The journey of soul after death-3

Human mind cannot conceive it under the control of senses and so it is unthinkable. Human beings are manifest only during the interim stage and are unmanifested before and after death, so the rela¬tionship of individuals is more like Maya (cosmic illusion). In reality neither the children nor other relations are yours nor are you theirs. The concept that children do not belong to you, they only come through you.

Boyhood, youth and old age are attributed to the soul through the body; even so it attains another body. For the soul, change of body is like change of clothes. However, the spirit becomes more or less effective in the gross body, not so much with age but kind of activities towards perfection or otherwise. With evil activities, thoughts and desires the gross body can start degenerat¬ing even at young age and the spirit gets weaker. Many of the physical sicknesses are related to your activities and thoughts and get fur¬ther aggravated with idleness that Bhagavad Gita describes as sin. Since God is Perfect, the spirit always aims at perfection and in this movement towards perfection; it helps the gross body to remain healthy.

Holy Koran also confirms that idleness is sin and enjoins that whenever free, get occupied in some constructive work for the wel¬fare of society. Both holy Koran and Bhagavad Gita clearly refer to work as selfless work for the members of society and any work performed for self-interest is idleness and hence sin.

Chhandogya Upanishad says, “Spirit is the creative force, which hides behind animate and inanimate things, moves us, moves the planets, moves the universe”.

In the Upanishad sage Aruni asked his son, Svetaketu to drop a pinch of salt in water contained in a bowl and then take it out. The boy failed. The father again asked him to taste the water and found it salty. Similarly, a common person cannot perceive the soul in the body but its subtle effect and essence can be felt as it is always there. Father concluded, “My son that is the soul and you are that.” Sama Veda brings out that Brahma keeps His wondrous form in every atom, pervades through His spirit the earth, middle region and the sky.

As against the description of spirit in Sama Veda and Chhan¬dogya Upanishad, Rig-Veda mentions that Twashata i.e., the subtle soul shines in the body when senses are under control and when predominance of sattavic guna of purity and truthfulness effect is there. It also shines in the company of wise men. With predominance of passivity and stupor i.e., tamasic guna, it feels miserable and its light diminishes in the body though its original shine remains. The soul is untouched by sense experience of joy, pleasure, sorrow, pain and attachment. It always longs for communication with God through three types of Yogas or paths. These three Yogas mentioned in Mundaka Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita are path of knowledge (Sankhya yoga), path of self¬less action (Karma yoga) and path of dedicated devotion to God (Bhakti yoga). Soul is not seen but its effect is all-pervasive in the body, like you do not see salt in water.

Prasana Upanishad tells us that the “real self”- soul of the individual is the eternal seer. He is always working in the body and is multiform. Being the eternal seer assumes many bodies according to actions performed by the gross body under the influence of three gunas. It is ear of the ear, mind of the mind, speech of the speech, breath of the breath; eye of the eye and still it is independent of the senses and mind.

Thus the soul gets full knowledge of the activities, thoughts and desires of any part of the body at all times, including the spirit in the subtle body. This eternal seer is unmoved mover in the body, being still, it moves swifter than thought to caution the individual against ignoble and evil action, it outstrips all that run to guide you of the impending danger. Only men of stable mind, wisdom and truthful thoughts take benefit of this wise eternal seer.

Isa Upanishad says without “Self” there is no life. It is the supreme essence in the man. It is small¬er than the smallest and greater than the greatest, make it free from senses, you can see the glory of “Self” which is without sorrow. Katha Upanishad says It dwells in the heart along with the God. It is not touched by the evils of the world and transcends all. Soul is the eternal light that gives light to the entire body.

The soul has seven means for knowing God. In the Rig-Veda, these seven means are described as five senses, mind and intellect like seven-coloured flame of fire. For knowing God and obtaining Moksha (emancipation) and finally merging of the soul with God, all these seven means have to be purified of all sinful thoughts, so that only trans¬parent, truthful and virtuous information is transmitted by these to the soul. Mahatma Gandhi referred to this stage as perfect harmony of body and soul. All souls once manifested in human body as Cosmic Play of the God (Maya) always yearn for going back to God, but lack of harmony between body and soul, results in a number of births till this harmony is achieved.

Many Upanishads tell us that the same can be achieved in one birth and failure to achieve this is a great loss of the human beings. Similar views of the soul yearning to reach God are mentioned in Rig Veda. Vedas give more emphasis to self-realisation than Moksha. Without self-realisation, Moksha is not possible. This stage of self-realisation is described as turiya, kaivalya , Brahma jnan in Bhagavad Gita. To spread this message of know “thy self”, Socrates suffered a death penalty, Christ was crucified and two Sikh gurus and two sons of guru Gobind Singh ji achieved martyrdom.

Human soul is an unmoved mover. Our real self cannot remain even for a moment without doing an act or getting its fruit in the form of accumulation of subtle particles of good or bad actions, so Rig Veda enjoins doing continuous good work and righteous activities on the philosophy of idd nan mmam. The actions should be for the welfare of society and not for your personal mate¬rial gain and these actions should be on the concept of enlightened liberalism. All other actions are not called actions but idleness and become cause of corruption and evils in society.

For the concept of good action a kind of litmus test has been prescribed in the Vedic metaphysics. The Vedic “good” is not subject to any interpretation or material reasoning of the mind. It is absolute and hence a divine concept. A simple test is that any act, desire or thought which you perform or have, if the same action others perform or the same desire and thought all the individuals have in the society, find out its result in your “buddhi”-( intellect). If the resultant effect is good and beneficial to the entire society, it is good, otherwise not so. By the application of this litmus test, it will be found that speak¬ing truth, having love for the entire mankind, animals, birds; trees etc., fol¬lowing laws of God (Rta) and other apriority knowledge known to the soul are good.

However telling lies, performing magic, sorcery which create confusion in the mind and society, taking bribe, resorting to exploita¬tive profits, aimless pursuit of matter, leading ego based or greed based life, spreading vulgar consumerism etc., are not good. If the entire society or even mankind resorts to all such activities, thoughts and desires, there will be dis¬harmony, confusion, turmoil, excessive selfishness and corruption. All these will become the predominant features of such a society.

The a priori principles leading to good are silently told by the soul to intellect, ego, mind, will and even senses. In the yogic stage one finds more such a priori principles. Rig Veda even tells us that soul makes sound in yogic stage. This stage has been explained in greater details by seer Patanjali in his Yog Shastra. Incidentally this yogic stage is more metaphysical than physical exercises as now being popularised by many individuals.

This state is not possible as a material person but one who harmonises matter with spirit. The individuals resorting to magic, sor¬cery, superstitions, miracles, exploitative profits, bribery etc., should not move towards this stage to avoid disappointment later on. Before movement towards this yogic stage it would be desirable to know more about mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda, Guru Nanak and their divine way of living based on moderation, golden mean, middle path of Buddha and by continuously reducing material needs.