Vedic Atma, Jivatma and Jiva common observation that all types of animate life have some energy on birth

[yogesh saxena]

Vedic Atma, Jivatma and Jiva
It is a common observation that all types of animate life have some
energy on birth. While a human infant on birth is normally found,
crying but many newborn babies of animals are found even walking along
with their mothers. Somewhat similar phenomenon is ob¬served in the
other animate life like, birds, fishes and sea animals. Is it only the
intake of food by the mothers of all animate life, the source of
energy of all new born babies or is there some thing else which can be
termed as the energy principle and operates through the divine Nature?
What had made Dante to say, “man is a divine animal” and Aristotle to
say, “man is a social animal”? If for Socrates, Plato and Dante the
soul is the individual's real self, why the same soul Plato's greatest
and the most renowned disciple Aristotle could not find and in lieu
found entelechy moving towards perfection both in animate and
inanimate life? What made Oscar Wilde to say, “I am the only person
in the world I should like to know thoroughly”? This “I” certainly
cannot be the gross body. If due to any unfortunate major accident the
eyes become blind, either the legs or hands are badly injured and
finally amputated, this “ I ” still remains intact even though gross
human body is not complete.
This “ I ” can at best be brain, mind, intellect,
will, ego, spirit or soul. The Vedic metaphysics tells us that it is
the soul which makes a person separate and distinct individual. The
spirit is the cause of his/her social being and along with mahabhuta-
five main elements and three gunas of purity, activity and stupor is
the cause of good or bad actions of the individuals. Thus in the Vedas
an individual is both divine and social animal, capable of doing both
good and bad deeds. Metaphysicists like Sankracharya of India, Lao Tse
of China and Imman¬uel Kant of Germany had found gross body as part of
the phenomenal world of Maya or Phantasmagoria. They found the real
extended “ self “ of the individual in his/ her divine soul. However,
the Vedic metaphysics describes clearly all these concepts relating to
soul (atma), manifested soul (jivatma), spirit (jiva), ego (ahamkar),
intellect (buddhi), mind (manas), gross body (sthool sharira) etc.
According to Vedic metaphysics human gross body has an
inward looking mind (manas) and an outward looking mind (etani), both
combined work as engine of the gross body. Five Koshas (sheaths/
coverings of the body) are the wheels and the path to be covered is
not known to the engine (mind). This path is only known to the
manifested soul (jivatma), which is nearest on self-realization and
farthest when phenomenal and the material worlds become the closest
(A.V. X-8-8). The various hymns in the Vedas as well as most of the
108 Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita (considered by many savants as 109th
Upanishad) explain in details the metaphysical concepts of soul as
part omniscience principle and spirit as energy and life principle.
Both are divine instruments in the human gross body along with ego,
intellect and mind. The various terms are used in the Vedas like
Parmatma, Purushuttam and Brahma for Supreme Self - the formless and
ineffable God. Jivatma, Purusha and Brahmansh are used for the real
higher self in the human body, which is the manifested immaterial
soul. For the soul still not manifested in the human body, instead of
jivatma, the term atma is mentioned.

For the divine spirit in the gross body the epithets like Jiva,
asu, kundalini, manas, prana etc., have been given. This spirit is
found in all parts of the subtle and gross body including nails and
hair. Spirit is the one, which makes things move not only in animate
but also inanimate life. Kundalini is described as the storehouse of
coiled energy. Asu and Pranas are ten different vital breaths of
which, seven are subtle and three are gross. While making a
distinction, Vedas make it clear that God is both the Supreme Soul and
Supreme Spirit. In the Vedic metaphysics this is described Parmatma -
the supreme soul and Mahadeva - the supreme spirit. Being subtle in
nature, His spirit even pervades in ideas, thoughts, actions,
assemblies etc. Very often we say “the spirit behind” the action,
thought, desire or religious or political assembly is XYZ ... Thus the
spirit of God pervades not only in animate or inanimate life but also
in subtle concepts, ideas, actions etc., and makes the formless and
ineffable God as omnipresent. The individuals who know and understand
the spirit as the powerhouse of creativity in them create subtle waves
of nobility, love, and harmony even if they sit silently in any
gathering or assembly.
Patanjali's Yog shastra, Manu Smriti, Puranas, Brahma sutras and
other scriptures agree with Vedas that the Spirit of God pervades
every where in all animate and inanimate life. However, right from
Charvakas days, a large number of Hindus find difficult to accept any
energy principle in the inanimate life. For them matter in any form is
inert. The acceptance of God's spirit in the inanimate life is more as
a faith but not conviction. The Newtonian classical mechanics made it
still more difficult for the masses to accept life in iron, silver or
gold, granite and marble stones. Newton held atom as the building
block, which could not be further divided into sub-atomic particles
and confirmed that atom is inert. The classical mechanics of Newton
and Tyndall encouraged the western philosophers and thinkers to decry
idealism of Socrates, Plato, Immanuel Kant and many others in the East
and West.
The worst controversy arose when the experimental biologist Charles
Robert Darwin (1809-82) agreed that the evolution of the present day
morphology had been built up by the gradual and opportun¬istic
mechanism of natural selection that he described as “survival of the
fittest”. He also held this principle rules this gross universe and
there is no such thing as subtle or subtlest of the subtle. His
dis¬covery of survival of the fittest in this universe has no
relationship to soul, spirit or other metaphysical concepts contained
in the Holy Scriptures and various philosophies, particularly those of
pure and objective idealists. Vedic metaphysics that had reached its
pinnacle of glory during Sankracharya, Ramanajum, Vallabh ‘s periods
got a set back.
Ritualistic and ceremonial portion of the Vedas commonly known as
Brahamanas became more important than Upanishads containing perfect
philosophy of Brahma, soul, spirit, Prakrti, primordial subtle matter
of three gunas etc. However, individuals like Swami Daya Nand,
Vivekananda, Rama Krishna and all the ten Sikh gurus kept their faith
unshaken in spite of the contrary scientific discoveries of the
western scientists and continued spreading Vedic metaphysics unmindful
of the criticism, challenges and faced all kinds of obstruc¬tions from
the fundamentalists. Swami Daya Nand was poisoned but escaped death
owing to timely action of his well wishers. Two Sikh gurus were killed/
be¬headed by the then Mughal rulers on the advice of fundamentalists
and one guru of the Sikh religion lost two of his noble and divine
sons on this path of divine Vedic knowledge. For Sikh religion, Vedas
are the supreme scriptures. The holy Grantha Sahib says,” Asankh
granth mukhi Veda path.” There are innumerable scriptures but the
study of Vedas is supreme.
The discoveries, inventions and scientific formulae of
earlier centuries started changing very fast in the third decade of
20th century. Western savants found in the new scientific discoveries
of sub atomic particles, Aristotle's “entelechy” also in the inanimate
life and movement of “matter” towards perfection was observed.
“Fatigue” was found even in steel. Those who had continued their faith
in the Vedic metaphysics found once again the permanency of the truths
contained in the Vedas, giving rude shocks to materialists and even
rationalists. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) an eminent mathematical
physicist independently arrived at a new formula E= mc2 where c
denotes the speed of light which is 186,000 miles per second. C being
constant, energy is dependent on the mass of the particle at sub
atomic level. Each atom is a “energy ball” with over 80 kinds of sub
atomic particles. Some of these particles are without weight and
elec¬tric charge like protons but having enough energy to create
electro magnetic radiation. A few of such particles like electrons,
neutrons, pion, keon, omega have weight and electric charge.
He thus found a large number of extremely tiny machines ever
working within an atom that do not take rest, need no looking after or
repairs by human beings. Nuclei of the atom have no gross matter but
waves, wavicles and even some thing non material (akin to subtle); but
full of energy. This made him believe the insignificance of science in
this vast Nature. He even put a small board in his laboratory with
words promi¬nently written “Thou Art That” which Vedas had already
found as “Tat tvam Asi”. Metaphysically his scientific discoveries can
be described as Vedas say, “an inner subtle world in the gross
matter.” Since inanimate life is not dependent on any kind of food
known to human beings, this energy in the gross atoms of air, water,
earth etc., is provided by the divine Nature “Prakrti” which herself
gets it from the Supreme Spirit described as Mahadeva in the Vedas.
All knowledge, con¬sciousness and energy emanate from Him and HE
always remains the “Whole”. This supreme spirit is the cosmic energy
of the western meta¬physicists like Saint Augustine and Acquinas and
is the “Shiva Shakti” of Atharva Veda. Hindus worship Lord Shiva as
Maha Deva and rarely describe Him as Parmatma. Maha deva exercises
this energy through His consort Parvati known by many names Amba,
Durga, Kamakhya, Kali etc.
This cosmic energy first entered through the cosmic
Word “Shabad Brahma” OM pronounced as AUM, which changed into mass as
hiranyagarbha- the cosmic golden Egg (Y.V 16-4). On the opening or
bursting of this “Cosmic Egg” great mass of this entire universe was
formed with the combination of subtle gunas in different proportions,
along with subtle and gross particles, atoms etc. These started
joining in different proportions to form ether, air, water, fire and
earth. Thus, the entire universe visible to human eye, perceivable by
senses, visualized by scientists with powerful telescopes and other
material instruments along with non-visible subtle worlds was formed.
According to the Vedas only about 25% of the entire Brahamand is
visible and remaining about 75 % is Brahmalok, Deva lok etc., which no
material eye, senses or instruments can see except the human
manifested soul. It is very likely that the dimensions of visible and
non- visible universe could be only symbolic to depict that visible
universe is much smaller than the non visible part of Brahamand.

Chhandogya Upanishad describes this cosmic energy in a philo¬sophical
manner. It says, “from this engenderment, beams of light shot up and
down, leading to formation of subtle and gross matter in the form of
Prakrti - the divine Nature and also the Universe which too expanded
in all directions as the sentient One spread Itself every where.” Even
scientists like Eddington held that the physical world is without
actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness. He also says that
Time and Space are spun out of consciousness (The Nature of Physical
World by Eddington. pages 282 and 332). Many scientists now agree that
whatever is not visible to human eyes, senses cannot visualize,
scien¬tific material instruments cannot observe are part of the subtle
world beyond the scope of physical sciences.
The word “ Purusa” is found in a number of hymns in
the Vedas and many verses in Bhagavad Gita as well. Some highly
learned seers and savants have found the origin of this word from
“puri and saya” meaning city and dweller. Purusa dwells in the inner
world of the human beings. In the Vedas Purusa is jivatma or
manifested soul and in Bhagavad Gita, it is the higher “self” of the
human beings. The Vedic Purusa is related to both subtle and causal
bodies and is a particle of the Supreme Reality. Yajur Veda 34-43 has
a vivid reference to three bodies of the divine Nature (Prakrti) and
of the human beings, describes as “tri-ani-pada” three kinds of
bodies- gross, subtle and causal.
For those on the path of Sankhya Yoga of Bhagavad Gita,
Jnanmarga of Upanishads and vidya of Sankracharya, Vedic metaphysics
not only refer to three bodies but also three conditions i.e., waking,
sleeping and profound sleeping as mentioned in the mother hymn Gayatri
mantra. Atharva Veda refers to these three as “Jagrit, Swapna and
Sushupti” conditions of the human manifested soul. Sankracharya in his
Brahma Sutra 1-3-28 has mentioned that the sound created by the
explosion of primordial atom or Cosmic Egg (Hirnya Garbha) gave rise
to causal, subtle and gross form of the uni¬verse. The sound of this
explosion was AUM or the Sound Supreme, which the Vedas describe as
Shabad Brahma. Vedas further say this sound is revered as Brahma
Himself. “AUM khamma Brahma,” which literally means “O M” Thy name is
Brahma.
Many spiritualist and realists like Aristotle,
St. Acquinas in the west and exponents of Sankhya and Mimansa Schools
of philosophy in the east tend to believe only gross and subtle bodies
and consider soul and spirit as one. Such spiritualist and
metaphysicists normally conclude that both God and Nature are real.
God is only an Unmoved Mover, the Supreme Guru or preceptor who helps
in understanding and learning of Yogas as observed by Patanjali. The
pure Idealists like Sankracharya believe in three bodies. God lives in
the causal body of the divine Nature as well as in the human beings in
their hearts. The gross body of the Nature i.e., the entire universe
as we see is only a Maya or Cosmic delusion. The true and the only
Reality is formless God. In Rig-Veda, many Upanishads and Bhagavad
Gita, it is clearly mentioned that God live in human heart of the
causal body (Katha ups.1-2-20 to22, Rig-Veda VIII-suktam 89). In the
Vedas and Bhagavad Gita, the higher self of the human beings is
Jivatma or the divine manifested soul.
Since Brahma is also the supreme Spirit and He
energises Prakrti (Nature) through His Spirit, all animate and
inanimate life get the spirit directly from Prakrti in the form of
manas (Mind), Asu (ten vital breaths or Pranas), Kundalini - the store
house of coiled energy. Aristotle’s entelechy is both soul and spirit,
for Schopenheaur the spirit is Will. In the holy Bible, there is a
mention of trinity of soul, spirit and body (gross) to be preserved
blameless (Thessalonians 5-23). The Advait Vedantists (pure idealists
with belief in absolute monism) have found from the Vedas that the
Mind, Will, Intel¬lect and other inner instruments of the gross body
have only subtle and finer atoms like ether etc., unlike the senses,
sense organs which have gross atoms. These subtle and finer atoms are
also found in Time, Space, Sound and Ether and are extremely powerful.
The power of the gross atoms is relatively limited. Three types of
Gunas (primordial matter) exist in the five elements or “mahabhuta”
i.e. air, water, fire, ether and earth - in the Nature, universe and
human beings. Vedas describe these three gunas as sattavic, rajasic
and tamasic representing harmo¬ny, activity and passivity
respectively. All these three gunas have subtle atoms, but the
sattavic gunas are lighter and tamasic gunas are the
heaviest.
Prakrti has higher nature as Shakti, which is a store house of energy
and also lower nature, which is cause of five mahab¬huta ( main
elements) with three gunas. Owing to the effect of higher Shakti, all
animate and inanimate life tends to move towards perfection. Thus,
higher Shakti or cosmic energy in the Nature is the cause of energy in
all types of life. Only those who recognise prevalence of God's Spirit
every where and use the material resources to the barest minimum by
resorting to the need based living, move towards higher knowledge. The
spirit which is the life force has also its intermediaries, mind,
will, intellect and ego, which are much higher and powerful than the
body self i.e. gross body consisting of senses, sense organs etc.
The spirits in conjunction with soul through these
interme¬diaries take the human beings towards Jnan and Vijnan as
mentioned in Bhagavad Gita. Jnan and Vijnan in the Vedic metaphysics
refer to divine and spiritual knowledge and ajnan (ignorance). All the
divine instruments in the human beings make us understand the noble
concepts of love, virtue, truth, beauty and harmony and make us move
towards God. Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita clearly says that
individuals who love money, wealth, gold even in their thoughts
worship God only for show and are born again and again. No one can
worship God and Mammon together is mentioned in the holy Bible. In the
mythological epic Ramayana, Bharta tells his mother Kakeyi that for
all her misdeeds (sending Rama to exile for 14 years) the only
“prayaschit”- moral punishment was not to stay in tapovan (life of
austerity) along with her son but to stay alone in the palace and
enjoy all luxuries.
Thus Ramayna like Bhagavad Gita, Vedas and even Bible leaves no doubts
that luxurious life of gaiety, pomp and show is moral punishment of
God. Nobility lies only in the life of moderation and moving towards
need based living. It is only those who recognise the trinity of soul,
spirit and gross body, tend to move away from money, matter, gold,
pride, false status etc. There are other mythological characters like
Ravana, Kaurvas, Kansa and certain historical personalities like, the
ancient Nandas, a large number of Charvakas of the past and present¬
who would like to worship God along with Mammon. While worshipping God
they would like to give, form to the formless, attributes to the
Ineffable and make His presence restricted to the limited area of the
temples and other places of worship, even though He is omnipresent.
Since it is a question of faith, Vedas and Bhagavad Gita do not say
much against giving Form to the Formless, so long as a person follows
the path of Nish¬kam karma - selfless action of Bhagavad Gita or the
Vedic philosophy of enlightened liberalism (Idd Nan Mmam).However,
certainly Vedas prohibit making mindless pursuit of money in the name
of worship and love of God. Worshippers of mammon first give form to
the formless God and then make tons of money through the exploitative
commercial techniques. They cleverly camouflage their material
thoughts as spiritualism. They have a strange illusion that they are
spreading divine and spiritual knowledge for the uplift of society,
while them¬selves enjoying the life of affluence and all types of
material excesses that are sinful. As mentioned in Bhagavad Gita in
verses 42 to 44 of chapter 2 that such worshippers of Mammon obsessed
by desire of making tons of money are normally devoted to the letter
of the Vedas and other scriptures without understanding the spirit of
these. They utter flowery words and speech them selves make their
mythological deities and characters to speak in a similar language,
for the attainment of their own pleasure and prosperity. Bhagavad Gita
clearly says, such people cannot attain determinate intellect.
The Vedic metaphysics further describes that for most of these people
soul and spirit are one but still they are not fully convinced of even
this One-ness. This doubt mainly arises as they consider the
phenomenal world, life of senses, false status, power of money and
muscles as “real”. Thus the belief in true reality of the gross body
is paramount for them and soul as the religious fiction for material
exploitation. The Nature, entire world along with inert matter is only
meant for the enjoyment of senses and sense organs, even if it
involves excessive exploitation of all types of resources and treating
the Mother Earth as quarry. They believe in the ancient Epicureans
philosophy “pleasure is the chief aim of life”. Like the Charvakas
they also identify self with body and it is not immor¬tal. Since the
world consists of various types of individuals, the con¬cept of soul,
spirit, lower self, higher self, gross body varies considera¬bly. This
confusion is the major cause of evil and corruption in any society.
However, the followers of Vedic metaphysics have to first get
themselves released from their body consciousness, three modes of
Prakrti i.e., sattavic, rajasic and tamasic gunas. It is only after
that the individual starts moving towards perfection. This all happens
under the guidance of inner world of intermediaries, which are the
divine instruments. At this stage of release and perfection human soul
and spirit merge and become One with Brahma. Sankracharya describes
this stage as “aham Brahma asi” i.e. I am Brahma. Even before
Sankra¬charya in the 8th century AD, the holy Bible in Genesis 1-26,
27 had found that God created man in His Own image. God being the
Supreme Reality, formless, omniscient, His image in the gross body is
the only “real self” which is formless. This image is the divine soul
in the human body. In a stage of perfection and self- realization
Christ also became God Himself. It is due to this metaphysical concept
that a large number of Christians con¬sider Christ as God, while
others consider Him as Son of God. Only in the stage of perfection,
both concepts mean the same. So long as the individuals do not reach
the stage of perfection and self- realization, soul and spirit remain
separate and perform different roles. This divine concept leads to
Personal and Impersonal God, or “Sakar and Nirankar” Brahma. Those
worshipping Him as personal God, tend to give form and attributes to
the God and even give different attributes to a large number of gods/
goddesses and want blessings from all of
them.
The gross body of a person consists of
billions of living cells, which are different for heart, lungs,
muscles etc., and have different individuality and functions.
Howev¬er, only when they all combine, the gross body is formed. They
are bound to¬gether as a unified whole by the spirit or will, which is
energy princi¬ple in all-animate and inanimate life. These billions of
cells exist only to serve the interest of individual “Will” as a
whole. Apart from that they have no separate existence and if
separated due to any reason, they perish and cease to be cells. At the
time of death of the gross body, cells merge with the earth, spirit
merges with Prakrti, the soul being immortal remains alive, and hence
consciousness remains. Based on degree of truth, quality of karma
(good or bad deeds), acquired in the present and previous births as
individual's running ledger account, it gets manifested again on the
birth of an other gross body. This process of birth and rebirth
continues until, the soul achieves perfection, is released from the
three modes of Prakrti and moves beyond three gunas of transpare-ncy,
activity and passivity. It is the stage of salvation, liberation,
Vedic Moksha and Buddhist Nirvana.
Vedic seers tell us that ego, character, reason all belong to the
world of senses and are part of MAYA. According to Sankracharya only
Atman or the soul, which is our moral and true self, is the only
reality behind these appearances. It is the divine spark and the light
that lighteth every person who comes in this world. Real knowledge
comes not through reason or material world but intuition, which get
the same from the soul. While most of the human beings use their mind
as logic inventing machines to justify any kind of material activity,
the logic of the soul is a-priori and never changes. Therefore, the
transcendental knowledge obtained by ancient seers, sages and the
pathfinders from their real selves and on which the Vedas are based,
is the only true knowledge, which Sankracharya calls Vidya or Bhagavad
Gita refers to as Jnan.
According to Atharva Veda XI-8-30, the manifested soul (jiva
atma) in the body administers it. The gross body of human beings is
the soul holding body. Those individuals, who do not allow the soul to
admin¬ister the body, normally are devoted to the letters of the
scriptures and not the spirit behind their teachings. They utter
flowery speeches them¬selves and also through their mythological
characters and deities for the attainment of their own pleasures and
material prosperity. They camouflage their materialistic outlook in
the form of fake spiritual¬ism. According to Bhagavad Gita, such
persons cannot attain determi¬nate intellect (B.G.2-42 to 44).
However, where the body is administered by the manifested soul, even
the human beings become Brahma. This stage of perfect control of the
body by manifested soul is described as “Chhavo” or “Shava”. According
to Atharva Veda XI-8-34, at this stage the soul in the human body
becomes the highest force and
vigour.
Vedas clearly mention that it is not possible to
de¬scribe all the attributes of God, as He is ineffable. Still we
should discuss, meditate and do transcendental research to find His as
many attributes as possible. It is in this background that some of the
attributes of Brahma are mentioned in the Vedas. A few of these are,
HE is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immanent, the only supreme
reality, supreme consciousness, bliss and of course many others
amongst His infinite attributes. However, human soul, which is a
particle of God, it does not have infinite attributes. Soul is finite,
is partly omniscient and is not all pervading or omnipotent. Still its
utility to human beings is immense. It contains all the knowledge of
four Vedas i.e. divine, spiritual and material knowledge. It is able
to maintain the complete record of good and bad actions of the human
beings, in the form of subtle particles and atoms, which accumulate
over the soul and make it heavier or lighter based on the type of
subtle atoms.
Bad deeds in the form of Tamasic or Rajasic actions create heavier
subtle atoms. Sattavic actions of truth, nobility, transparency etc.,
create lighter subtle particles. Heavier souls are not able to move up
towards the heaven, get rebirth faster in appropriate families,
irrespective of region, caste, creed and religion. However, the
attributes of Prakrti - the divine Nature, are power, energy,
transparency, and harmony, selfless service that it gets through the
Supreme Spirit, which pervades through out the Nature and remains
constant. While the energy in ani¬mate and inanimate life may go on
increasing or decreasing, the total energy in the Nature remains
constant, until it is withdrawn at the time of Pralaya (cosmic
dissolution). It is for this reason; Prakrti does the entire creation
of the animate and inanimate life under the supervision of God. The
spirit or energy principle is given by Prakrti to all human beings,
animals, birds, fishes, insects etc., and even the inanimate life
i.e., the all kinds of elements and other matter. It is this energy in
the Nature that is converted into mass (matter) with its five main
elements - water, air, fire, earth and ether along with three modes of
Prakrti - sattavic, rajasic and tamasic gunas. God being the Unmoved
Mover, there is a complete decentralization in the
Cosmos.
This brief introduction of soul and spirit is
likely to lead to a large number of questions. These questions could
vary de¬pending on the degree of knowledge an individual possesses.
What is the “self”? Is it the gross body, human personality or some
thing else? Like human body, the personality of a person is different
in child hood, youth, middle age and old age. It changes very fast
after marriage and arrival of children in the indi¬vidual's family and
on the type of a job a person accepts as his/her permanent vocation.
Hence, personality is a Flux and as such, it cannot be the real self.
The same with human body that undergoes continuous change cannot be
considered as real self. Is the human Ego or the Mind the real self?
Life is short, human Ego is sweet and mind is powerful but creates
different and divergent thoughts at different times and situa¬tions.
Is it the Will - part of our impulse or desire of self-preserva¬tion?
How do we know that soul is immortal and is not affected by Flux? Is
the concept of soul and spirit varies with the growth of mate¬rial
prosperity, when one does not find any use of soul, spirit and
formless God. This is a stage when concepts like “all due to my
efforts develop” and only those - real or mythological deities with
form are acceptable which can give blessings for permanent material
prosperity even by sharing some of the ill gotten material wealth. It
is the stage when concepts of false ego, status and power develop and
a person becomes his/her own enemy. Is the human being like other
animals, if not what makes him/her different? What makes a person
different and distinct than other human beings? Is he divine, social
or material animal or all
combined?
There are many philosophical questions. Socrates was one of the most
ancient founders of metaphysics in the west and he used to raise
ques¬tions “what I am, where I came from and where do I go after my
gross body becomes manure for the earth? How is it that many
metaphysi¬cists and religious leaders tell us that soul is in all
animate life of human beings, animals, birds’ etc., and pure idealists
say it is only in the human beings? Did I have any choice before
coming to this world or getting birth in a particular family? Human
mind can create many more
questions.
Again, the most ethical Buddhist metaphysics has been
built without God and soul. Human body has billions of living cells,
germs, bacteria, etc., do all these have separate souls in addition to
the one in the gross body? Do animals, birds, sea animals, insects,
plants, trees, bushes and other animate life have any soul? If human
beings can aim at “self realization” and “know thy self” of Socrates,
Turiya of Sankracharya, Kaiva¬lya of Patanjali or Nirvana of Buddha,
Moksha of Vedas, can animals, birds, plants etc., also aim at moksha
and self-realisation? What was meant by the ancient Egyptian
metaphysicists that “ khu ” lives in “ sahu ” and is immortal?
Egyptian Khu was the soul and Sahu the spir¬itual or subtle body. What
has made Garuda Purana CX111to say, “a frightened mouse runs to its
hole, a scared serpent to a well, a terri¬fied elephant to its slake
but where a man can fly from his karma(deeds)? As all man create
their own fate even in their foetal life, they cannot escape their
past existence” owing to the immortality of their souls.” What is that
macrocosm and microcosm of Upanishads and subtler than the subtlest
“Self” of Katha Upanishad (1-2-7 to 9 and 2-6-9)?
If the modern scientists tell us that
human body consists of billions of living cells and also has millions
of germs, bacteria, etc., if so, do all these tiny living creatures
have souls? In that case, has the human body one soul or billions of
souls or these merge into one big soul? What is the size of the soul-
is it of the size of a thumb (angush matra) or the entire body or just
a just a subtle tiny particle? Why do many scriptures say that the
highest birth on this earth is as a human being? Why in Bhagavad Gita
it is mentioned that God is the procreating Father and the Supreme
Mother is the divine Nature i.e., Prakrti? Has it any thing to do with
the concept of soul and spirit? Why did the ancient Greeks referred to
the energy principle as “Thumos” akin to mettle or eagerness and
called it mortal? An inward thinking mind can raise hundreds of more
such ques¬tions.
In Atharva Veda the soul is a particle of God, in
Katha Upanishad it is “angush matra” of the size of a thumb, while
Jain metaphys¬icists refer to it as of varying sizes, small in a
child, big in adults and old people and very big in elephants. Nemi
Chandra in Dravya sangrah -2 has mentioned that the soul is
characterised by knowledge and vision, has the same extent as its own
gross body. Thus, the concept of soul and spirit right from the
ancient periods in India and other parts of the world to the present
age continues to remain an
enigma.
The Vedic seers and sages, endowed with insight and
truthful spirit, looked only for the welfare of mankind did their best
to find all possible answers to these two divine and spiritual
princi¬ples of soul and spirit. More than one thousand hymns in all
the four Vedas describe God, soul and spirit. Bhagavad Gita refer to
God as Purushuttam (Supreme Soul), non perishable, immortal and higher
Purusa as soul and perishable Prakrti Purusa as lower Purusa i.e. Jiva
(B.G.13-2, 3and 21). The concept of two Purusa is not only in Bhagavad
Gita but also in Prasana Upanishad, which refers to second self as
cause of energy and with food, it produces the seeds in all animate
life inclusive of plants and trees. These seeds are the cause of the
birth of all creatures, plants and other animate life. This energy
principle in the human beings is also described as Asu, Prana (vital
breaths) which hold 5 senses, 5 main elements in the body together.
Pranas with their ten subsidiaries live in different parts of the
body. Thus spirit in the form of Pranas spreads in the entire body and
when all the ten Pranas leave the body one by one on death, all senses
and five main elements get disintegrated. In the Vedas, these Pranas
or vital breaths are de¬scribed as Asu that according to Rig Veda
1-2-7 is the great de¬vourer of diseases.
Maharsi Yajnavalkya, had men¬tioned the strongest part
of Prana as Kundalini Shakti (store house of immense coiled energy) in
the subtle body of human beings capable of giving immense power, will
and determination to the human beings and also the other animate life.
Rig Veda 6-9-5 finds this power and energy in the Manas i.e. inward
looking mind, which consists of finer, and subtle atoms, unlike the
brain and senses that contain gross atoms. Since the cosmic Creation
(Sristi), the energy created by the Spirit of God in Prakrti has
remained the same and hence at all times the sum total of energy in
the subtle Nature and gross universe remains constant. Vedas also
refer to mind as part of Prakrti “self” in the human beings, where
thousands of thoughts reach through sense organs, if these thoughts
could be organized and kept in proper locations in the mind, highly
useful and well coordinated results are achieved. If this coordination
is not done, the energy of the mind loses its potency and confusion
arises and mind virtually becomes a logic inventing machine and makes
you feel happy that you have logical reasoning for all your good and
bad actions, thoughts and desires.
Since outward looking mind (etani) would provide contradictory logic
to human beings following different vocations, professions with stakes/
vested interests and having different degree of knowledge, society
will be flooded with all kinds of contradictions. Rig Veda 6-9-5
refers to this immense energy of the inward looking mind (manas) that
can create with the help of spirit complete harmony in the body and
soul. Bhagavad Gita has a large number of verses on the mind which
could be both turbulent when uncontrolled due to ajnan (ignorance )
and calm when controlled through Jnan and Vijnan - divine and
spiritual knowledge, excellent re¬sults are achieved. Maitri Upanishad
6-34-3 to 7 brings out that energy of the mind is dependent on its
contact with lust or other¬wise. Sama Veda 179 and 913 refers to 99
evil and corrupt practices based on impurity of thoughts in the mind
under the influence of senses, which results in the reduction of power
of the spirit in the human body. Avesta Yasna 28-1 says, “ beneficent
spirit is provided to us to perform our right deeds. Good thoughts
relate to the soul.” Thus, human mind is completely joined with soul
and spirit but under the influence of senses, phenomenal world of
matter it is de-linked from these divine inner instruments and is
badly entangled with matter, lust, greed infatuation and
attachment.
There are some Vedantists who refer to spirit, as JIVA,
cause of energy, will and desire. It is more like entelechy of
Aristotle, who could not reduce the world to building blocks of atoms
and void like the Shuniya Vadins of the Vedic metaphysicists. He found
the essence of all human activity towards perfection in entelechy.
Owing to the presence of entelechy in the inanimate life as well, he
observed that all material things - animate or inanimate tend to move
towards perfection, as some potency was hidden in every substance,
which left no rest until perfection is achieved. Every form of matter
is a higher form and is a reality pregnant with development. Aristotle
held both matter and Nature were real and did not find the world as
phenomenon or appearance. When any matter fails to reach its full
development, it degenerates. Scientists of the 20th century like, Dr.
J.C. Bose later found “fatigue” even in the certain matter, hinting
that quantum of energy in each matter is different. The degenerated
matter loses its energy and joins the Nature's energy pool. Scientists
have even found that whenever the matter is not in harmony with the
environment, it degenerates quickly.
The above scientific finding conforms to Vedic metaphysics, according
to which even the human beings, animals etc., when not in harmony with
Nature degenerate quickly. This metaphysical Vedic truth is observed
by many savants and even ordinary individuals - for illustration
fishes degenerate very fast in highly polluted rivers, certain
animals, birds get extinct owing to environmen¬tal hazards and human
beings also degenerate very fast in highly polluted environments. To
get maximum energy from the spirit and nature, Vedic seers and sages
found through their transcendental research, endowed with insight of
deep inner power, found cosmic laws of social and moral order and
called these laws as RTA. They found that God follows these laws
strictly, even though He Himself has created these laws. However, for
the individuals to know these laws, a Book of Nature has been created,
language of which can be understood even by animals, birds, fishes
etc., so that all animate life could read, understand and follow in
their day to day conduct, behaviour and dealings. The laws relating to
humility, selfless service, firmness, golden mean, harmony and many
other virtues are contained in these Rta. These laws are for the
creation and preservation of the entire
cosmos.
However, during cosmic dissolution of the
universe and Prakrti, as per God's Design the entire mass of the
universe gets converted into subtle energy and goes back to Supreme
Spirit of Brahma. The complete cycle of Srsti (creation) and Pralaya
(disso¬lution) takes over 4 millions of years. During this long
duration four celestial Periods or Yugas appear on this universe. It
is again based on the laws of God that whatever is created or born has
to perish or die. According to the Vedas 3/4th of both visible and
invisible Brahmand, which include Heavens (swarga), Brahma lok, Deva
lok, etc., is self creat¬ed, just as no one has created Brahma - the
formless and ineffable God. Rta or the laws of creation and
dissolution are not applicable to this part; it is the remaining 1/4th
of Brahamand covering the entire universe, which faces the creation
and dissolution again and again (S.V 618 and Y.V 31-4). This concept
of four celestial periods is also found in Plato's metaphysics. He has
described these four periods as golden, silver, copper and iron or
dark ages. Vedic metaphysics explains that owing to continuous decline
amongst the human beings in the knowledge of soul and spirit from
Krita Yuga towards Kali Yuga, there is a corresponding decline of
moral and social values. People start following less and less of the
cosmic laws of social and moral order.
Thus blind pursuit of money, matter and material prosperity
beyond the life of moderation, is the main characteristic of Kali
Yuga. This leads to steady decline in the divine guidance from Krita
to Kali Yugas. While in the Krita or Golden age the individuals are
trus¬tees of the material things, with a view to avoid exploitation of
the earth and nature, in Kali Yuga, they tend to become owners and
com¬pete for material possessions, resulting in excessive exploitation
of the Nature and treating the mother earth as quarry. To maintain
equilibrium and harmony, Nature has to divert a lot of extra cosmic
energy. A stage reaches when to maintain this equilibrium becomes
impossible, as the sum total of energy is constant in the Nature.
Dissolution of the Nature commences and during this process the entire
mass of matter - both in animate and inanimate life gets reconverted
into Energy Ball, which goes back to the Supreme God as part of His
Shiv Shakti. The complete cycle of Sristi and Pralaya is known as one
Kalpa of over 4 million years. Bhagavad Gita also mentions about 1000
Kalpa as Brahma's Day and another 1000 Kalpa as Brahma's Night. The
abode of God, known as Brahma lok or Vaikuntha is eternal. Thus, the
concept of spirit in the divine Nature, universe, human be¬ings,
birds, animals etc., and in inanimate life in the form of cosmic
energy is linked with the cycle of creation and dissolution of the
universe and Nature.
Rig Veda 1-164-20, 10-9-20, 10-8-43 and 44 de¬scribe
three divine substances, Parmatma (Supreme Soul), Atma (human soul)
and the divine Nature. On the death of human beings, spirit goes back
to Prakrti and merges with the Nature as part of the vast storehouse
of energy. The soul does not go back to Parmatma who is the Supreme
Soul as it gets affected with subtle atoms and particles of human good
and bad deeds, thoughts and desires. Atharva Veda 19-32-1 says, “in
the beginning first desire is created by the spirit and it becomes the
primordial seed of manas (mind).” Atharva Veda thus considers mind as
part of spirit or energy principle. It further says that this spirit
dwells in grass, wood, earth, water and all elements and matter and it
is the impeller of the body, its organs, its inner senses, their
controller possessing desire, malice, volition, misery, happiness,
depending on the predominance of sattavic, rajasic and tamasic gunas.
Spirit is the immaterial part of the individuals and lives in the
subtle body in the form of Manas, Pranas, Kundalini, Asu, Will, Desire
and Ego. In the Vedas, there are two types of Ego - false ego and
divine ego. When “I” becomes part of the whole, it is false ego and
when “whole” becomes part of real- self as “I”, it is divine ego. In
the case of false ego, human senses and sense organs tend to exploit
this vast energy of the spirit for their vested interest, power,
status and leads to weakening of mind, pranas, asu (vital breaths),
various types of diseases start overtaking the gross body and process
of degeneration starts.

Thus, Prakrti purusa or what Bhagavad Gita refers as lower Purusa is
steadily forgotten and human beings tend to call “self ” as the gross
body. To hide the loss of inner world and the vacuum thus created, the
outer world of sensual life, glamour, false prestige, artificial
living in the company of material goods, vulgar consumerism is
expanded. With the decline of spiritual energy, the life of sin and
evil takes root. There is growing feeling of insecurity and all
precautions are taken for the protection and safety of the perishable
and highly impure gross body. It is common observation throughout the
world that the houses of people with material opulence and
worship¬pers of deities in the form of Mammon are built like forts,
citadels with built in electronic alarm systems manned by watch
keepers day and night but still inner peace is evading them. They run
after the gurus, god men, priests and others in search of inner peace.
Fear complex continues to remain as a part of their false ego and
greed based tamasic life. Such people also develop seven kinds of
“Pride” (1) pride of body self (2) pride of being superior (3) pride
of greater than ordinary pride (4) pride of thinking “I” (5) pride of
conceit i.e., of things still not achieved (6) wrongful pride i.e.
praising wrongful and faulty deals and (7) pride of lowliness i.e.
hypocrisy of being servant of the poor masses or working for the poor
and not with the poor.(Nagur¬na Precious Garland
406-12).
Pure idealists like Badrayana, Sankracharya do not give
great emphasis to Jiva or the spirit. They consider universe not a
creation but manifestation and projection of Brahma Himself. It is
Brahma's Lila (cosmic play). Prakrti and the entire cosmos are the
supreme Brahma Itself - “Brahmai vedam vishwam idam
varishtani”(Munadaka Ups 2-2-11). Thus, the universe is cosmic
illusion, which Vedas refer as Maya. All animate and inanimate life is
part of Brahma. It is the material knowl¬edge, which separates us from
the God and makes us feel that we are independent of God and live in a
material world, which is controlled by Nature. As and when the
material knowledge becomes intense, individuals start feeling that
they can even control the Nature and create their own laws and tend to
overlook RTA - the laws of God made available to us through the
working of Prakrti and its gross form the universe. According to
Sankracharya, when Vidya or divine knowledge is acquired, the entire
cosmic illusion goes away and self becomes part of Brahma.” Aham
Brahma Asi” - I am Brahma. The concept of energy principle in the
human body remains so long as the individuals consider both the gross
body and the Nature as real. It is for this reason that many
materialists of the past and present have doubts about the existence
of God and the soul. The greatest miracle of the world is that
billions of people in the past and present had been in search of God
and searched Him at far distance places, idols, icons material temples
of marbles when He was always within them. It is a separate matter
that the most ethical and noble pathfinder Buddha did not consider it
necessary to bring God and soul in his divine teachings and spiritual
philosophy. He found Nature and Dhamma were the adequate cause for
creation and guiding the entire mankind on the path of virtue and
attaining Nirvana in one birth.
The energy principle was the cause of Flux, leading to every moment
change in life of animate and inanimate bodies and things of whatever
size and dimensions including atoms, particles etc. Flux is the main
attribute of Prakrti. It is also the cause of changes in body
structure, thoughts, actions in different ages from birth to death and
healthy body to sickly body. To avoid the negative effect of Flux,
Buddha prescribed Ashta Marga (Eight fold Path) for good and righteous
human living and conduct. He also found in his ethical meta¬physics
three modes of Prakrti i.e., sattavic, rajasic and tamasic gunas in
the human beings and Nature. The Flux has greatest negative effect on
those who perform predominantly ignoble tamasic activities of
passivity and untruthfulness. Human karma - good or bad deeds along
with Flux are the main cause of rebirth, more like the degeneration of
atoms not in harmony with Nature and their regeneration to assist
Nature in maintenance of stability, equilibrium and harmony. The
Buddhist metaphysics substituted God and soul with Dhamma as the
source of right knowledge and the energy principle as the cause of
flux. He was certainly not a materialist or atheist but at best an
agnostic or a theist who perhaps believed in God but did not consider
it necessary to bring Him in his ethical philosophy for good and
virtuous human conduct. In the 20th century, the eminent philosopher
Bertrand Russell also doubted about the existence of God and soul. He
even mentioned in his book “Why I am not a Christian?” that he was not
sure whether Christ was ever born. Certainly, the Nobel Prize winner
Bertrand Russell was not a materialist or atheist, but was an
agnostic.
In the Vedas God is described as unborn,
eternal and pervades in all animate and inanimate life. His attribute
of all pervasiveness is through His Supreme Spirit, which enters all
type of life through the Nature in the form of subtle energy. Food
that should be pure and sattavic provide the mechanical energy to the
gross body. Quality of future children is greatly dependent on food,
as it is the cause of “seed” in the human beings. To get maximum
advantage of the subtle energy principle, Bhagavad Gita advises
sattavic way of life. It should be based on moderation, pure and
simple nutritious food, purity of gifts without any desire for return,
amiable speech, simple, transparent and truthful reasoning, while
spreading divine and spiritual knowledge of soul and spirit. Complete
suktam 19-6 of Atharva Veda relates to soul, spirit and Nature. In the
Bible, soul is immaterial part of human beings; spirit is immaterial
being - the God. It is the Spirit, which gives life (John 6-3, 2 Cor
3-6). Soul keeps God's Word (Deut 11.8). It also keeps God's laws
(Deut 26.16). Thus, even holy Bible makes a clear distinction between
soul and spirit.
Many hymns in Rig-Veda 1-70-2,1-65-1 and
others mention that God lives in our souls as a true preceptor. Brahma
is omniscient, the only Reality, perfect truth, supreme consciousness
and other infinite number of divine, nobler qualities are attributed
to Him. We all live in Him and He lives in us, since He is all
pervading. The soul is part of Brahma being His particle and has some
of the attributes of God. Owing to the presence of soul in the human
body an inner world of beauty, virtue and selfless duty is created
against the outer world of matter created by senses and sense organs.
The human beings under the guidance and knowledge provided by the soul
and energy provided by spirit perform all noble deeds. The soul is
ever keen to provide us right path and knowledge but it is for the
gross body, its various senses, organs under the influence of three
modes of Prakrti to take this knowledge or not. The Inner Light of the
soul continues to shine.
It is our bad and evil actions, which create tamasic subtle atoms and
these go on accumulat¬ing on the soul. These subtle atoms being
heavier and darker have the effect of dimming the light of the soul
and the knowledge it provides does not reach the gross body and
capacity to do noble and virtuous deeds become virtually negligible.
Individuals can also perform noble deeds and good actions under the
influence of senses, but such deeds will be based on self-interest,
personal gain and getting social recog¬nition in society. It is for
this reason Uttradhyana sutra advises that always listen to the voice
of your inner soul that is your real self. Practice through knowledge
and even meditation to reach your real self. Adi Sankracharya says
that your “self” is the essence of AUM. You are pure knowledge, you
are without blemish, radiating peace O: Dakshina murthy”. Uttradhyana
Sutra in verse 23-73 says, “ the body is boat, the manifested soul is
the sailor, sansara (material world) is the ocean of matter which is
crossed by only
wisemen.”
Human beings have 21 kinds of fuel, three kinds of
bodies, five sheaths (kosha) and 16 parts. These include spirit in the
form of ego (ahamkar), vital breaths (pranas), desire, five mahabhuta,
five senses, intelligence (mahat), food, vigour and penance. According
to Prasana Upanishad when all 16 parts enter human body in the
mother’s womb along with three gunas, only there after soul enters as
manifested soul (jivatma). Again, when soul leaves the gross body all
the 16 parts start merging with Prakrti. Chapter 39 of Yajur Veda is
entirely devoted to the description of Soul. The soul comes in the
womb through water or semen and before birth moves with the Sunbeams
to get its shine back and higher knowledge and nobler qualities. Those
who under¬stand the immortal soul as the real self of individual are
not afraid of death. Socrates who always listened to the inner voice
of the soul and found in it his immortal real self preferred death of
his gross body rather than not listening to his inner voice of
spreading the message of virtue, social and moral good. He even
refused to appeal in spite of his friends' advice against the death
penalty. He had a firm belief in the theory of rebirth and
transmigration of soul.
There is no indication from any source that he ever
studied Vedas, unlike his great disciple Plato. He probably had known
the Vedic metaphysics either by studying the Vedas or through wise
sages of the East when he left Athens for a very long period, perhaps
over a decade and visited Egypt, Persia and probably North West part
of the then India. Only when the soul acquires higher and nobler
qualities and when the human beings consider soul as the real self,
then the world gets people like Yajnavalkya, king Janaka,
Sankracharya, Ramanajum, Guru Nanak, Vivekananda, Gandhi ji and others
in India and Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Mencius, Lao-Tse, Immanuel
Kant and many others in different parts of the world.
If history of philosophy tells us that Socrates - the wisest
man ever born suffered death penalty for listening to the inner voice
of “self”, the Hindu mythology does not lag behind. Prahalad a child
devotee of God suffered physical torture happily and bravely rather
than compro¬mising on the voice of his soul. The torturer was no one
else but his own father Haranyakshap who claimed himself to be the
living God on this earth. Prahalad's inner voice of the self did not
accept his father as God. Even two Sikh Gurus Arjun Dev ji and Tegh
Bahadur ji suffered death penalty rather than ignoring their inner
voices All such pathfinders and torch bearers were con¬vinced that
human personality in the form of “self” survives after death. Thus it
is not only the Vedas, Brahma sutras, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads which
refer to the soul as immortal, the lovers of wisdom in other parts of
the world also consider the soul as immortal.

Soul and spirit as described in the Vedas are
immaterial part of the human beings and have no sex. Only the gross
body has male and female organs. While spirit is not a cause of birth
and rebirth but its diminishing energy during old age, physical,
mental or spiritual sickness could result into death of the gross
body. The human spirit is not affected by karma of good or bad deeds.
Soul being immortal moves on death from one gross body to an other
based on accumulation of subtle particles of good and bad actions,
deeds, desires and thoughts of earlier births. It is Law of Nature
that what ever is created or is born has to perish or die. The souls
of Prakrti and human beings remain immortal. Based on accumula¬tion of
past karma - thoughts, deeds and actions, it becomes fierce, calm,
terrible, fearless, ignorant and enlightened, trembling and steadfast,
forbearing and nonbearing, passionate and ascetic and a prey to
bewilderment (Y.V. 39-7). Thus the quality of manifested soul is
different from individual to individual based on his/her past and
present deeds, actions, thoughts and desires but quality of spirit is
the same in all individuals being their energy principle.
The journey of soul after death of the gross body for 12 days to
acquire noble traits and divine light is described in Y.V 39- 6. It
goes to Prakrti devas particular¬ly Chandrama ( moon) , Surya and
Savitar (sun), Indra, Agni, Mitra, Varun and others. In another hymn
of Y.V 39-5, its qualities of luster, bril¬liance, light and one that
gives commands and orders are mentioned. The concept of souls going up
for purification is also described by a qualified monist Ramanajum.
Only the sinful souls cannot go up even for purification as subtle
particles of evils, sins and corrup-tion make the soul heavier. It
gets manifested in a new gross body even before its 12 days journey to
moon, sun etc. Such a birth is the lowest as the infant is born in
families where corruption is parading up and down and tamas¬ic way of
living is the highest based on greed, ego and ostentation.
It is for this reason birth in the families of vulgar rich, smugglers,
black marketers and other evil-minded persons are considered as the
lowest type of birth. This Vedic metaphysical concept is rebirth even
Plato agreed, though he arrived at this concept independently. Lighter
souls are purified of their knowledge and light but effect of good or
bad action stays. However, noble souls, which are still lighter, cross
six other noble and divine communities (Taittriya Upanishad) and tend
to move towards Vaikunth - the abode of God. Vaikunth and the abode of
six other communities are beyond the range of human senses and even
scientific material
instruments.
Atharva Veda Book 19, chapter 6 also relates
to Purusha - the immortal soul. It has complete knowledge of Rta - the
laws of God and is the nucleus force of cosmic order, body and
socie¬ty. This hymn gives the spirituo-materialistic interpretation of
the world, human beings as part of society and also the “self”
integral part of human body and senses. Vedas clearly aim at harmony
of body and soul, even though in Atharva Veda, matter, soul and God
have been taken as separate entities. God permeates the world made of
elements, while pervading the earth from all sides. One fourth of His
grandeur is seen in the universe, Prakrti and cosmos and remaining
3/4th of his grandeur is in immortality i.e., abode of God which Vedas
describe as Brahma lok, Heavens (Swarga lok), Pitri lok, Deva lok etc;
where the Creation and Dissolution is not applicable.
While providing soul to individuals, God also created a
social structure and four divine professions as Chatavar Varna ashram.
Vedas thus give a great emphasis that human soul is the cause of
social order and to maintain this cosmic and social order, the soul is
provided with com¬plete knowledge of Rta, divine laws. Even holy Bible
also says “ the soul keeps God’s laws”(Deut 26-16). In this Book 19 of
Atharva Veda, the word Purusa has been used both for God and soul,
leading to the conclusion that on realisation of the real self,
individual himself becomes Brahma. The Vedic metaphysicists like
Badrayana, Sankracharya and all of their Brahma Sutras guide the
individuals to achieve “self realisation,” which stage has been
described as Turiya by Advaita Vedantists and Kaivalya by seer
Patanjali. The a-priori principles known to the soul and manifested
soul relating to love, harmony, truth, transparency, selfless service,
cosmic laws of social and moral order and other are beyond Time an
Space. This knowledge in the soul always remains but gets covered with
the subtle atoms of human karma of good or bad deeds. It is at this
stage that the out ward looking mind (etani), senses and sense organs
start explaining these a-priori principles based on sense experience
and distortion emerges owing to vested interests of individuals and
also degree of knowledge each individual possesses. Thus even a-priori
principles and also laws of God get corrupted. It is for this reason
that the definition and description of love, truth, self less work and
other virtues would considerably vary with each individual and it
becomes the major cause of confusion in any society in regard to
social and moral values. Thus purity of the manifested soul and
keeping it free from the effect of bad, corrupt and evil deeds,
thoughts and desires make it as our philosopher, guide and friend.
Rig Veda 6-9-5 refers to six major constituents of the gross,
subtle and causal body of the human beings. There is the reful¬gent
Brahma as universal Over self, soul, mind, Prana (ten vital breaths),
senses and the gross body. Mind is the inner sense of finer elements.
The spirit energises mind, Pranas, senses and the gross body. Thus,
spirit is found in the entire body as subtle energy princi¬ple. Atman
makes the human being as a divine animal, being a particle of God with
its center in the heart and infinite circumference. R.V.6-16-35 says,
“He Himself is seated with the soul (atman) with His imperishable
higher nature.” It is the mind under the influence of senses, which
shuts you from your real being - the immortal soul. Sankracharya
explained this phenomenon due to Maya (cosmic illusion) and with the
understand¬ing of Vedic metaphysics, when reality emerges, real self
appears as atman.
According to him, Brahma is “Bhuman” as bliss and this Bhuman
is no other than the innermost self or the soul of the individual.
Soul's wisdom tells you do not resist flux and law of change as these
are beyond resistance, but the wisdom through human senses aims at
provid¬ing permanence to the non permanence, like matter, material
wealth, mythology, effort to control divine Nature and make human
beings run after these non permanent things, ideas and mythology. The
wisdom through senses makes certain mythological gods, char¬acters and
religious fairy tales to look real and even permanent. Only after
realization of the real self, the veil of cosmic illusion disappears
and the need for any type of mythology, idols and icons is no longer
felt.
The soul has been addressed by various names and
epithets in the Vedas. Samrat (the ruler of the body), Vaishva Deva,
Teja, Vak, Agneye, Prajapati in chapter 39 of Yajaur Veda. Each name
or epithet indicates its attributes, like the controlling lord, the
nourisher of human beings, the just ruler etc., It is also called
Twashta - subtle soul. In Bhagavad Gita, apart from atma, jivatma,
words like sah (self), dehin, deha, sharirin, shariri are used (B.G.
3-42, 14-11 and 12, 2-18). All these later epithets generally mean
lord of the body. Ramanajum - the Vedic metaphysicist and Vedantist of
medieval period, refers to it as Sesa - servant of God who is Sesi
(master). A few other Vedantists refer to it as Kshetri - the soul
that illumines the entire body. Atharva Veda and other scriptures also
mention it as Shivansh (particle of God), dehinam, Purusa - the
dweller in the city of God i.e., the sublime causal body seated along
with God. Most of the names indicate its attributes of knowledge,
light, always at the service of God, master of subtle and gross body.
It is for this reason Bhagavad Gita refers to it as “higher self” and
the other body self, which is described as lower self. Vedas contain
an interesting discussion and conversation between soul as atman and
spirit as manas, prana to indicate which is superior. At the end of
discussion, all the divine and gross instruments in the body accept
superiority of the soul.
Dante found soul in the human beings and described
man as divine animal. Aristotle who was not an idealist like his
eminent teacher Plato, could not find soul as different than spirit
and combined both in his entelechy and found it in all animate and
inanimate life. He could thus find man as a social animal and the
entelechy makes the person move towards perfection. However, the Vedic
metaphysics has found the higher self only in the human beings on this
earth and six other divine communities not living on this earth. These
six communities like devas (gods), angels, pitries, gandharvas etc.,
are more divine and noble than human beings. According to Ramanajum, a
Vedantist the human soul when goes on acquiring noble and higher
qualities passes through all these communities before merging with God
as His servant. He described God as Sesi - the Master and the soul
when attains Moksha i.e. salvation and attains Brahma Lok - the abode
of God becomes Sesa, the servant of God. Only the sinful souls which
are heavier owing to accumulation of three gunas and predominance of
tamasic guna of stupor and rajasic guna of selfish desires and
activity get rebirth on this earth based on past good or bad actions.
The concept of lighter souls going up¬wards on death and the heavier
souls remaining on the earth and getting manifested in gross bodies of
human beings in nine types of families of philosophers, musicians,
soldiers, traders etc., is also given in the metaphysics of the
ancient Greek philosopher Plato.
The calm soul examines well good, bad,
virtuous, evil, pleasant and other actions. While human senses prefer
pleasant and transitory pleasures to good, the soul prefers good to
pleasant. Katha Upanishad 1-2-2 further says that the fool chooses the
pleasant out of greed and avarice. Bhagavad Gita in chapter 2 refers
to Soul as “shashwat” - ever lasting and “ajo” - unborn and cannot be
cognized by any of the senses and sense organs. It is ever keen to get
out of the gross body and get merged in God. However, the evil
activities, thoughts, desires make it manifest again and again. Human
mind cannot conceive it under the control of senses and so it is
unthinkable (B.G.2-25). Human beings are manifest only during the
interim stage and are unmanifested before and after death, so the
rela¬tionship of individuals is more like Maya (cosmic illusion). In
reality neither the children nor other relations are yours nor you are
theirs.(2-28). The concept that children do not belong to you, they
only come through you has been also brought out in the metaphysics of
Khalil Gibran.
Boyhood, youth and old age are attributed to the
soul through the body; even so it attains another body (B.G.2-13). For
the soul, change of body is like change of clothes. However, the
spirit becomes more or less effective in the gross body, not so much
with age but kind of activities towards perfection or otherwise. With
evil activities, thoughts and desires the gross body can start
degenerat¬ing even at young age and the spirit gets weaker. Many of
the physical sicknesses are related to your activities and thoughts
and get fur¬ther aggravated with idleness that Bhagavad Gita describes
as sin. Since God is Perfect, the spirit always aims at perfection and
in this movement towards perfection; it helps the gross body to remain
healthy.
Holy Koran also confirms that idleness
is sin and enjoins that whenever free, get occupied in some
constructive work for the wel¬fare of society. Both holy Koran and
Bhagavad Gita clearly refer to work as selfless work for the members
of society and any work performed for self-interest is idleness and
hence sin. Chhandogya Upanishad says, “Spirit is the creative force,
which hides behind animate and inanimate things, moves us, moves the
planets, moves the universe”. In the Upanishad sage Aruni asked his
son, Svetaketu to drop a pinch of salt in water contained in a bowl
and then take it out. The boy failed. The father again asked him to
taste the water and found it salty. Similarly, a common person cannot
perceive the soul in the body but its subtle effect and essence can be
felt as it is always there. Father concluded, “My son that is the soul
and you are that.” Sama Veda (222) brings out that Brahma keeps His
wondrous form in every atom, pervades through His spirit the earth,
middle region and the
sky.
As against the description of spirit in Sama Veda and
Chhan¬dogya Upanishad, Rig-Veda 6-47-9 mentions that Twashata i.e.,
the subtle soul shines in the body when senses are under control and
when predominance of sattavic guna of purity and truthfulness effect
is there. It also shines in the company of wise men. With predominance
of passivity and stupor i.e., tamasic guna, it feels miserable and its
light diminishes in the body though its original shine remains. The
soul is untouched by sense experience of joy, pleasure, sorrow, pain
and attachment. It always longs for communication with God through
three types of Yogas or paths. These three Yogas mentioned in Mundaka
Upanishad III-1-1 and Bhagavad Gita are path of knowledge (Sankhya
yoga), path of self¬less action (Karma yoga) and path of dedicated
devotion to God (Bhakti yoga). Soul is not seen but its effect is all-
pervasive in the body, like you do not see salt in water as already
mentioned above sage Aruni’s teachings to his son.
Soul does not eat food and is silent observer of the
actions of the human beings. Intake of food along with energy
principle is the cause of “seeds” for reproduc¬tion in all types of
animate life. Not only animals, birds and others which have mind, will
and energy principle in them but even plants, trees have spirit for
their growth, reproduction and the instinct of survival. Thus, soul
and spirit are clearly distinguished as two separate divine entities.
While soul is only in the human beings and is a particle of God,
spirit is in all animate and inanimate life, which is also divine but
comes through the Nature. There is an important simile in the Vedas
and Svetasvatra Upanishad 4-6, which refers to two birds sitting on a
tree, one bird is enjoying its fruits and the other bird is observing
silently without eating its fruit. It is the soul, which does not eat
any food and is silent observer of the activities of human beings,
though all the time it advises and guides the right path. With
sattavic food that is pure, nutritious and simple along with ten
Pranas (vital breaths), the spirit maintains its energy and provides
the same to all parts of the human body. Vedas further make it clear
that in the human beings spirit, mind, will, vital breath and
virtually all parts and organs of the body are born of the atma
(soul). Once atma leaves the gross body, all others disappear and
merge in Prakrti and the universe. It is like a man and his shadow,
which are inseparable. So long as the real self i.e., soul is in the
gross body, mind, will, pranas etc., remain as shadow of the soul
being part of the cosmic illusion - Maya.
According to Shuniya vadins , our gross body is
made of atoms of five mahabhuta i.e., water, air, fire, earth and
ether and inner most part of all these atoms is Void or Shuniya. This
void portion contains the spirit of God and acts as energy principle
in all animate and inanimate life. The gross body that is also part of
Vedic Maya appears real to human senses. This illusion is necessary as
to achieve salvation the human soul has to get rid of gunas effect
along with its past good and bad actions and this is only possible
when material body is provided to the soul. (R.V.1-164-38). Thus
mortal and immortal are associated since immemorial. times. Those who
believe that soul and spirit are the same, normally consider the
matter as inert and there is no life in atoms and their conglomeration
or any other coherent mass of matter. Such individuals find soul/
spirit in animals, birds and all animate life. Exploitation of matter,
treating earth as quarry, creating all round pollution and not finding
any sin or evil in this kind of activity, is mostly by such people and
by those who do not believe the existence of soul or spirit at all.
For them even the laws of God and Nature do not exist and they create
their own laws to justify all types of exploitation. For such persons
their minds become logic inventing
machines.
Prasana Upanishad tells us that the “real self”-
soul of the individual is the eternal seer. He is always working in
the body and is multiform (R.V. 6-9-4). Being the eternal seer assumes
many bodies according to actions performed by the gross body under the
influence of three gunas. It is ear of the ear, mind of the mind,
speech of the speech, breath of the breath; eye of the eye and still
it is independent of the senses and mind. Thus the soul gets full
knowledge of the activities, thoughts and desires of any part of the
body at all times, including the spirit in the subtle body. This
eternal seer is unmoved mover in the body, being still, it moves
swifter than thought to caution the individual against ignoble and
evil action, it outstrips all that run to guide you of the impending
danger. Only men of stable mind, wisdom and truthful thoughts take
benefit of this wise eternal seer. Isa Upanishad says without “Self”
there is no life. It is the supreme essence in the man. It is small¬er
than the smallest and greater than the greatest, make it free from
senses, you can see the glory of “Self” which is without sorrow. Katha
Upanishad 1-2-20 to 22. It dwells in the heart along with the God (R.V.
5-8-89). It is not touched by the evils of the world and transcends
all. Soul is the eternal light that gives light to the entire
body.
It is like electricity, which takes the form
of object it enters and communicates silently with the entire body
through innumerable nerves, which are contained in the body along with
heat energy (R.V 6-47-8). Though it is silent, it teaches limitless
knowledge being a particle of the Supreme Brahma. According to
Yajnavalkya, we are but HE when we know our real self. In Kena
Upanishad, it is made clear that the soul is Brahma Himself.
Brihadrnayaka Upanishad mentions “ahm Brahma asi” - I am Brahma.
Mundaka Upanishad says, “ayam atma Brahma”- my soul is God. Thus,
Vedic metaphysics leaves no doubt that soul of an individual is part
of the formless and ineffable God. Sankracharya however, makes it
clear that this stage of soul being part of God is when all good and
bad actions of the body on the soul disappear and we reach beyond
gunas of purity, activity and passivity. This stage is reached when
only transparent, truthful, selfless actions for the wel¬fare of
others in the society are performed. According to Vedas, this is the
only purpose of our birth. No on can acquire this stage without divine
and spiritual knowledge, also known as Brahma Jnan or Vidya. We also
acquire a-priori knowledge through the soul and the knower of real
nature of soul gets permanent bliss (R.V.1-58-5, 6). Those who do not
know its real nature hanker after transitory pleasures through matter
under the influence of their senses. These transitory pleasures are
the source of pain and misery to them and other members of family and
society.
The soul has seven means for knowing God. In the Rig-
Veda 1-58- 6, these seven means are described as five senses, mind and
intellect like seven-coloured flame of fire. For knowing God and
obtaining Moksha (emancipation) and finally merging of the soul with
God, all these seven means have to be purified of all sinful thoughts,
so that only trans¬parent, truthful and virtuous information is
transmitted by these to the soul. Mahatma Gandhi referred to this
stage as perfect harmony of body and soul. All souls once manifested
in human body as Cosmic Play of the God (Maya) always yearn for going
back to God, but lack of harmony between body and soul, results in a
number of births till this harmony is achieved. Many Upanishads tell
us that the same can be achieved in one birth and failure to achieve
this is a great loss of the human beings. Similar views of the soul
yearning to reach God are mentioned in Rig Veda 1-58-7,8. Vedas give
more emphasis to self-realisation than Moksha (R.V 1-59-1). Without
self-realisation, Moksha is not possible. This stage of self-
realisation is described as turiya, kaivalya , Brahma jnan in Bhagavad
Gita. To spread this message of know “thy self”, Socrates suffered a
death penalty, Christ was crucified and two Sikh gurus and two sons of
guru Gobind Singh ji achieved martyrdom.
Human soul is an unmoved mover. Our real self cannot
remain even for a moment without doing an act or getting its fruit in
the form of accumulation of subtle particles of good or bad actions,
so Rig Veda (1-70-2) enjoins doing continuous good work and righteous
activities on the philosophy of idd nan mmam. The actions should be
for the welfare of society and not for your personal mate¬rial gain
and these actions should be on the concept of enlightened liberalism.
All other actions are not called actions but idleness and become cause
of corruption and evils in society.
For the concept of good action a kind of litmus
test has been prescribed in the Vedic metaphysics. The Vedic “good” is
not subject to any interpretation or material reasoning of the mind.
It is absolute and hence a divine concept. A simple test is that any
act, desire or thought which you perform or have, if the same action
others perform or the same desire and thought all the individuals have
in the society, find out its result in your “buddhi”-( intellect). If
the resultant effect is good and beneficial to the entire society, it
is good, otherwise not so. By the application of this litmus test, it
will be found that speak¬ing truth, having love for the entire
mankind, animals, birds, trees etc., fol¬lowing laws of God (Rta) and
other apriori knowledge known to the soul are good.
However telling lies, performing magic, sorcery which create confusion
in the mind and society, taking bribe, resorting to exploita¬tive
profits, aimless pursuit of matter, leading ego based or greed based
life, spreading vulgar consumerism etc., are not good. If the entire
society or even mankind resort to all such activities, thoughts and
desires, there will be dis¬harmony, confusion, turmoil, excessive
selfishness and corruption. All these will become the predominant
features of such a society.
The a priori principles leading to good are silently told by
the soul to intellect, ego, mind, will and even senses. In the yogic
stage one finds more such a priori principles. R.V. 1-48-3 even tells
us that soul makes sound in yogic stage. This stage has been explained
in greater details by seer Patanjali in his YogShastra. Incidentally
this yogic stage is more metaphysical than physical exercises as now
being popularised by many individuals. This state is not possible as a
material person but one who harmonises matter with spirit. The
individuals resorting to magic, sor-cery, superstitions, miracles,
exploitative profits, bribery etc., should not move towards this stage
to avoid disappointment later on. Before movement towards this yogic
stage it would be desirable to know more about mother Teresa, mahatma
Gandhi, Vivekananda, Guru Nanak and their divine way of living based
on moderation, golden mean, middle path of Buddha and by continuously
reducing material needs.

In spite of soul being resplendent and remover of obstacles, powerful
intellectual controller of the sense organs, excel¬lent, immortal
(Sama Veda 327), it is partially omniscient and is not aware of the
entire Reality. It has adequate knowledge for your wel¬fare as well as
the society and mankind but not enough about the subtle world and
Vaikuntha - the abode of God. However, its degree of knowledge varies
with the accumulation of kind of gunas. Its knowledge goes on
increasing with the sattavic activities and when a person moves beyond
gunas it has the maximum knowledge and even its shine can be observed.
Thus mani¬fested soul has its limitations owing to your actions,
desires and thoughts. To remove these hurdles and limitations the soul
needs the eternal speech of God contained in Vedic knowledge. With
this knowledge soul can enjoy the essence of the vital world. It is
for this reason that Swami Dayananda had advised to all noble human
beings that study Vedas and if not possible listen to Vedic knowledge
whenever you get an opportunity. This will benefit you as well as the
society and the entire mankind. Holy Koran says,” life is a gift of
Nature but beautiful life is a gift of wisdom”- knowledge provided
through the soul”. Holy Koran like the Vedas greatly emphasise a-
priori knowledge contained in the soul, which can help you leading
noble, virtuous, beauti-ful and purposeful life.
Vedas give great importance to both soul and spirit in the human
beings for acquiring divine qualities for ideal human conduct in
socie¬ty. This is Vedic Dharma. Many learned people consider Hindu
Dharma and Vedic Dharma as synonymous. The source of soul and spirit
is God. The soul is provided to human beings directly from God and in
the case of spirit it comes through Prakrti. Thus following the laws
of God and Nature is more like obeying your Divine Father and Supreme
Mother Prakrti and it leads to noble and virtuous life. It is a common
observation that the parents take special precautions so that their
small children do not go alone near a lake or swimming pool lest they
fall and get drowned. They take similar precautions against
electricity, fire, use of knife etc. The supreme Father and supreme
Mother Prakrti take similar precautions for their children i.e.,
entire mankind through the Rta - the cosmic laws of social and moral
order known to the soul as a priori principles.
Bhaga¬vad Gita in the verses 14-3,4 says “sarva bhutanam tato
bhavati” - of all embodied things God is seed giving Father and Nature
is the con¬ceiving Mother. Unfortunately under the influence of
extreme material¬ism based on inert matter, the importance of Prakrti
has considerably declined amongst the followers of Hindu organised and
hierarchical religion and personal God with form and attributes is
now Father, Mother, brother, friend and provider of all luxuries and
other mundane things. This diminishing respect of Prakrti has made the
role of Nature almost redundant. She is hardly worshipped or respected
as supreme mother Aditi, Devaki or Daivi and her 33 Prakrti devas are
no longer the main deities. Mythological gods and goddesses have
become more real than formless devas of Nature and even ineffable and
formless Brahma of Vedic metaphysics.
The path finders and the ancient seers and sages clearly
bring out that where reverence and love for Nature diminishes, in such
societies women tend to get lower status, less respect and their
exploitation is not considered by non-divine class as sinful. At
present in certain sub sections of Indian society women folk are not
only given lower status by men folk, but their exploitation is at the
peak in the cinema, T V serials, all kind of advertisements etc. Many
women get lower wages in agriculture, civil works etc., for doing
similar work. Many women touch feet of their husbands and in-laws
every day for being accepted in that family as wife and daughter-in-
law. Many women ob¬serve certain ritualistic fasts for the long life
of their husbands where as no such social obligations are prescribed
for the husbands. The obnoxious Sati ritual, dowry deaths, girl
infanticide and dev-dasi system to some extent still prevail. The fact
remains the Indian society largely remains indifferent to these
aspects. A stage has now reached when having seen and faced
exploitation in their own lives, many women do not like the birth of a
girl child. At present millions of girl children are missing owing to
infanticide, abortion, etc. Some districts in India have less than 600
females against 1000 males.
Apart from this, there is continuous decline in
the importance of supreme Mother Prakrti and benign mother Prithvi.
This decline has become the cause of over exploitation of earth
(Prithvi) and the Nature leading to all kinds of pollution,
environmental hazards with the sole aim of denuding the earth of its
material resources. Many human beings have forgotten that apart from
over 6 billions people of the world, even animals, birds and others
have their share in the material resources of their mother earth. Holy
Koran clearly tells us that all animals, birds etc., also form nations
and communities like human be¬ings, are mustered and not left in Our
Book(6-38).
In this “modern progress” the share of not only poor
people is being misappropriated but also the helpless animals, birds,
fishes and others are being de-prived of clean and pure drinking
water, air and shelter in the forests and other places. The earth
which is an important globe of Nature is now beings used as quarry by
economic exploiters, non divine vritras and avarnas to become rich
quickly. Such non divine persons compete with others in leading ego
based artificial life away from Nature in the stuffy air conditioned
highly infected rooms in the thick jungles of concrete. The most
sacred rivers of Indians particularly Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari and
others are highly pol¬luted. Deforestation is going on large scale
leading to number of species of animals, birds. fishes etc., getting
either extinct or nearing extinction. Cities after cities are becoming
gas chambers, diseases are fast spreading amongst infants and small
children. It now appears many individuals in the world have de facto
fundamental rights to create pollution in water, air and atmosphere,
resort to corrupt prac¬tices, distort spiritual knowledge with
impunity and other negativity. Perhaps the revival of Vedic knowledge
in the entire world can arrest these self- destructive prac¬tices of
denuding the mother earth and polluting the Nature. The knowl¬edge of
soul and spirit as contained in holy Bible, Koran, Zend Avesta,
Grantha sahib and other scriptures can also stop this obnox¬ious trend
where nations after nations of birds, animals, fishes are on the brink
of total or partial extinction
Since the same spirit of God pervades in all human
beings whether Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians,
Buddhists and others, the Vedic metaphysics has developed a spirituo-
social concept of Univer¬sal Brotherhood (Vishwa Bandhutva). It is
this spirit, which makes the entire mankind as spiritual brothers and
sisters. However, the manifested soul makes us all different and dis-
tinct in personality, conduct, outlook and divinity. It is the spirit
which makes a person social animal and through soul only divinity can
come taking a person towards perfection. Vedic metaphysics is emphatic
that owing to the prevalence of the spirit of God in all human beings,
any distinction of class superiority or inferiority is negation of
religion and ethics.
Atharva Veda (2-31-2 to4) explains that treatment of all
kinds of social, political and physical diseases is possible through
Vedic knowledge and speech. Material reasoning and arguments cannot
help in finding solution to various problems and diseases of the state
and society. Various political and social philosophies, isms may
provide temporary solutions but permanent and everlasting uniform
treatment based on truth and a-priori knowledge is known to human
soul. In the ancient India the rulers used to seek the advice of rsis
and munnies for the welfare of state and society.
The soul guards the mind where Vrittie (waves and ripples on the sea
of matter) move continuously. The real self or the soul of the
individual is at the bottom of this sea of matter. You can only
realize when all waves and ripples (vrittie) become calm and the muddy
thoughts of matter become clean and transparent. So the calm mind and
pure thoughts are the first stage of becoming “your¬self”. Vedas
advise, “Avoid thirst of objects of matter, attachment to children,
wife and relations.” All these desires and attachments create
turbulent waves and ripples (Vrittie).
When soul leaves the body, you are no longer your
self. Human dead body is of no use to any one. The spirit goes away
and merges in the Prakrti. Thus, the spirit is the spirit of the
living, while the soul is the sole balance left after death. Soul is
dynamic but not moving, when manifested but moves faster than all
material things when not manifested. It traverses billions of miles
when it goes to Sun, Moon, Indra, Varun, Yama etc., during the 12 days
journey after the death of gross body for purification, knowledge,
luster, noble and divine traits, which it lost during the stage of
manifestation in the body. Thus, Jiva Atma (manifested soul) is
different from Atma (soul) in attributes. Yajur Veda 39-6 describes
about its journey of 12 days. However, wha¬tever is active both in
animate and inanimate life is spirit. Though spirit is subtle, it is
more energetic and powerful than any gross matter.
After its 12 days journey, it is well equipped with Vedic
knowl¬edge, a-priori principles and cosmic laws of social and moral
order. Thus on the birth of a child, the knowledge of four Vedas is
made available through the manifested soul which is part of the inner
world. Later seers and sages created mythological fables to convey
Vedic meta¬physical concept in Puranas and Tantras about the children
having complete knowledge of God, Nature, Soul, Spirit etc., at an
early age. Prahlad, the son of a demon king, was a child devotee of
Lord Vishnu and was aware of divinity in him through his soul at a
very tender age. In Ramayana and Mahabharta,both lord Rama and Krishna
had perfect Vedic knowledge as infants. The two sons of lord Rama, Lov
and Kusha, as children of tender ages had got this knowledge partly
from their preceptor maharsi Valmiki but mostly from their inner “real
selves.” Even going beyond mythology and religious fables, the
greatest Indian metaphysicists Sankracharya acquired this knowledge as
a child. At the tender age of 8 years, he could dis¬cuss, deliberate
and even explain in details the various aspects of Vedic knowledge. He
wrote his greatest commentary on Vedas in his Brahma sutras at the age
of 12 years, which are now even recognized as the greatest authority
on Advait Vedanta - pure Vedic monism and monotheism.
According to Sankracharya, there is a unity of soul and
God. This unity in the Vedantic system is known as Mahavakya like “tat
tvam asi”(Thou art That) and many others. Because of this unity during
the end of cosmic illusion described in the Vedas as Pralaya
(dissolu¬tion), the human souls go into latency in their substratum
and on Creation (Sristi) again all these souls take human bodies. Rig
Veda 1-24-2 describes this grand cycle of Pralaya and Sristi as
Mahakalpa of 4,320,000 years. The liberated souls do not get rebirth
immediately on Creation or Sristi but after a very long period to
bring peace to the harassed humanity. However, he prefers to use the
word projection or manifestation of Brahma Itself to enjoy itself and
describes it as Brahma's cosmic Play or Lila. He hardly uses the words
Creation or Sristi. Being a pure idealist and monist, one gets the
impression that words like creation or dissolution relate to some
thing real where as the world and the entire universe are only cosmic
illusion and shadow of God. According to Mundaka Upanishad the entire
Brahamand, - both visible gross and invisible subtle worlds including
Vaikuntha - the abode of God is Brahma Himself. This truth is only
known to human soul. Human senses cannot visualize the extent and form
of Brahman (Mundaka Upanishad.2-2-11).
This unity of God and soul was also earlier
observed by Greek philosopher cum scientist Pythagoras. He referred to
the perishable world as sublunary world (Cosmos) and imperishable
superlunary world as Quarnas. Soul being imperishable remains a
particle of God and its consciousness remains even after the death of
the gross body. Like the formless God, manifested soul also remains
the unmoved mover in the body and being dynamic it provides all noble
virtues and a priori knowledge to intellect., ego, mind, senses and
sense organs provided these instruments in the body are prepared to
take this knowledge. However, the spirit being a bursting reservoir of
energy and right emotions provides the noble courage.

Relationship of Soul to God

This relationship has been explained and
interpreted different¬ly by various seers, sages and acharyas after
studying the same Vedas. One school considers soul as different from
Brahma in the stage of bondage i.e., when manifested in the human
body. Audolini considers that it becomes One with Him only when
liberated and freed from the effects of Karma of good or bad deeds,
desires and thoughts. It is just like the waters of different rivers,
streams and rivulets which other¬wise are different owing to so many
factors like the presence of various salts, minerals, etc., become one
with ocean after merging in it. Combining finite manifested and
unmanifested souls covered with subtle atoms of human karma, with the
infinite Brahma is negation of religion as a spiritual science.
However, Amartya holds somewhat different view.
Even in bondage, the manifested soul is different and non-different
from Brahma. He compares to the rays of the sun light in relation to
the Sun. Bhagavad Gita considers the manifested soul as controlled and
Brahma residing in the heart is the controller. Thus from the study of
Vedas different views emerge based on one's own degree of knowledge.
One can appreciate this relationship better when the differ¬ences and
similarities between God and soul are understood.
While God is almighty, omniscient, all
pervasive, infinite, self-created, eternal, self-sustainable and
having infinite attributes making Him ineffable, soul is not so. It
has at best a relationship of master and servant and that too in the
state of shuniya sattava, turiya, kaivalya or moksha. Otherwise, the
soul cannot reach God even as a servant to be at His eternal service.
It is only a particle of God and finite. It is not even omniscient
having only part of Brahma's knowledge and always yearns to acquire
more knowledge of God through Vedas and all other scriptures of the
major religions of the world. The predominance of tamasic gunas takes
away its shine. In this ignorance stage due to only material and
intellectual knowledge, it can not even convey its knowledge to
senses, mind and other instruments within the gross body. It is not
capable of fulfilling the noble desires of the human beings, if senses
become master of the gross body. The senses in that state along with
uncontrolled and turbulent mind under the effect of gunas of activity
and passivity create all kinds of hurdles and separate them from the
apriori knowl¬edge contained in the manifested soul. While God is
"aja" unborn, the soul gets birth (manifestation) in the gross body.
Brahma can create, sustain and destroy the universe and Prakrti at His
Will; soul is too finite to possess such powers. God is ineffable;
soul has limited at¬tributes and manifested soul even still less owing
to deeds, thoughts and desires of human senses.
Dvait Vedantist Madhavacharya advises human beings not to
compare soul with God and combi¬ning finite with infinite is negation
of religion, ethics and all rational logic. Many fake god men and cult
leaders still like to combine finite with the infinite and this
distorted knowledge has greatly helped them to make movable and
immovable properties worth billions of rupees. They use the concept of
meditation as balm to soothe the harassed followers and to still their
vritties- the turbulent waves and ripples in the sea of matter. They
give superlative epithets to their style of medi¬tation and make the
followers repeat in their mind that soul has all the attributes of God
and it is jnan sarup, prem sarup, shiva sarup, satya sarup, anand
sarup etc. The most glaring contradiction which they make by saying
that the manifested soul of even the most corrupt follower, bribe
taker, adulterator of food etc., has also the same attributes as God.
Thus, such evil-minded persons do not feel any thing wrong in their
corrupt practices, which are cause of disharmo¬ny, social strains and
stresses in the families and society. This kind of deliberate
distortion of Vedic knowledge helps them hefty flow of black money,
filthy lucre as donations to their trusts. In most of such cases, the
knowledge of soul and God remains unto their mouth and does not reach
their hearts.
It is thus apparent that the soul has a
number of differences in attributes from its master and Creator. It is
only a tiny particle of God and at best, His agent to maintain record
of our good or bad deeds, virtuous and non- virtuous thoughts, selfish
and selfless desires. According to a qualified monist and Vedantist
Ramanajum (1017-1137), soul even on liberation when finally released
from "karma" does not merge with God, only attains the status of
eternal servant (Sesa). God is the owner, master and controller of all
souls and spirits in the world for which he gives a spiritual name
"Jiva Jagat". Even the pure idealist and absolute monist Sankracharya
also agrees in the stage of avidya with only material and intellectual
knowledge the soul has hardly any attributes of God being covered with
subtle particles of mostly tamasic and rajasic gunas. However, the
soul always yearns for vidya covering complete Brahma jnan.
So long as the cosmic illusion Maya is there, soul's
attributes can never be realised. Only when illusion goes with Vedic
knowledge, some of the divine attributes of manifested soul start
emerging, its shine reaches the entire body creating an "aura" around
the gross body. Only then, the unity of soul and Brahma described as
Mahavakya is achieved. tat tvam asi (Thou art That), aham Brhma asi (I
am Brahma), ayam atma Brahma (my soul is Brahma) are all Mahavakya.
However, Rig-Veda (1-164-20, 22) gives differences between
God, soul and Prakrti. Some of the Greek philosophers and many western
metaphysicists of the science of soul had also come to similar
conclusion independently. Plotinus (203-262 BC) held though soul is
free, once enmeshed in the body, its freedom is lost but retains its
ability to rescue itself. Later even a wise savant of Islam, Sial ul
Din Yahia-al Suhrawardy (1153-1191) held the view that manifested soul
is only one part of the complete soul with partial attributes and ever
keen to join its other part in heaven to reach celestial abode. Thus
manifested soul can have only very limited attributes of God. Plato
also held that soul has a desire to move towards Summan Genus-the
supreme God by acquiring godly qualities when enmeshed in human body.
If less than godly qualities, to the extent and degree of knowledge it
acquires, it is enmeshed in gross bodies of nine kinds ranging from
philosopher kings to despots and evil-minded persons. The highest life
is that when you do not identify happiness with indul¬gence. Though
holy Bible puts it in other way," Pray for leading us not to
temptations, evil and forgiveness for all our debts". (Mathew gospel
6-2,6-10 to 17)
Madhvacharya had observed all souls are produced
out of "Trish¬ta" and are largely different from God. Soul of tamasic
kind of person (leading a greed based life without any social aim) is
largely ignorant and even of a sattavic kind of person leading need
based life is partly omniscient while Brahma is Omniscient. Both Atma
and Jivatma are incapable of fulfilling their own desires whereas
Brahma can create, sustain and destroy the whole world. He advises the
human beings avoid comparing soul with God. According to him most of
the human souls are of three kinds, Mukti yoga, Nitya sansarin and
Tamo yoga. Mukti yoga souls are fit for liberation and such a soul is
the most rare. Persons having such manifested souls take births after
centuries and leave behind the true knowledge of soul, spirit, God,
Prakrti etc., for the mankind and save them from utter degeneration.
Nitya samsarin are the souls, which travel endlessly through the cycle
of birth, death and rebirth. Tamo yoga souls are fit to be eternally
in Hell.
The gross body containing such kind of soul
has uncontrolled senses, turbulent mind and indeterminate intellect.
Such persons are their own enemies. All three kinds of souls take
birth on this earth amongst all religions, caste and creed. Somewhat
similar concept of three kinds of souls was also observed by Plato
about two thousands years before Madhavacharya. Plato described three
kinds of souls as possessing three different vital powers in the
society. These three vital powers are the cause of different
activities and even professions of the individuals (A History of
political Theory by G.H.Sabine.p.58). He observed three predominant
traits in the individuals and each kind of soul has its own peculiar
and special excellence or virtue. Based on the quality of souls in
each individual, Plato de-veloped the concept of three classes (not
caste) in society.
Vedic metaphysics and ethics do not find any cleft between
the interest of the individuals and ideal society or between desires
and duty in respect of a person whose body, spirit and soul are well
harmonised. Whenever any such conflict arises one should understand
his/her own nature and the "real self" and act on the guidance of the
inner self and not to be led by senses and outward looking mind. While
the inner self or jivatma may not have all the attributes of God but
still it remains the light of our inner being (A.V.19-60, Y.V 34-1 to
3, R.V 6-9-6). It is also one of the triple bands in the gross body
along with spirit and matter.

Transmigration of Soul and Theory of Rebirth

The glimpses of this metaphysical concept are found in
Vedas, Upanishads and even other scriptures of Hindus. The scriptures
of other religions also refer to it but with minor variations. Holy
Koran says," Allah-the merciful and compassionate God, makes you in
gradual stages. He created seven heavens one above the other and
brings you to this earth like a plant out of a germ and to earth, He
will restore you. He will again bring you back." In Katha Upanishad
Nachi¬keta, a nine years old child on the path of knowledge (Jnan
marga), tells his highly learned but selfish father," like a corn a
man ripens, falls to the ground, like a corn he springs up again in
his season." Apart from scriptures metaphysicists like Plato,
Pythagoras, ethical metaphysicists like Buddha and Mahavira and many
others refer to rebirth in different kinds of families. Garuda Purana
CXIII, links the rebirth to man's own actions." A frightened mouse
runs to its hole, a scared serpent to a well, a terrified elephant to
its slake, but where a man can fly from his karma (good or bad ac-
tions). Thus man creates his own fate even in his foetal life and can
not escape from its past existence."
While these scriptural and metaphysical truths
do indicate that there is a transmigration of soul and rebirth not
necessarily in the same religion or even country or region. Yajur Veda
3-54,55 tells us that the purpose behind this concept- rather truth is
to create love for the entire mankind and to ensure that the human
beings follow righteous path. Rebirth and transmigration of soul
continues till there is salvation or what Vedas describe as Moksha. It
is the stage of the merging of the soul or nearness of the soul to the
Supreme Soul. Lord Buddha did not consider it necessary to include the
concept of soul and God and so used the word Nirvana for salvation and
liberation against Vedic Moksha. He described this as state of bliss
and enlightenment. However, he agreed till Nirvana is achieved,
re¬birth continues owing to one's Karma of good and bad actions, deeds
and desires and also the mighty Flux in Nature. The holy Bible refers
to this law of Nature," as you sow, so shall you reap."
If we analyze in-depth this Vedic concept of
rebirth and transmigration of soul, it would mean that a person could
be reborn with the same soul but different gross body in his / her
next birth in any religion, region and country of the entire world. He
could also be born as male or female as soul has no sex or any caste,
creed or cult. It could also mean that in our earlier births and
previous lives we could have been Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians,
Buddhists or even Brahamin, Kshatriya,Vaish or Shudras, male or
female and even non divine vritras, avarnas etc. Belief in this divine
concept will make a person love the entire mankind. A firm belief can
lead to harmony, cooperation, love, respect and equality amongst all
religions, sexes, caste, creed etc.
In view of its social,
ethical and divine implications the concept of transmigration of soul
and rebirth is described as multiform. It aims at universal
Brotherhood and Friendship. It teaches spread love and not hatred,
enlightened liberalism and not naked self¬ishness based on Idd Nan
Mmam-nothing for self all for society. This rebirth is not only due to
Karma, but also those individuals who owe any kind of debt to society,
parents, children, friends and others are also born again and again to
discharge their debts (A.V.6-117-2). Holy Bible also advises do not
resort to debts, temptations and evils." Pray for leading us not to
temptations, evils and forgive us for all our debts."(Mathew Gospel
6-2,10-17). Human beings should always keep it mind that Kingdom of
God is within you and also it is without you (gospel according to
Thomas Log-3).
When human beings no longer move towards
perfection degeneration starts and the process towards the death of
gross body gets precipitated. When Pranas, Kundalini, Buddhi, Manas,
Indriyas leave the body, only consciousness remains owing to immortal
Atma. Sankracharya says that the real self is capable of having
unlimited con¬sciousness and bliss in its shuniya sattava state when a
person goes beyond gunas of purity, activity and passivity. In other
states when gunas subtle particles get accumulated on the soul, the
quantum of consciousness reduces but it still remains. This
consciousness is the real cause of transmigration of soul from one
body to another. Briha¬darnyaka Upanishad 4-3-34 and 4-4-4 explains
the rebirth as a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does from
this life to next life. At old age or during the stage of degeneration
even during young age, the self separates from the limbs like ripe
mango, fig or banayan fruit separates itself from the trunk. The same
way the self hastens to his new abode based on past karma and begins a
new life in a new body. The “self” i.e. atma departs through eye, or
gate of the skull or some other apertures of the body. The deeds of
the entire life and the impressions those deeds created to the
manifested soul before leaving the body follow the individual in the
next birth.
As earlier brought out Yajur Veda 39-6 describes in
detail the journey of soul for the first 12 days after death. It goes
to moon, Sun and other Prakrti devas-the beings of light particularly
Indra, Mitra, Varun and Agni to acquire noble qualities, traits and
being washed of impurities. But the effects of Karma remain intact. It
becomes fierce, calm, terrible, fearless, ignorant, enlightened,
passionate or ascetic dependent on the past deeds, desires and
thoughts (Y.V.39-7). In the womb it becomes lovely through various
virtuous deeds, chastiseable through ignoble deeds, supreme through
divine knowledge, noble through spiritual force and protector of all
bodily organs and the pericardium enclosing the heart. It is for this
reason that most of the scriptures mention the soul dwelling in the
heart of all individuals. Apart from Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Bible,
Koran, Adi Grantha Gaund M-5 and Katha Upanishad 1-2-20 to 22 also
mention the soul residing in the heart.
Going beyond scriptures, metaphysicists like Lu Hsiang
Shan (1139-93) of China have described the soul as "liang chih" [1]
i.e. having intuitive knowledge without cognition, "liang nang"
intuitive capacity without exercise of study, "ku yu" innate qualities
given to self by heaven, "pen hsin" original inward looking traits
more like Vedic manas. The soul for the Chinese metaphysicists is our
inner self and always provides us innate intuitive knowledge and is
the controller of our body. Tao Te Ching appears more like a Vedic rsi
or seer when he says, " knowing others is wisdom, knowing self is
enlightenment. Seek within and know thy self". How closely he
resembles Socrates?
Even those souls which have achieved Moksha
and have become one with God also take birth after centuries to guide
the harassed humanity. Some time they take birth through divine
potency like Krishna or Rama or Jesus Christ and most often as human
beings with normal birth like Buddha, Mahavira, Socrates, Sankracharya
and many others. However, Vedas differ from Bhagavad Gita in one
important aspect regarding incarnation of God as a human beings. In
Bhagavad Gita lord Krishna says, ”when ever sin spreads, there is
decline of righteousness and un-righteousness is in the ascendant,
then “ I ” body Myself forth”(B.G.4-6, 7). In Bhagavad Gita this
manifestation of God through divine potency is for the protection of
virtuous, destruction of evil doers and for establishing Dharma on
firm footing. Dharma is described differently in Hindu scriptures as
spiritual science or religion like Hindu Dharma, also as righteousness
and some times a noble code of conduct based on laws of God- Rta. Many
places there is a mention that Dharma and Rta are synonymous. While in
the Vedas liberated souls take births from time to time to guide the
harassed humanity and not God Himself, in Bhagavad Gita God Himself
takes birth from age to age (B.G.4-8).
Sankracharya explained the concept of
transmigration of soul as the continuous movement of the wheel.
According to him actions both enjoined and prohibited by scriptures
bring about one's connection with the body. Whenever the body performs
any action, pleasure and pain follow resulting in attraction or
repulsion, from which further action follows relating to love or
hatred. The ignorant person having only material and intellec¬tual
knowledge considers both the merits and demerits of such ac¬tions.
This merit and demerit is followed similarly by connection with body
and the "wheel of sansara" continues. The individuals trapped in this
"wheel" with continuous motion do not know where to stop an action.
The sense of discrimination between right or wrong, good or bad,
virtue and evil gets blurred. Transmigratory existence is thus going
on continuously for ever like a moving wheel and so the human Kar¬ma,
thoughts and desires. Only after getting Vedic knowledge what he
describes as Vidya, one can get out of this wheel.

Parapsychological Research

Hindus by and large accept reincarnation and transmigration of soul as
all their scriptures from Vedas to Tantras refer to these. In spite of
this many Hindus still do not know that in their next birth a Hindu
could be reborn in the families of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs,
Buddhist or other religions and a male could be reborn as female and
vice versa. Also in their previous births/ lives they could have been
belonging to other religions, sex, region or country.
There are a large number of recorded and unrecorded cases of small
children mostly between the ages of 3 to 5 years remembering their
previous births. Dr Ian Stevenson of the Virginia university and a
renowned para psychologist is of the firm opinion that rebirth is a
serious possibility. Many others having belief in occult, arcane and
mysticism agree with such findings. Dr Stevenson studied a few hundred
cases out of 2700 brought to his notice. These cases relate to India,
Burma, Pakistan, West Asia, Africa, Europe and America. Most of the
children who knew their previous births were below six years. His
study showed that after six years the memory of previous birth starts
fading.
In one case researched by an occult scientist, police could solve a
murder mystery as the child in his new birth remembered all the events
leading to murder and finally the murderer was arrest¬ed and punished
after a few years of the crime. One child of a Sikh family of Peshawar
(now in Pakistan) at the age of three years sud¬denly started
insisting to go to Afghanistan where he said that his wife and
children lived. The parents ignored it as hallucination and did not
take him to Afghanistan. In 1947 when Pakistan was created out of
Indian Territory, the parents shifted to Ambala City. The child still
insisted to see his wife and children of his previous birth. He gave
full details of location of the house, articles lying in a particular
almirah, name of his wife and children of his earlier birth. Though
the child was never taken there, the facts were got verified by the
par¬ents and found to be mostly correct. After the age of about 5
years the child started forgetting all the memories of his previous
birth.
After that his growth was just like a normal child and at young age he
opted for a noble teaching profession.
Dr. Stevenson after studying a large number of cases had observed that
most of the children who had memory of previous births had met with a
violent death. He confirmed that he verified many such claims with the
postmortem reports of the victim in his her previous birth. He also
observed cases of sex changes and in Burma over 25% of the cases, the
children claimed they belonged to the other sex in their previous
births. However, he agreed that out of 2700 recorded cases many were
hoax. He is of the opinion that number of such cases could be more as
many families do not inform and the cases go unnoticed by the
researchers. Many parents feel that more probing could affect the
future life of their children who remember complete details of their
previous life. Irrespective of Dr. Stevenson's study and research,
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains have belief in reincarnation.
However, Muslims, Christians and many others do not give any
importance to this kind of para-psychological research, in spite of
the fact that metaphysics of Socrates, Plato and Pythagorus did
mention about the immortality of soul and reincarnation. Pythagorus
claimed that he knew all his previous a number of births.

Effect of Knowing Soul and Spirit.

According to Vedas God is Chit - supreme
conscious¬ness and human soul has part consciousness that can be the
surface of the mental ocean of the human beings. Viewed in this manner
it is difficult to distinguish between soul and mind. However,
consciousness in it its depth stores the experience of past and all
other earlier births. Vedas advise stir this ocean of memory through
knowledge, meditation, concentration by making a move towards turiya,
shuniya sattava by observing dharma, satya and rta. Vedas do recognise
that outward looking mind behaves like a logic inventing machine and
takes a person towards superstitions, whims, apprehensions and even
bad deeds desires and thoughts while providing logical mate¬rial
justification for the same. Thus it creates a large number of Vrittie-
waves and ripples and makes it difficult for a person to reach the
bottom of consciousness. Its tendency is to keep you always at the
surface of consciousness of your mental ocean. So meditation,
concentration, knowledge should not be for only stilling down one's
whirlpool of thoughts but also to go upto the depth of the knowledge
and experiences of the past births contained at the bottom of the
soul.
To know your "self' and reach a stage of self realisation, one has to
reach a state when all thought processes get stilled. So first stage
is all prayers and meditations should be in solitude and not in-
groups. Journey within is the advice of Vedas only but also Grantha
Sahib, holy Koran, Bible and metaphysicists like Socrates,
Sankracharya, savants like Sri Ramana maharsi and many oth¬ers.
Sankracharya says," he who has made the pilgrimage of his own SELF, a
pilgrimage not concerned with situation, place or time which is every
where, in which neither heat or cold are experienced, which pro¬cures
a lasting felicity and a final deliverance from all disturbance
(stilling of Vrittie), such a one is actionless, he knoweth all things
and attains eternal bliss." According to maharsi Ramana," all is
within me." The soul remains fixed and innumerable concepts rotate
within the mind. Create a self-circuit by stilling these rotating
concepts. Visiting shrines, temples, godmen etc., will not provide you
bliss. Find another shrine blissful like your own body containing the
divine soul.
On the birth of a child the mind is only manas
i.e. looks only inward and is well harmonised with soul and spirit. It
is for this reason that many instincts are there on birth like
instinct of surviv¬al even in one day old infant, instinct of appetite
etc. Steadily when the mind gets outside knowledge trough senses,
sense organs, it starts getting entangled with matter and becomes an
outward looking instru¬ment of the body, finds logic even for absurd
material activities but continues to feel vacuum and wants to free
itself from matter. At this stage miracles, magic, superstitions,
rituals, mythology etc., devel¬op. It is such a mind, which has
bargained the loftiest myths of Ramayana and Mahabharta entirely based
on Vedic metaphysics for cheap and crass ones. The prevalent myths in
India have trivilised the sacred world of Vedas and have virtually
alienated the supreme Mother Prakrti and the entire natural world.
There is hardly any myth left showing kinship of man with rivers,
nature, animals, birds’ etc. The crude and crass myths now preva¬lent
about various gods and goddesses tend to give supremacy of matter over
spirit and soul. All prayers, visit to temples, priests, godmen etc.
are for material gain and mundane matters. The struggle of the inward
looking mind (manas) to free itself from the phantasmagoria or Vedic
Maya is the cause of many persons going to godmen, gurus, priests,
temples, churches etc. However, the vacuum still continues till the
mind joins with soul and finally with God. Those who understand the
Vedic knowledge of soul and spirit do not face the bitterest battles
taking place within one's mind and real self. As observed by Ching
Chow they keep their brightness (intellectual knowledge) dim and use
the light of their soul to guide others on the right path.
The desire to know the "real self" is
described beautifully in the in the life of Schopenheaur. He once
talked in whispers to shrubs and even bent his ears to the orange
blossoms to find out a reply. The attendant of the garden found it
rather a strange behaviour and inquired, "young man who are you?"
Schopenheaur stared at him and instead of replying, asked the
attendant, "If you could tell me who am I, I shall be greatly indebted
to you." Poor fellow looked in amazement. In fact our existence is
worthwhile only due to the presence of soul, spirit and mind within
us. Our senses normally take us astray and away from our selves.
Descartes famous words "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am)"
clearly shows gross body is not yourself. At best you are "mind"
according to Descartes and "soul" as most of the ideal¬ists and
Vedantists hold.
Though materialists like Machiavelli and Thomas
Hobbes had some difficulties in accepting mind independent of human
senses, but Locke another materialist in regard to political
philosophy did accept that mind is a spiritual substance but its clear
nature is not known. Those who know the various attributes of the soul
and spirit, always tend to perform virtuous deeds like mother Teresa,
Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda and never exploit the divine Nature and
benign mother Earth. Amongst the six kinds of life brought out in the
Vedas, they may be leading godly life (Daivic Jiwan) or spiritual life
(shuniya sattava jiwan) or a life of predominantly sattavic jiwan i.e.
need based living on the concept of moderation in action, thoughts and
desires in regard to material requirements. They eat not for
nourishing the body but also the spirit. Bhagavad Gita clearly says
that eating for only nourishing your body is sin. Eat only for
sustaining your body. Never eat to satisfy your taste of the tongue
but develop the taste of food in your mind.
Those who understand the presence of spirit
in "matter" along with all living creatures create wealth for society
and mankind and certainly not for the body self. They produce food
with a noble thought that one seed can give hundreds of seeds and part
of the agricul¬tural and horticultural production is meant for
animals, birds and other living creatures who help in many ways in the
production. The selfish person not knowing the presence of spirit
pervading every where considers himself the producer of food with no
role of God, Prakrti, rain, animals and birds etc., in this effort.
Such a person is not well harmonized with Nature and does not accept
Prakrti as su¬preme mother and Earth as benign mother. Those
individuals who fully appreciate the noble and divine role of soul and
spirit are invariably truthful, transparent, loving and are ever keen
to serve the mankind on the Vedic principle of "Idd Nan Mmam"-nothing
for self all for society.
This Vedic principle was later described by
Aristotle as en¬lightened selfishness and by Spinoza as enlightened
liberalism. The "wrath" of such noble persons is always against evil
and sinful ac¬tions. Otherwise, they are normally serene and tranquil
in their con¬duct and behaviour. They do not hate the sinner but the
sin. Those who see self in all beings "hate not" and find every where
Oneness and are themselves not touched by evil. Isa Upanishad cautions
those who devote themselves to meditation and prayer for ostentation,
social recognition without fully understanding "self"- the higher
extended self and lower Prakrti self, are doomed to greater darkness
than those who devote to worldly life only. A person who knows
indwelling of God in the gross body in the form of soul and spirit
will never commit any sin or evil knowingly. Such a person can only
distinguish between good and bad, evil and virtue based on the light
and knowledge provided by the instruments of his/her inner world.

It is because of this knowledge that in all ages
people like Vedic rsis and munnies, Socrates, Plato, Mencius,
Sankracharya, Immanuel Kant, mother Teresa, Gandhi ji and many others
are born to guide the harassed humanity. Since most of the human
beings are their own enemies by leading ego and greed based tamasic
life of sensual non permanent and transitory pleasures, the most of
the miseries are their own creation. But the world has even now a
number of individuals who conduct themselves based on their inner
knowledge. There are some traders, industrialists and commercial
giants in the entire world who give their profits for the welfare of
poor, labour welfare, hospitals, for scientific research without
people knowing it. But the contrary is also true. Those who do not
know the attributes of soul and spirit, give billions of rupees,
dollars, pound sterling, francs and all other currencies of the world
with the sole aim of social recognition, vested interest and to earn
more exploitative profits. Their donation, charity, gift exchange is
not only a commercial technique but also one of the main causes of
spreading corruption in society.
It is because of this knowledge of soul and
spirit, saintly persons in all fields of human activities are still
born and helpful men and women are seen in society. One still finds
modest girls, patient mothers, dedicated fathers and thousands of
people seen helping their unfortunate spir¬itual brothers and sisters
during various calamities, floods, wars and air crash or train
accidents. There are still some individuals who are prepared to give
their lives for others. The potentiality to do good, selfless service,
working with and not for the poor and down trodden below poverty line
is seen quite often. The various societies every where in the world
still do not give social recognition by awarding best prizes in
smuggling, gambling, bribe taking or bribe giving and other non divine
activities.
The in-depth study of persons having the
potentiality to do good would reveal that most of them are not fond of
meditation, prayer, going to temples and churches both morning and
evening. Many such persons are guided by their real "inner self" for
those having belief in the existence of soul or inward looking mind.
It is a separate question about their degree of selfless work for the
society. This would depend upon the stage of knowledge or Vidya one
has acquired which in terms of Vedic metaphysics could be highest for
Adityas having studied ten sciences, all social sciences, military
science, philosophy and metaphysics till the age of 48 years. However,
with less knowledge but firm belief in soul and spirit one can still
contribute a lot for the welfare of society. But those having no
belief in the inner divine instruments including the power of mind
(manas) will be found resorting to contrary and unsociable activities
like bribery, corruption, exploitative profits in the name of "Shubh
Labh" i.e. auspicious and spiritual profit. The spirit of divine,
spiritual and material knowledge contained in Vedas, Bhagavad Gita,
Grantha Sahib and other scriptures is fast vanishing owing to
deliberate highly materialistic interpretations.
It is only the scriptural knowledge of God,
soul, spirit, Prakrti, gunas (primordial subtle matter) and other
inner divine instruments can bring golden age or Vedic Krita Yuga on
this earth. All the drift leading to pollution, environmental hazards,
treating mother earth as a quarry, excessive sinful pursuit of money
etc., will start getting reversed, bringing holy Bible's kingdom of
heaven closer to the earth .Thus bringing De civitas Dei -the city of
God on earth is very largely dependent on the entire mankind. This
change can be still faster if along with Vedic metaphysics about Rta,
staya and dharma the scriptures of other religions are studied and
followed and the spirit behind them properly understood. All
subsequent interpreta¬tions leading to hatred of other religions, or
supremacy of one reli¬gion over the other, materialistic
interpretations bereft of spirit and soul etc., could be ignored being
contrary to scriptures.
Since God is perfect and soul yearns to reach
Vaikuntha-the abode of God by acquiring perfection, those who know
their "real self" tend to move towards perfection in all areas of
love, harmony and social welfare for them selves as well as for the
society. Those ancient rsis and munnies who had realised their
"selves" not only moved themselves towards perfection but also left
behind perfect models of education, science, society, marriages,
vocations and even Artha -meta economics or what we may describe as
welfare economics.
At the present age when respect for women is
diminishing, girl child is aborted in a number of cases and if takes
birth, is slowly poisoned by millions of people in some states and
districts of India where maximum number of missing girls are found. In
those places the ratio of male female ratio has gone even below 1000 :
650 .The exploitation of women is still continuing on a large scale as
practices and systems like devdasis, less wages to women labourers in
agri¬culture, construction of civil and other works, useing them as
sex symbols in clubs, hotels, advertisements etc., even now prevail in
many societies in the world. It has mainly happened as large majority
of people have largely stopped accepting Prakrti as the supreme
mother. For them God is both supreme Father and Mother. The spirit as
energy principle provided by Prakrti has lost any sanctity and both
soul and spirit are considered as one and the same directly from God.
To bring back the Vedic respects and importance of women, it is
necessary for the mankind to understand the Vedic concept of JIVA i.e.
Spirit independent of Atma and Jivatma.
The knowledge of Prakrti, soul and spirit
restores not only the respect of women but also creates love and
harmony in the entire mankind. While each individual is different and
distinct due to his / her manifested soul having the effect of past
karma, but the spirit being energy principle in all human beings makes
us all spiritual brothers and sisters. Thus through spirit a Global
family (Vishwa Kutumbakam) of the entire mankind is formed. Since the
spirit is also in the animals, birds, fishes and other animate life,
their care with love becomes spiritual obliga¬tion of all human beings
as they are born in the image of God. The exploitation of animate and
inanimate life is not only immoral but also against the laws of God.
It is the proper understanding of spirit and its attributes which
makes you move from greed/ego based life to need based living. One
finds that divine Nature and benign mother earth provide enough for
the need of all human beings and other animate life but not enough for
the greed of human beings.
As Yog Vashishta says, " to the unwise knowledge of scriptures
is a burden, to one who is full of desires, even wisdom is a burden,
one who is rest¬less, even mind is a burden and one who has no
knowledge of "Self"- both lower and higher i.e. soul and spirit even
the body (life span) is a burden." Why to carry this burden when the
knowledge of soul and spirit can bring eternal bliss in you? This
knowledge will not keep you running after fake gurus, priests, god men
and swamis. Without this knowledge even the genuine gurus and swamis
can not be located. The need for miracles and mythological gods along
with Baba syndrome will start disappearing .Let us not forget Plato's
description of man," the being in search of meaning." This search can
only end through the knowledge of metaphysics meant for the mankind as
contained in the oldest scriptures of the world.