Soul: The Seed of Divinity

 
     In the Hindu pantheon, soul has been very firmly eulogized. Soul is the most powerful; body, mind, and intellect, in comparison, are fleeting and transient, even an illusion. Our body and all material objects are in a constant state of change, but the soul is regarded as eternal and imperishable.

      Hindu philosophy envisages two types of bodies: the physical or gross body (called thul sarira) and the subtle, invisible body (called suksma sarira). Soul has been identified as the subtle, immortal, transcendental suksma sarira.
      Hindu seers have often referred to a conflict between heart and brain—not the anatomical heart in our bodies but the soul heart of the suksma sarira.
      As Swami Vivekananda says: ”It is the heart which takes one to the highest plane, which intellect can never reach; it goes beyond intellect and what is called inspiration.”44

      According to Hindu philosophy, soul is the eternal constituent, which is invisible and metaphysical in nature and acts as a vehicle for reincarnation from one body to another. It also carries within it the notation of the past karmas, as well as a genealogy map of our tendencies, the vasnas. It is these subtle karmic particles and vasnas that make the soul impure.
      It is the eternal and transcendental phenomenon of the soul that kindles the flame of fearlessness, or abhay, in human beings. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna: “Thou art the reservoir of omnipotent power. Arise, awake and manifest the Divinity within.”45 Knowing the true self, the higher self, is true knowledge (called para vidya). Hindu seers are taught to disentangle themselves from the false, superficial ego-self (neti neti—“I am not this”) and instead, to assert, “I am that” (tat twam asi). Soul is the divine seed in each being.46 In Hindu society, it is in this recognition of the Divine in each being that even the poorest person or the lowest animal was revered in spiritual discourses.

      The Vedas affirm: “When a person comes to weakness, be it through old age or disease, he frees himself from these limbs, just as a mango, a fig, or a berry releases itself from its stalk.” It is not encouraged in Hindu system to unduly prolong the flickering life by artificial means when the physically body has weakened beyond repair. “Who knows the self, wise, youthful, never aging, will have no fear of death, being free from desire—immortal, wise, in his own self resourceful full of fresh sap, in nothing falling short.”

      Death, in Hindu philosophy, is part of the long, immortal life, which has been described as the great journey, or mahaprasthana. Death is a sacred event, punctuating intermittently in this mahaprasthana. Death is considered merely an interlude in the long passage of the soul, one that one should neither fear nor look forward to prematurely. When the karma of this life is over, one passes over to the next journey.
      Even though the soul has been identified as the true representative of an individual being, the physical body and the death of it have been a subject of great consequence. A Hindu is expected to take full advantage of precious human life, which is the essential tool for the spiritual evolution of the soul through eons of birth cycles. Indeed, before death occurs a Hindu is prompted to prepare himself fully. One must diligently fulfill all obligations of life, make amends (praschitya) for all mistakes committed, and forgive others completely and in good faith. Then, dedicating oneself in the refuge of worship, one chants God’s name (japa) and awaits the great event of death with full realization of its significance and sanctity.

      The soul, or atman, is considered to be the seed of the Divine, which has all the potential to become godlike, if nurtured and cultivated properly. As the individual human soul (the jivatman) becomes more pure, free from the impurities of many tendencies (vasnas), it becomes more divine in nature. Thus, the jivatman—the individual human soul—has the seed potential of the Divine but is not the Divine itself. It needs to be purified of all its egoistical nature in order to become godlike and merge into the Divine (known as paramatman). The spiritual masters prompt a human being to remain humble and devoted to God at all times.

      Hindu seers have outlined an evolutionary path for an individual toward spiritual maturity. A person may first start with unselfish service (known as charya), which later leads to rituals and religious practices (sadhana) and developing devotional aptitude and humility (bhakti). This, then, progresses further toward awakening the inner Kundalini chakras, finally culminating in the enlightened wisdom of self-realization. In the words of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami:

Our individual soul is the immortal and spiritual body of light
that animates life and reincarnates again and again until all the
past karmas are resolved and its essential unity with God is fully
realized.47

      Hindu seers have carved a very special place for the soul in the life of an individual. Evolution of soul through many birth cycles gradually annihilates the ego, which pulls the human being toward the body and away from the Divine. Even as the individual human soul (jivatman) strives to ascend toward the Divine, the Hindus also believe that the Divine occasionally takes human form to guide and lead mankind toward the spiritual destination.

      The incarnation of God (avtar-karan) is repeatedly observed in Hindu tradition. These divine souls guide humanity to discover spiritual truths. Acceptance of multiple God incarnations has helped Hindu philosophy to grow continuously and remain ever fresh; this has been the Hindu way. According to Sri Ramakrishna, a God incarnate is like a big ship that can carry many people, while a human saint is like a small boat. A true saint is like a divine in the making. There may indeed be graded differences of divinity among all the souls as they march in their path of spirituality.
      Swami Ranganathanada, the late president of Ramakrishna Math, presented a very important criterion. A divine person manifests a  tremendous spiritual power . For thousands of years his name and teaching remain, even increasing as time passes. He said, “An incarnation alone can defeat time.” Hindus, therefore, have no difficulty in bowing down to the divine souls of other faiths, whether Buddha, Christ, or Muhammad. The spiritual evolution of the soul is the journey every individual must undertake until the divinity is fully manifested.

      A leading senior monk of the Vedanta Temple of New York, Swami Yogatmananda, shared the following anecdote:
Once, many devotees met with God and asked Him how they all might meet with the Divine. God told them that they might ascend the high ladder of virtues and austerities and reach Him, ultimately. The devotees then told God how difficult this route would be for most of them, and only a rare few would ever reach this goal. God agreed. The devotees then put a proposal to God for consideration: Would it not be a good idea, if instead, God would use the same ladder and come down occasionally to meet with many devotees at one time?48
      Hindus believe that the incarnation of God, the avtar-karan (which literally means “coming down”), is the manifestation of God in human form, whenever needed. In fact, the Lord promised in the Bhagavad Gita that whenever sins would rise beyond the limit, He would incarnate on Earth to redeem mankind.

      The concept of eternal soul and reincarnation, although essentially a Hindu doctrine, has many supporters in other faiths, too. A cross section of people that includes industrial magnet Henry Ford, renowned author Victor Hugo, Christian Unitarian minister Rev. William R. Alger, and innumerable others have accepted this philosophy. In fact, in a 1990 Gallup poll, it was revealed that the percentage of Christians who believe in reincarnation is about the same in the general population as the percentage of those who do not believe in this concept.49 As English poet William Wordsworth wrote:

 The soul that rises with us,
 Our life’s star,
 Hath had elsewhere its setting
 And cometh from afar.50

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