What is the Soul? Despite all the mystery and confusion, is the Soul actually something so mysterious, so unknown? Is there a conflict around the world about the Soul or are people just saying things differently about the same thing? Let us see what the various religions of the world, famous philosophers of the past and of the present have to say about the Soul.
Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest religions. Zoroastrians believe that the main constituents of a human being are body and Soul. The body lives only for a limited time in the world. The Soul is immortal. At the time of death, the body perishes and the Soul goes on to live its second existence. Zarathushtra, the Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism is said to be the first to introduce the idea of an afterlife that was based on morality, with rewards for the good and suffering for the evil.
According to Zoroastrian beliefs when a person dies, his or her Soul leaves the body, though it remains close to the body for three days and three nights, suffering from anxiety and distress caused by the sudden separation. During this period, the archangels prepare an account of the good deeds and the sins of the Soul, to be used later to decide its fate in the spiritual world. On the third night, the Soul leaves the material world and enters into the spiritual world, led by an angel. There it stands on the Bridge of Judgement where the deeds of the Soul are reviewed. Good Souls are led to paradise and evil Souls are led to the world of punishment. The Souls will remain in their respective abodes until the end of the current cycle of time. At the end of it, there will be a Judgement Day, when God will revive all the Souls and review their actions once again to reward with an eternal heavenly life or sentence them to a world of torment permanently.
Christians believe that each Soul created by God will ultimately be judged by their Lord in heaven. When people die, as per their scripture, they would be judged and accordingly will go to heaven or hell. Some believe the unrighteous Souls will cease to exist, while true believers will inherit eternal life in heaven or the kingdom of God. The blessed ones will enjoy eternal fellowship with God. Today, there are different branches of Christianity and there is diversity in their beliefs. Some believe that if one has not repented for one's sins and not trusted in Jesus as the Lord and Saviour, their Souls will go to hell and suffer eternal separation from God. Some Christians also believe that the Soul in human beings is not the same as animals.
Some of the common Christian beliefs about the Soul are that human beings are immortal living Souls. There are two primary realities in the universe—the unseen, immaterial, spiritual realm and the visible, physical, material world. Even when our bodies die, we live. It is the Soul that animates the body. While the Soul does live without the body, the body cannot live without the Soul. When a Soul returns to a lifeless body, the body is said to “rise from the dead” or to be “revived”. We are living Souls, and our Souls are “seen” in this physical world when they are united with, and animating, our physical bodies. All Souls return to God. The spiritual world is the realm of God and therefore, the moment we cease to live in the physical world, we will be living in the spiritual world with God. Also, Souls have experiences and they can communicate with each other in the spiritual realm. However, heaven and hell are two separate spiritual realms.
In Judaism, it is believed that God gave the Soul to Adam, as mentioned in Genesis. Followers of Judaism relate one's following of the commandments to the quality of one's Soul. Many Jews who believe in life after death advocate that the Soul will return to God. Some suggest that there will be a future judgement where some will be rewarded, and others punished. The religion teaches that the body and Soul are separate, but still indivisible in human life.
In Islam, there are diverse interpretations of the Quran amongst various sects. Among Muslims there is a school of thought called Sufism. It is famous due to its saint, Rumi. The Sufis talk of the immortal 'Ruh' that drives the mortal 'Nafs'. Ruh is considered to be an entity that differs from the physical body. It is a subtle, ecclesiastical, enlightened living and moving essence in every cell of the body. As long as these organs remain able to accept the impressions of this subtle body, the 'Ruh' remains attached to these organs and provides them with feeling and movement. But when these organs perish because of the dominance of diseased elements upon it, and they are no longer able to accept the impressions of the Soul, it leaves the body and heads towards the world of the Soul.
In contrast, Hinduism, the original ancient Hindu Faith or Sanatana Dharma, believes that all living beings from the smallest bacterium to the largest of mammals are nothing but the Soul or the Atman. We are the Jivatman who appear as physical beings but in reality, we are the Soul. The external body is only an appearance for the sake of experiencing past Karma or actions. Atman refers to the inner Spirit or the life energy within a living being. Upon death of the 'physical gross body', the Soul merges with the Cosmic Consciousness or the Soul that is everywhere. The 'subtle body' comprising the Mind, Ego, Memory, Intellect - MIME, takes re-birth based on its Karmic balance. The ultimate purpose of Jivatman is to attain Moksha and unite with the Divine or Parmatman by transcending the cycle of death and re-birth. However, modern-day Hinduism is quite different from its ancient origin. The original faith believed that everything is a manifestation of the Divine. Slowly, Hinduism developed Gods with name and form and while both versions believe that the ultimate goal is Moksha or Liberation, modern-day Hinduism talks of Swarg or heaven and mixes a large amount of mythology with the original belief of the Soul. Swarg is seen as a transitory place for righteous Souls who have performed good deeds in their lives but are not yet ready to attain Moksha, or elevation to Vaikuntha, the abode of Lord Vishnu, considered to be the Supreme Abode. Naraka is the Hindu equivalent of hell, where sinners are punished and tormented after death. It is also the abode of Yama, the God of Death. It is described as located beneath the earth.
In Buddhism, there is a concept of Anatta, or 'no Soul'. This doctrine states that there is no substance inside a human that can be called a Soul. This is the fundamental difference between Hinduism and Buddhism. However, Buddhism believes in Karma and rebirth. Therefore, some philosophers believe that Buddha neither affirmed, nor denied the existence of the Soul. What they imply is that the Buddha focused on other more relevant and tangible subjects like the 4 noble truths and the 8-fold path which would liberate humanity from suffering. Since the Soul is universal life energy, the Buddha did not identify it as a part of an individual's existence.
Another popular Eastern religion—Jainism, on the contrary, believes that the Soul is the principal substance forming the universe. They call the Soul Jiva, meaning, the living being. They differentiate the body from the Soul and believe the body to be just an inanimate container and the Soul or Jiva to be the life force that creates consciousness in it. The Jains believe the Soul to be either pure or impure, and the pure ones get liberation. The Jains also go on to state that the Soul or the Atman is identical as God or Paramatman. The Jains believe that the Soul exists forever and that each Soul is always independent, responsible for what it does and experiences the consequences of its actions. The Soul can be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth but not all Souls can be liberated as they are incapable of achieving this. The Soul can evolve towards that liberation only by following specific principles of behaviour.
In Sikhism, the 'Atma' or Soul is an entity or 'Spiritual spark' or 'light' in our body because of which the body can sustain life. Following the departure of this entity from the body, the body becomes lifeless and no amount of manipulations to the body can make the person make any physical actions. The Soul is the power in the body which makes the physical body alive. Sikhism considers Soul to be part of God. Various hymns are cited from the holy book Sri Guru Granth Sahib that suggests this belief—"God is in the Soul and the Soul is in God." The same concept is repeated at various pages of the holy book. For example: “The Soul is Divine; Divine is the Soul. Worship Him with love” and “The Soul is the Lord, and the Lord is the Soul; contemplating the Shabad, the Lord is found."
There is also another belief called Animism, a belief that even plants, rocks and rivers have a Soul. While all the religions of the world talk of a Soul or the essence of life, how is it that there is so much variation in their beliefs? What is the truth about the Soul?
Over the centuries, there have been saints and sages in the East and the West who have their own interpretation of the Soul. Just as the Eastern and Western religions differ in their theology and philosophy, the concept of the Soul has different interpretations from the most respected wise men of the world.
Sri Ramana Maharshi, in his book Naan Yar? translated as Who Am I? has talked about the mind being the Sukhsham Sharir or the subtle body. What is the mind? Actually, there is nothing like the mind. It is just thoughts. Thoughts arise because of the consciousness of the Divine Soul. When the mind is in deep sleep, there are no thoughts but we are still conscious that we experienced sound sleep. Due to ignorance, we don't realize that we are not the mind but the Divine Soul. But when we enquire, “Who am I?” it will destroy all thoughts of the waker in our conscious life and as the dreamer in our subconscious life. And then comes the ultimate realization of the Self—that we are none other than the Divine Soul which is a part of the Divine Consciousness that we refer to as God.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, an Indian Hindu mystic, philosopher, and saint has mentioned that though all Souls are the same in their ultimate nature, they appear to be different. Just as puppets dance on the stage when pulled by a wire but they can't move when the wire snaps, so also, we human beings are alive as long as we are gifted with consciousness from the Soul. Man is powerful because of the power of God—the Soul. When it leaves, man becomes lifeless and dies. He, who firmly believes that God alone is the doer and he himself is a mere instrument of the Divine, is a Jivanmukta - a free Soul that is alive in a body.
Swami Vivekananda was an Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of the 19thcentury Indian mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa. He believed the Soul is the real self<