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murugan
16 March 2011, 04:40 AM
Vanakam to all

Can anyone tell me what will be the nature of our soul?

smaranam
17 March 2011, 09:27 AM
Namaste Murugan

Though i am not the right person you should hear this from, and hope the senior members will correct/add/polish this, and point to other HDF threads,

First, i am glad you asked this very imp. qn - You are asking about JIVATATTVA.

STEP ONE: Please read Chapter 2, 13, 15, 5 of, and the entire Bhagavad Gita.
Shvetashvatara Upanishad talks (metaphorically ?) about the nature of the soul as all-pervading in the body, and of magnitude the 1/10000 th of the tip of a hair. WARNING: I would not dwell on this with material senses. It just shows how subtle the soul is.

2. Then, understand the jeevAtmA as a ray of the Sun. The Ray is one, individual , but made up of [same] substance as the Sun - paramAtmA.

3. Five Kosha - layers of the living entity = jIv.
1. annamay kosh = gross body
2. prANamay kosh = life breath
3. manomay kosh = mind
4. vidnyAnmay kosh = intellect , buddhi
5. Anandmay kosh - this is where we want to be, to perceive the Divine.
The vedAntins (advaita darshan followers) will say go beyond the Anandmay kosh to realize the one and only SELF. This is non-dual. Anandmay kosh keeps some duality to perceive Anand in relationship with the Lord.

4. SHARIR , body, is defined as these koshas,
sthUla sharIr (gross body) + sUkshma sharIr (subtle body) + kAraN sharIr (causal body) + AtmA.

The kAraN sharIr - i understand it as the token-ID of the individual living entity - jIv that travels from one body to another (birth and death) or one loka to another.

***What is intriguing is how does a pure liberated jIv maintain individuality ?
Can drops of the ocean, rays of the Sun, space at a co-ordinate point in Total AkAsh tell themselves from others ?
The Sun knows His rays like the parent knows each identical twin.
AkAsh knows the spaces in the pots or at co-ordinate space
Ocean knows its drop-molecule although it may travel from Pacific to Antarctic.

How does the ray/drop/space-point know ? She only knows that she is part of the Whole, and further, she knows by her relationship (ras) with BhagavAn :)
If she does not care about ras, the Supreme Whole Brahman will simply say with tears flowing, "Welcome back dear" and let them stay nirguN.

praNAm

Shri KrushNa Govind Hare MurAre
He nAth nArAyaNa VAsudeva ~

Onkara
18 March 2011, 04:48 AM
Excellent reply Smaranam!

Namasté Murugan
The soul is pure awareness, is it not? :)

jasdir
18 March 2011, 09:13 AM
Vanakam to all

Can anyone tell me what will be the nature of our soul?




The one and only nature of soul is to love "God",
"God" is sea of love, Soul is drop of love.:)

_/\_Jasdir.

devotee
18 March 2011, 09:58 AM
Namaste Murugan,



Can anyone tell me what will be the nature of our soul?


Mandukya Upanishad and a number of other Upanishads & also Bhagwad Gita tries to explain the nature of Self i.e. Atman which you call as Soul. Soul is not a very good translation of Atman. So, we shall use the word Atman or Self.

Let me tell you in the beginning that no one can tell you the real nature of Self because it is not an object of Knowledge ... It is the Knowledge itself. It is not something that can be perceived ... It is the Perceiver of all perceptions. How can you know the knower ?

Still efforts have been made to point towards the Reality as close as possible. And I will try to explain it in brief :

There is nothing but Self alone. (Ref. Mandukya Upanishad). Whatever is there in present or was in the past or whatever will be in future is all but Self. This Self is not many but One ... without a second. The AUM is the Self and it has four quarters. In the first quarter or the first state it is known as Visva. The Self in all beings in this manifested world is in Visva state. In this state, it is under the influence of Maya i.e. delusion & wrongly perceives the Reality i.e.
a) It doesn't see the Reality
b) It sees the Reality as something or variety of things in this manifested universe
c) It enjoys this (gross objects of enjoyment) worldly pleasures & suffers the pains with its sense organs and mind.
d) It differentiates one's self from others.

The second state of this Self is Taijasa. It is the subtle form & it has subtle realm .... this is the state after the death of the body or before the birth. It also is under the influence of Maya i.e. delusion & wrongly perceives the Reality as Visva. It enjoys the subtle objects of enjoyment & suffers not through sense organs but only through mind.

The third state of Self is Praajna which is a mass of consciousness which is blissful & feeds on bliss ... It is the origin and end of all beings ... It is omnipotent and omniscient .... It is God. This state of Self is non-dual & It is not deluded but It is yet not the bare Reality.

The fourth state of Self is nameless, attributeless, peaceful, auspicious
& the essence of all the previous three states. It is the canvas on which all the first three states appear and disappear. This state cannot be described in words, cannot be understood by mind ... it can be only explained as "Not this" ... "Not this" or "Neti-Neti".

*******************************

There are other references :

Bhagwad Gita :

Chapter 2 : Verses 2.13, 2.18 to 2.25
Chapter 13 : Verses 13.19 to 13.23 (Verse 13.22 is important), 13.29 to 13.33)
Chapter 15 : Verses 15.7 to 15.11

Kathopanishad :

Verses 1.2.16 to 1.2.25, 2.1.11 to 2.1.15 etc. ... in fact, the entire Kathopanishad is worth reading carefully.

Chhandogya Upanishad :

Chapter 6, Part 8 to 16, Chapter 7, part 15, 16

Svetaaswatar Upanishad :

Verses Chapter 5.7 to 5.10

Adhyaatmopanishad

Verses 1 to 25

Sarvasaaropanishad

The whole Upanishad (verses 1 to 21)

Etc.

OM

Ganeshprasad
18 March 2011, 10:34 AM
Pranam all

Nature of the soul in essence is the same as the super Soul, Sat Chit Anand

In Bhagvat gita chapter two Lord Krishna describe it as

na jayate mriyate va kadacin
nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano
na hanyate hanyamane sarire

For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.2.20

Now if this is the state of the soul why do we then not perceive this truth?

A small example if I may cite is that off a magnet when covered by cloth would loose its attracting power similarly the soul when it comes in contact with material nature(which is for ever changing) becomes deluded

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani karsati
 
Jiva in the body is My eternal indivisible fragment indeed. jiva gets bound due to superimposition or association with the six sensory faculties, including the mind, of perception. (15.07)

The branches spread below and above (or all over the cosmos). The tree is nourished by the Gunas; sense pleasures are its sprouts; and its roots (of ego and desires) stretch below in the human world causing Karmic bondage. (15.02)

Just as we remove the cloth from the magnet it’s attracting power gets stronger similarly when we drop our desires on all thing material our true nature would begin to illuminate.
Jai Shree Krishna

murugan
21 March 2011, 01:43 AM
Thanks for all your wonderful replies.


Excellent reply Smaranam!

Namasté Murugan
The soul is pure awareness, is it not? :)

I agree that our soul is a pure awareness that we all can feel.

charlebs
01 April 2011, 10:33 AM
The soul is the software with which you can create and do anything you want.

the body is an evil spirit that needs to be taught. Maya wants you to learn from all these spirits.