is like clothes one puts on and throws away of
like the passing stages of life like childhood, boyhood, youth and old
age. Pleasant and painful experiences of life are passing episodes.
The belief in the immortality of soul, the doctrine of the
transmigration of the soul, its preexistence and the theory of never
ending process of rebirths until its release from the so-called
bondage of Samsara (Tenure of life i.e. coming into being, suffering
and death) appears to be much more ancient than any kind of religion
became the guiding principle. I am quoting hereunder from the Greek
Philosophy and it will appear to the reader that East and West in the
past thought on similar lines. The following passage have been
extracted from the Critical history of Western Philosophy by Y. Masih
(Motilal Banarsidas).
Greek beliefs: Very little is known about Orpheus, but the origin of
the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul goes back to his
Orphism. He is said to be a reformer of the religion of Dionysus.
Later, Pythagorean adopted some elements of Orphism in his philosophy.
And Pythagoreanism greatly influenced Socrates and Plato.
Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.): For Pythagorean the soul is immortal. He
believed in the rebirths and even the transmigration of the soul. The
whole wheel of rebirths is eventually painful and it is the duty of
man that he should put an end to this wheel of rebirths. The body is
the tomb of the soul and the visible world in which man lives is false
and illusive. How to get one's ralease from the round of endless
reincarnations in this false world? Page 6.
Plato (428-347 B.C.): According to Plato. The soul is immortal and in
its pristine existence it enjoyed the pure experience. But at present
the soul is in bondage to senses and continues in bondage to senses
and continues in bondage till it regains its pristine glorious
existence through proper philosophical knowledge through meditation on
the Idea of the Good. As long as the soul does not regain its release,
it passes through endless cycle of rebirths. Thus the soul, since it
is immortal and has been born many times and has seen all things both
here and in the other world, has learned everything that is. So we
need not be surprised if it can recall the knowledge of virtue or
anything else, which as we see, it once possessed. But what is the
proof of rebirths. Plato adduces several proofs.
First: Soul is the only entity which moves by itself and moves all
other things, All soul is immortal, for that which is ever in motion
is immortal. But that which, while imparting motion, is itself moved
by something else can cease to be in motion, and, therefore, can cease
to live. It is only soul which moves itself and this self mover is the
source and first principle of motion for all other things that are
moved. And if this is correct that which moves itself is precisely
identifiable with soul, it must follow that soul is not born and does
not die.
Plato argues that the compound or composites alone can break into its
elements, but that which is simple and incorporeal cannot be traced to
any of its elements, for it has no parts. Therefore, the soul as
simple and incorporeal is eternal,
Everything is generated in the pair of opposites e.g. separating from
combining, cooling form heating and so on. Therefore, from life comes
death and from death comes life. If living things come from living
beings alone, and the living things died, then life itself will
extinguish one day after life was exhausted by death.
Plato also maintains that learning is really relearning or
recollection. if that is true, then surely what we recollect now, we
must have learned at some time, which is impossible unless our souls
existed somewhere before they entered this human shape. So in that way
too it seems likely that the soul is immortal.
Transmigration: We have already seen that the soul of man is immortal,
but man is an embodied spirit. Man therefore keeps on transmigrating
form one body to another till the soul gets the vision of the Good and
learns to shed off the elements of the body by contemplating on the
Idea of the Good. Exactly like the Gita, Plato maintains that the soul
keeps on changing its body in its countless rebirths. Soul is a long-
lived thing, whereas body is relatively feeble and short-lived. But
while we may admit that each soul (i.e. embodied and imprisoned soul)
wears out a number of bodies, the soul never stops replacing what is
worn away. As long as the soul keeps to the vision of the good, man
remains happy. But when the vision of the good fades, man sinks deeper
and deeper into lower births, even births into animals. And seeing
that a soul in successive conjunctions first with one body then with
another runs the whole gamut of change through its own actions.
Instead of working out the release, the soul gives itself to the
enjoyment of pleasure and pain. Every pleasure of pain has a sort of
rivet with which it fastens the soul to the body and pins it down and
makes it corporeal accepting as true whatever the body certified.
Release can be won if the soul gets wholly preoccupied with one's
release from the body. Secondly, the soul must get itself purified
from every taint of the body. No release is possible if impure body is
used for its release. No soul which has not practiced philosophy, and
is not absolutely pure when it leaves the body may attain to the
divine nature, that is, only for the lover of wisdom (Pages 73-75).
Democritus laid emphasis on happiness, which in general means the
surplus of pleasure over pain. Happiness lies in cheerfulness which is
the state of the soul and not of the body or of the senses. Hence,
happiness is gaining calm body and calm soul. Calm body can be
obtained by promoting health, and calm soul can be gained only by
cheerfulness, and by having insight into pleasure and pain.
He who chooses the goods of the soul chooses what is divine; he who
chooses the calm of the body chooses what is human.
Though Greek and Indian thoughts are expected to be independent and
parallel developments of thought, the reader may observe that both had
known the soul as eternal and sustaining power of the universe. In due
course, the Greek thought favored science and also, possibly the new
religious developments swallowed it, this popular cult disappeared
from the West. But much before that in India this religious thought
had reached the highest point of development and Brahma-knowledge (God-
knowledge) had become the "Flower of the Indian thought".