WHAT IS SOUL?

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

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

THE OBSTACLE TO FREE WILL

         We often talk of  Free Will and say that we have free will and we should use it . All our legal system and ethical thought process is based on Free Will .I have free will to drive within speed limit . I have a free will to not steal . I have free will to not beat someone. If I don't us it then I am liable for my Actions and then the punishment that follows . This is legal. The same hold true of ethical issues. I am suppose to tell truth . I am suppose to not cheat and so on . The Law of Karma , is based on free will and every action has reaction. So in spite of that , we see people that do not act in right directions. So what is the reason behind it - why do people do  not DO RIGHT THING ?

     We often see diabetic person , who eats too many sweets and then gets elevated blood sugar . or person with hypertension eating too much salt . The obese person not doing exercise of diet control. My answer is that we all are guided by our PREVIOUS KARAMAS and the impression that they have created . I have often used term 'the circle of mind'. When we do an action , that leaves impression and that impression leads to a desire and that desire leads to new action. I see a pizza and i eat it - the action. My action leads to impression, I like it or I hate it . This impression leads to desire - I either want to eat it -if I like it or I want to avoid eating it if I hate it . This desire will lead to an action or either eating it or avoiding it . If I eat it , I have again impression and that leads to desire and so on. This is circle of mind. The problem is that these impressions are not only from present life , but are from many previous lives and actions that we have done in past lives. So these guide us in our present life. In spite of KNOWING right action and having a Free Will to do the right action, my previous impressions lead to my new action being NOT RIGHT. This is the main opposing force. So we have free will and we can and should act in right way , but our karmic impressions tell us to other way and do wrong things - eating sweets or not exercising or eating too much or drinking alcohol etc. Not all of us have enough FREE WILL to counteract these forces . If we all did , then we all will be slim and trim and follow the laws.

     

THOUGHTS AND KARMA

   The origin of thought is  s deep question. I wrote  a blog on PATANJALISUTRAYOGA.BLOGSPOT.COM .In this blog I want to expand on that thought. We have thousands of thoughts and what is the origin of thought . In my other blog I talked about PARAA-PASHYANTI -MADHYAMA AND VAIKHARI as 4 languages in Vedic religion. But I think ALL our thoughts are  related to our KARMA. Without a karma and impression that it causes we will have no thoughts. Say I see a cake and I have desire to eat it. The Karma in this particular thought is 2 folds . One is me SEEING THE CAKE . The Karma could be done by any of the organs of actions - KARMENDRIYE .In past I had tasted the cake - the Action or Karma of putting the cake in my mouth and then tasting it . I either liked it or hated it and so that lead to my DESIRE to eat the cake or not eat it. My previous experience from my previous Action leads to having a thought .If one has diabetes , than even though there is Desire or thought of eating and enjoying it , he will not eat it . So the thought or origin of the thought to eat comes from experience of the taste of cake  and the thought of NOT EATING it also comes from experience of having raised blood sugar with eating. So our desires come from our Karma - Actions. If we had never tasted the cake there would not be thought to eat it and if we had not had experience of elevated blood sugar -no thought to avoid eating it would have come. 

   Our thoughts also come from our previous experiences even when we have not had any direct experience. If I see a red stove - I know that the hot stove coil will be red and so I will avoid it . But here my mind compares the redness that I see with my previous experience of having had burns with hor stove or someone telling that red stove is hot and so avoid it. The thought to avoid comes from my previous Karma. 

If I see a tiger my previous experience direct or indirect from reading about tiger - will lead to thought of running away as quickly as possible . But a child of 2 years age who has never seen a tiger or had education about tiger will not have thought of running away. In fact it may think of tiger as LARGE CAT that he has seen and his thought would be to pat it . Again previous karma leads to the thought. 

   So all thoughts come from our own Karma. 

WHY WE DO NOT REMEMBER PAST LIVES EXPERIENCES?

      In Vedic religion, we have concept of reincarnation. We believe that our present life is shaped by our past lives experiences , but we do not remember the experiences . So why is is it that we do ot remember last life  and how can we learn from our mistakes or bad behavior if we do not KNPW or remember why we did in last lives. If we remember  previous lives , it will add the confusion to our present life. Our relationships may be different in present life than  last life. But we do have IMPRESSIONS of our past lives . 

   The answer is that the impressions of our Karmas and our actions and our experiences are stores not as EXACT MEMORY like in our present life. If I see a person , or a dog , I will remember him or it as a person with certain name , certain look and certain voice and behaviors . The same with dog . This is stored in our physical brain  and so we do have PHYSICAL MEMORY and we can recall in THIS life. But when we die , our physical body is destroyed  and this PHYSICAL memory is gone . But our ASTRAL body and CAUSAL body are still there , and the effects of our karma - experiences - progress -is all stored in that body, especially causal body. Say a person likes donuts or cakes ,in present like , If he is hungry, he may want to eat sweet , he will like to eat cake or donuts . But that liking for cake or donuts will be stored in astral body - causal body unit after the death of physical body.in a ABSTRACT FORM . Love for sweets and not as a specific sweet thing . So in next life , if he is born in America , he will love cakes and candy and ice cream. But if he is born as Indian in India then he may love Indian sweets like SHREEKHAND - JALEBI OR LADDU ETC. If he is born in some other cultures , he would like that culture's sweet things . 

  So we do have memory of previous life , but in an abstract form - like love for music - love for dog or animals, or scriptures - art - acting - music etc - BUT ALL IN ABSTRACT FORM.

CAN ANY ONE EXTEND LIFE BY JUST BLESSING ?

      We often say that out life expectancy is PRE DETERMINED . When we are born, it is determined as to when we are going to die. The term that we use is 'IT WAS TIME'. But then we have also heard when a Sage or highly evolved Yogi blesses someone and they have extension of life. We have heard that Jesus Crist has brought back to life a dead person . The same thing we have heard about many others in India like Sai Baba or Yukteshvar or some other Yogi. So if the life is limited and we are to die when it was predetermined at the time of birth, how can ANYONE EXTEND THE LIFE . 

    The life duration is based on the collection of Karma that are going to come to fruition with which we are born with. We have millions of Karmas that we have collected over period of thousands of life. Not all of them come to fruition in this life. But based on our Intense desires -attachments - VASANA or emotions - relations we are born certain environment- family- society. So when they are FULFILLED or exhausted, then the life ends. Once we understand this principle or accept it , then it is easy to understand my explanation.

    The highly evolved souls or the so called SAGES or Yogis, have power to borrow the fruits of Karmas that were not included in this present life and bring them to PRESENT LIFE for fruition. Once we have the fruits that can come alive in THIS LIFE , this life is extended. In short theses Yogis can BORROWES from FUTURE LIFVES. It is almost like we going to casino and we run out of money and then we go out and get MORE MONEY from bank . The bank is our STORED KARMAS- so called SANCHIT KARMA. 

DHARM YUDHYA AND DHARM

     In Indian or Hindu - VEDIC religion , we have one of the scriptures named BGAGAVAT GEETA . Most of the people that know anything about Hindu know he GEETA . When there was a war in between 2 sets of cousins ,namely PANDAVAS and KAURAVAS , one of the great warriors from Pandeva was Arjun. When he was standing in the battlefield, and saw all his relatives and friends that were on the opposite side , he was discouraged and dropped his weapons down and decided that he was not going to fight and KILL his relatives and friends and teaches etc. At that time Lord Krishan who was his charioteer, gave him a discourse on the religion and told him that this is DHARM YUDHYA - religious war and he must fight. The question that many have pondered is what is religious war ? 

       In any was  both sided FEEL that their side is righteous and they are right in fighting war. We can talk about any war - for Indians British and Indians  and if you go back the King Shivaji and Muslim king Auragjeb. The war that is going on in the middle east each side feels that they are right and the other side is wrong. As outside observer we van have same type of opinions. So how can any war be called DHRAM YUDHY?

    I feel that we have to define DHARM ,which is translated as RELIGION. But there are other meanings to the word DHARM. When we say wood floats in water and Iron sinks because that is their DHARM or quality. The conventional use of Dharma is religion and not quality. But when one takes in to account the meaning as the quality then the whole thing becomes different. The quality of SOUL or the reflection of the GOD is to be free . We call the soul enclosed or limited to the body as JIWATMA and it is free and limitless , but due to ignorance , it feels it is limited to the physical body. The physical body and the subtle body limits the ability of the soul to be free. So the DHARMA of soul is to be FREE and LIMITLESS  and does not have limits of DESH-LAK- VASTU meaning LOCATION -TIME AND SPECIFIC IDENTITY. So the DHARMA YUDHYA is that of soul with bodily limitation that come with physical body - with it's 5 organs of perception and 5 organs of action and the subtle body -mind intellect and ego . The sole is free but it is covered with ignorance and that limits it and one has to let it be free and that fight is the fight which is described in GEETA . 

    The war did happen but what Geeta is describing is the religious war HAPPENING IN OUT  as described above 

  

CHAKRAS AND 5 GREAT ELEMENTS -PANCHAMAHABHUTE

     We have known and often talk about the CHAKRA ,SOME TALK ABOUT 5 and some talk about 6 or more . But we all have heard of the CHAKRAS and location. The Chakras that we talk about Chakras and we know the locations . One must know that there are actual nerve plexus and think that they are the real CHAKRAS. But in reality the CHAKRAS are in astral body or SUKSHMA SHARIR . The Chakras are in Astral spine and they are located close to the physical spine nerve plexus. 

  The lowest one is called  Muladhar chakra and is in the are of lowest part of the spine - coccyx area , There are nerves and they do seem to correspond to that area nerves. It is associated with the element of EARTH and is related to excretion. The next one is in SACRAL area nerves  and that is called SWADHISTHAN CHAKRA and is related to the great element of water and it is related to procreations. The next one is in Lumbar area . This is called MANIPOOR  and is related to the great element of FIRE And it is related to may be hunger or power and control of the power. The next one is called ANAHAT and is located at thoracic spine - heart level . It is related to the great element of VAYOO or AIR , This is related to heart - love . The next higher one is called VISHUDHA . It is related to great element of AKASH or Ether  or SPACE. This is located at cervical spine or throat  area in physical body. The 2 higher ones are ADNYA CHAKRA and the  SAHASTRA. 

   It is also interesting to know that these Chakras have colors and TOGETHER they form white color. The color assigned to each one is Muladhsr is RED , Svadshistatn CHAKRA  is orange , the Manipoor is yellow , ANAHAT is Green , Vishudhha is blue and ADNA Chakra is Indigo in color and SAHASRSRA is Violet . The 7 colors that make the WHITE COLOR are assigned to the 7 CHAKRAS. 

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