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eriko
08 December 2009, 01:03 AM
So I was just thinking what is the connection between soul and mind.

Soul and mind are two different things isn't it? When we think of the soul, we think of a miniscule part of energy that surrounds the whole Universe. And if I am correct the temporary body separates this energy from the Universal Energy.

And mind is the basically intelligence or the capapbility to apply logic. It also stores memories. But soul doesn't because it is just basically energy. The soul is our real identity and not this body, that means the small microscopic unit of energy that is somewhere near the heart.

The mind is our conscious, or is not? This is so confusing. Okay let me put my doubts as questions:

1. What exactly is the soul, that is apart from being energy?
2. Our mind stores memories, but is it also our conscious or is it the soul?
3. Is there any way in which the soul and the mind are connected?
4. If we take mind and the soul as different things, that is the mind as intelligence (memoring storing place) and soul as energy, how can we explain that someone remembers his past life, when it is the only the soul that reincarnates and the mind gets destroyed with body?
5. And why do have these birth marks reflecting injuries of past life, maybe because of psychological reasons but the mind gets destroyed, so how?
6. Apparently the soul carries the karma forward, but some explanation on this?

LALKAR
08 December 2009, 05:48 AM
Namaste Erico,

Please Read Gita to get all answers

saidevo
08 December 2009, 07:24 AM
namaste eriko.

You are right about some of your assertions, but need to finetune the rest. Here is what I can give by way of answers to your questions. Other members might add more value to it.

• First of all, the individual soul--jIvAtma, and the mind--manas, are not two different things; the mind is only a projection of the individual soul. It is a layer of matter (and energy) that covers the soul which is pure enery--consciousness.

To give you an example, we say, "I think"--not "my mind thinks" and "I ran"--not "my legs ran". This "I", the ego is the mind, as the channel of expression for the individual soul.

• It is not the "miniscule part of energy that surrounds the whole Universe". Instead, the Universe is only a miniscule, manifest part of the infinite consciousness (pure energy which is not material). It is this Universal Consciousness is beyond all names and forms, and we call it Brahman.

• On the other hand, the individual soul, although it is a spark of Brahman, is confined as you have rightly conjectured, in the heart--the Atma hRdayam on the right side, which is not the physical heart on the left side--in the shape of a finger: "angushTa mAtraH purushaH" says the brahma sUtra.

• This finger-shaped jIvAtma, confined in a human body in order to experience the world (because Brahman deemed it so), expresses its presence through bodies or sheaths--koshas. Its first expression is through the causal body--kAraNa sharIra, where the intellect which is capable of wisdom--buddhi, is placed; its second expression is through the emotional-mental body--sUkShma sharIra, where the mind is placed; its final expression is through the physical body--sthUla sharIra, where the corresponding organ brain is placed.

• This means that it is not the brain that thinks, but the mind in the mental body whose thoughts are expressed through the brain. The feedback from the brain given by the senses reaches the mind, which under the guidance of buddhi decides how to act or react.

• Our memories are not stored inside the brain as science would have us believe, but in the cosmic mental matter of the mental body. There is a theory that the mind does not store memories locally but universally in what are called the 'AkAshic Records', which is the reason seers are able to access it and predict about us.

• The mind does not die with the brain. Upon death of the physical body, the prANa packs up the antaHkaraNa--mind (manas), its storage (chitta) and intellect (buddhi) into the astr0-mental body--suKshma sharIra, which is the vehicle of the departed soul in the astral and mental worlds. This is how our past karma stored as impressions--vAsanas, is carried over in subsequent births. And this karma in some cases manifests as birth marks, and diseases of the body.

For a quicker and clearer idea of such esoteric knowledge, I suggest that you read the Theosophical compilations of Arthur E. Powell:

Etheric Double, Astral, Mental and Causal Bodies
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17071064/The-Etheric-Astral-Mental-And-Causal-Bodies-by-Arthur-E-Powell

With the background of that knowledge, it would be easier for you to understand the Hindu scriptures better.

eriko
08 December 2009, 10:24 AM
Thanks a lot Uncle Saidevo. This cleared a lot of things for me. Just one thing though:

• This finger-shaped jIvAtma, confined in a human body in order to experience the world (because Brahman deemed it so),

How so?

Brahman is the Universe, according to the theory basically AkAshik Records, but even then it speaks in one voice?