Namaste,

I was reading a few line from Brahma Sutra Bashya(BSB) and I wanted to discuss this.

BSB says:


1)The individual soul has no origin, because the Upanishads do not mention this because its eternality is known from them and(because of other reasons).

then this line is supported by Taittiriya Upanishad that says "He made Himself by Himself" therefore the individual soul has no origin.


Next

2)The Vedantin says: The individual soul should be a part of God even as a spark is of fire.The individual is a part of only apparent, for the partless Brahman can have no part in the literal sense.



Next

3) The Individual soul is only a reflection of the Supreme Self to be sure.

Commentary: And this has to be understood that this individual soul is a reflection of the Supreme Self like the semblance of the sun in water.
Not that the soul is the Self Itself nor is it something else.



Ok what I would like to discuss here is:

1)So it seems that the individual soul has no origin and is merely a reflection of the Supreme Self that is sort of compartmentalized Supreme Self Reflections like a house of mirrors..that is one man enters a house of mirrors and see countless reflections of himself.

So the Supreme Self here is reflected as the soul in the house of mirrors of Maya and we have the countless Jeevatamas(Souls)



2)So going by this..that means to say that a soul as an individual existence that is divorced from Brahman is not possible because Brahman is partless.

Only a reflection as many but yet partless is possible.

3)That means that Technically Jeevas are just reflections so it can be said that a Soul on it own has no origin or does not really "exists" in the real sense.



I was just linking this to Lord Buddhas teachings when He said there is no soul.

It could be that He was not denying the presence of a Jeevatma (soul) as in reflection of Brahman but the fact that its only a reflection renders it not having an independent existence and what He said got misunderstood that there is no soul.

Because Lord Buddha did preach about Karma and without the presence of the reflections of Brahman as Jeevas the Karma theory can not stand.


So is this what Lord Buddha really meant?

It seems to have a standing in Brahma Sutra Bashya.