Thursday, February 18, 2016

What Is Soul? - Swami Sivananda


What Is Soul?

There are two kinds of souls, viz., the individual soul or Jivatman or the human soul, and the Supreme Soul (Paramatman por Brahman). The individual soul is an image or reflection of the Supreme Soul. 

Just as the Sun is reflected in different pots of water, so also the Supreme Soul is reflected in different minds of different persons. Soul is spirit. It is immaterial. It is consciousness (Chaitanya). Individual soul is reflected Chaitanya.

It is this individual soul that departs from the body after its death and goes to heaven, with the senses, mind, Prana, impressions, desires and tendencies. It is endowed with a subtle astral body when it proceeds to heaven.

Everybody feels ‘I exist’, ‘I am’. No one can say ‘I do not exist’. This itself proves the existence of an Immortal Soul or the Supreme Self.

When the mind is annihilated through meditation, the individual soul merges itself in the Supreme Soul (Paramatman or Brahman). This is the goal of life.

Purify your mind. Steady it. Fix the mind on the Supreme Soul. Mediate and realise your essential divine nature. You will be freed from the wheel of births and deaths. You will attain eternal bliss and immortality.

The great mahavakya of Upanishads which in Jnana yoga is used for abstract meditation says: Ayam Atma Brahma

The individual Soul (Arman) is identical with the universal Soul (Brahman or Paramataman)

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