While we are now quite sure about the existence of the Soul, that it is the very life that is inside us, it would be interesting to study the journey of the Soul. Where does the Soul come from and where does it go?
We human beings are conscious of our birth and death, but we have paid little attention to the Soul. What happens to the Soul when a human being experiences death? The body dies, but we are quite sure that the body is only the corpse –the dead body of the one who was alive. Thus, we say that the deceased has 'departed' or 'has passed away'.
What do we understand about the phenomenon of death? There is one major confusion still that makes the Soul's journey even more mystical. Who has departed at death? Suppose Roger died. We say, “Roger has moved on,” when in reality, Roger is right here in front of us. We deny that the body before us is Roger and we believe this is only the mortal remains of Roger. Where did Roger go? Will Roger come back again? Because we fail to track the journey of the Soul effectively, we remain in a state of confusion.
Who was Roger? Was he just the body? If Roger was just the body we would not say at his death that he passed away. In our search for the Soul, we realize that there were two aspects other than the gross physical body – the first was his Antahkarna - inner instrument or 4 aspects of his subtle body comprising the Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego - let’s refer to this as MIME and the second is the Soul, or the life power that kept Roger alive. Both of these aspects seem to be missing at death.
We human beings confuse the mind and Soul to be one. We often believe the Soul to be a part of these 4 subtle aspects. The mind and Soul are different and unless we understand this difference, we will never understand the journey of the Soul. One who is trying to understand the MIME - Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego may sometimes be confused with the ME - Mind and Ego as both are used interchangeably. We should not be confused with ME and MIME as both are part of the same inner instrument or the subtle body.
When Roger died, is it game over for Roger? Yes and no! For the one who the world knew as Roger, it is game over! That Roger will never come back again. To his friends, his family, Roger is dead and gone forever, never to return. But what about the one who was alive in Roger? What about the mind and the Soul of Roger?
The Soul that gave Roger life was a power – a power that gave life to each and every cell in Roger's body. A human being is said to have over 30 trillion cells. Each cell is alive with the power of the Soul. At death, the Soul departs, making every cell of the human body lifeless. The Soul leaves and moves on.
What happens to the mind? The mind and ego, along with the memory and the intellect does not die. Roger died. When the Soul departed, the life energy inside him escaped and the world pronounced him dead. While the Soul moved on, even the MIME left Roger. All along, Roger was just the gross body that was following orders of the MIME that was driving him to live and to act. Every action of Roger got recorded as per the universal law as his Karma. There is a law referred to as the Law of Karma. It is the Law of Action and Reaction, the Law of Cause and Effect. It works like a boomerang. The law states—What we give is what we get! What goes around, comes around. If Roger did good deeds, he would be blessed with the fruits of his actions. As you sow so shall you reap—based on this Roger kept on experiencing the result of his previous actions or past Karma just as his present Karma would be responsible for his future, his destiny.
Roger has so many deeds and actions that have not been redeemed or settled. These may be good or bad. These actions, also known as Karma, are recorded and must come back to Roger. However, the physical body of Roger has finished its journey. It will not return. The Karma belongs to the MIME or the subtle body of Roger. At death, not only does the Soul depart but also the mind and ego of Roger laden with his Karma, leaves the body. The MIME has unsettled Karma that needs to be redeemed. How does this get settled?
Every MIME has a carried forward Karma, not just of the life that just ended, but often, of several previous lives. The MIME might have been Roger who just died, but earlier to Roger, the MIME might have been Simon. The Karma of Simon along with any previous Karma created by that MIME together is the cause for it to be born as Roger. Now the MIME is liberated from the body of Roger, carrying a fresh account of Karma of all previous lives including that of Simon and Roger.
The Soul has nothing to do with the Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego - MIME. Its function is just to give power or life, just like it gives power to you and me. It is the same power that gives life to us all. Just as in our home, there may be lights, air conditioners, microwaves and heaters; the appliances and gadgets are different, but the power that is supplied to all of them is the same. Somehow, because we misunderstand the true meaning of the Soul, we tend to confuse the Soul with the mind. We even divide Soul as 'good Souls' and 'bad Souls' without realizing that the Soul is one and ultimately belongs to the one Divine Universal Power or Universal Soul.
It is important to understand the journey of MIME of a person, before we can understand the journey of the Soul. Both the MIME and the Soul are invisible and intangible, but they are specifically different entities. The Soul is Divine Life that powers a human beings' journey from birth to death. The MIME is the subtle part of the human being that drives the body to act. It doesn't die! When the body it occupies dies, it carries the Karma of its past actions and is reborn in a new body. This happens when the Universal Soul gives life to the new body once again.
What do we understand about the Soul's journey from this revelation about the cycle of death and rebirth of a human being? It reveals many facts. First of all, that a human body is nothing. It is just skin and bone that starts as a single fusion called a zygote that becomes a new-born baby, that finally grows old and dies. The life energy is already present in the sperm and in the ovum. When the zygote is formed with the fusion of the life energy of the male and the female and when a life is created the Soul is already manifested. It is the Soul that creates the life in the fertilized cell to become a zygote. If at any stage during the development of the zygote, the Soul leaves, life ends. But the MIME doesn't die. It only changes bodies, just like we change our clothes. It is the ME—Mind and Ego that experiences triple suffering—suffering of the body which it drives, misery of the mind and the agony of the ego. The Soul is free from this suffering. The Soul is an observer, the source of power, that is the real cause of our existence. But because of our ignorance, we do not realize this truth.
Where does the Soul come from? The Soul is Divinity. It appears from the Divine and creates life. At death, it leaves the body-mind complex and merges with the Divine. It once again gives life when the MIME is reborn.
Because of our ignorance about the Soul, we think that the Soul is inside us when in reality, the Soul is everywhere. It is not only inside us but also outside us. We think that the Soul is in us, but we don't realize that in reality, we are in the Soul. To explain this seemingly complicated statement, let us understand what happens when we take a rubber balloon in our hand. We have the balloon, but there is no air. Now we blow air into the balloon. Suddenly we feel that there is air inside the balloon. While we are absolutely right, we don't realize that there is air everywhere. Not just inside the balloon, but even outside the balloon just as there is air above and below the balloon. Just like the air is present everywhere, the Soul too is omnipresent but we are unable to realize this. Birds in the sky may not realize, but air is everywhere. Fish in the water may not realize, but there is water everywhere. So too, we human beings do not realize that the Soul is everywhere.
We will never understand this, the journey of the Soul, till we go deeper and realize the truth about the Soul. What exactly is the Soul? Does the Soul even have a journey? It is our limited understanding that confuses our journey of our life with the journey of the Soul.
