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by Jayaram V
According to the Bhagavadgita, the soul is indestructible and
eternal
(2.18) It neither slays not can it be slain (2.19). It is never
born, never dies and after coming into existence never ceases to be. It
is nitya (always), sasvatah (permanent), purana (very ancient) (2.20).
At the time of death the soul does not die. It just leaves the body and
then enters into a new one (2.22). Weapons cannot pierce it, fire cannot
burn it, water cannot moisten it and wind cannot dry it (2.23). It is
unpiercible, incombustible, all pervading, stable and immobile (2.24).
It is invisible, incognizible and immutable (2.25).
No one exactly know what soul is. One looks at It with great
surprise, another speaks about It with great surprise, another hears
about It with incredulity and yet another after hearing about It knows
it not (2.29). The soul is superior to everything else in the human
being. It is said that the senses are great, greater than the senses is
the mind, greater than the mind is buddhi and greater than the buddhi is
the Self (3.42).
The soul residing in the body is referred as the indwelling witness
the Adhiyagna. We are told that when Purusha, also known as the
Adhidaiva (Controlling Deity), resides in the body as the inner witness,
He is becomes Adhiyagna or the Seat of Sacrifice(8.4). The mental
condition in which the soul leaves the body at the time of death is very
important, because whatever the person thinks of at that time, that
alone he achieves thereafter (8.6). Thus if someone departs from the
body thinking of God alone, he would undoubtedly attain Him (8.5, 12
&13).
The soul in the body is different from Jiva (the living entity). The
striving yogi perceives Him, as seated in the body enjoying the sense
objects, united with the gunas, departing the body at the time of death,
but the ignorant ones whose hearts are impure, do not perceive so even
after much striving.(15.11&12).
Self-realization is the ultimate goal of yoga or spiritual
discipline. That condition is the aim of all yoga, in which through the
practice of yoga, the mind become stilled, in which the self behold the
Self within and is absorbed in the Self, in which the yogi finds supreme
ecstasy (6.21-22). And when the yogi develops the unified and holistic
vision through the practice of yoga, he sees the Self in all and all in
the Self (6.29).
The soul is bound to the body and to the illusory world through
attachment arising out of the interplay of the triple gunas (14.5). When
through yoga the indwelling soul overcomes the triple gunas, He becomes
free from birth and death, old age and sorrow and attains immortality
(14.20). This in brief is the description of soul in the Bhagavadgita.
Suggested Further Reading
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