Before we proceed to the external tools, we should know about three important concepts that do not fall under either of the categories, but have a more powerful role in the creation. They are ‘purusha’ the soul, ‘prakriti’ the nature and the ‘Brahman’ or ‘Spirit’ called God. SOUL: In the creation of God, there are countless souls (purushas) that manifest as the living beings. These souls do not undergo any changes at any point of time. They do not have energy and will and are passive in nature. Since it is said to be smaller than an atom, it is not visible even under a powerful microscope. Though clinically the presence of soul has not yet been established, sufficient research is underway to interpret the phenomenon. As the soul is considered as the divine secret, the ultimate result of any clinical study is doubtful. However, elaborate non-clinical studies more or less describe the soul in a unified voice. Soul is considered as the reflection of the transcendental essence of the Brahman. This goes to prove our earlier statement that souls on their own, do not have energy and will. More or less this phenomenon of the Brahman – soul concept can be explained like the moon deriving its light from the sun. The light of the moon is illusionary making us to believe that the moon has its own light. However, the fact is that it gets reflected by the light of the sun and is not self illuminating. So, by and large, the soul and the Brahman are not different, though there exist certain subtle differences. Probably, the one main difference is the ‘karma’.

The Brahman is not bound by karma, whereas the individual soul is bound by karmas. There is another school of thought (Vedanta) which advocates that the Brahman takes the form of atman or the individual soul enabling the individual beings to act, but remains unconnected to the actions or to the results of actions. Purusha is the term used by Sankhya school of thought and atman is the term used by the vedantic school of thought. Both these terms refer to the individual soul. The soul continues to exist in a gross body as long as the body functions. Once the gross body ceases to function after death, the soul also leaves the body along with prana which is also known as the vital force. The fate of the soul after death is determined by the law of karma that remains embedded in the soul, wherever it goes. Karma is like a voice recorder in an airplane, where in the results of all the actions and thoughts are recorded. If someone believes that he is doing an action unaware to anybody, should always bear in mind that his actions are recorded in his karmic account. It is to be understood that karma is the result of various decisions made by the mind that ultimately determines the destiny of the soul after death.

That is why pursuing spiritual path and firmly establishing spiritual progress are considered as essential factors in reducing the impact of karma. Karmic account is not only historical but also contains long forgotten evolutionary aspects as well. Therefore, ultimately the soul unfolds its action in a physical body depending upon its karmic account. In such a situation, the soul does not undergo any changes or modifications based on the fact that it is a mere reflection of the Brahman or the Supreme Spirit. The soul can manifest only if it is associated with prakriti about which we will discuss in the next posting. (to be continued)