Relationship of Soul to God

This relationship has been explained and interpreted different¬ly by various seers, sages and acharyas after studying the same Vedas. One school considers soul as different from Brahma in the stage of bondage i.e., when manifested in the human body. Audolini considers that it becomes one with Him only when liberated and freed from the effects of Karma of good or bad deeds, desires and thoughts. It is just like the waters of different rivers, streams and rivulets which other¬wise are different owing to so many factors like the presence of various salts, minerals, etc., become one with ocean after merging in it. Combining finite manifested and un-manifested souls covered with subtle atoms of human karma, with the infinite Brahma is negation of religion as a spiritual science.

However, Amartya holds somewhat different view. Even in bondage, the manifested soul is different and non-different from Brahma. He compares to the rays of the sun light in relation to the Sun. Bhagavad Gita considers the manifested soul as controlled and Brahma residing in the heart is the controller. Thus from the study of Vedas different views emerge based on one's own degree of knowledge. One can appreciate this relationship better when the differ¬ences and similarities between God and soul are understood.

While God is almighty, omniscient, all pervasive, infinite, self-created, eternal, self-sustainable and having infinite attributes making Him ineffable, soul is not so. It has at best a relationship of master and servant and that too in the state of shuniya sattava, turiya, kaivalya or moksha. Otherwise, the soul cannot reach God even as a servant to be at His eternal service. It is only a particle of God and finite. It is not even omniscient having only part of Brahma's knowledge and always yearns to acquire more knowledge of God through Vedas and all other scriptures of the major religions of the world.

The predominance of tamasic gunas takes away its shine. In this ignorance stage due to only material and intellectual knowledge, it can not even convey its knowledge to senses, mind and other instruments within the gross body. It is not capable of fulfilling the noble desires of the human beings, if senses become master of the gross body. The senses in that state along with uncontrolled and turbulent mind under the effect of gunas of activity and passivity create all kinds of hurdles and separate them from the apriori knowl¬edge contained in the manifested soul. While God is "aja" unborn, the soul gets birth (manifestation) in the gross body. Brahma can create, sustain and destroy the universe and Prakrti at His Will; soul is too finite to possess such powers. God is ineffable; soul has limited at¬tributes and manifested soul even still less owing to deeds, thoughts and desires of human senses.

Dvait Vedantist Madhavacharya advises human beings not to compare soul with God and combi¬ning finite with infinite is negation of religion, ethics and all rational logic. Many fake god men and cult leaders still like to combine finite with the infinite and this distorted knowledge has greatly helped them to make movable and immovable properties worth billions of rupees. They use the concept of meditation as balm to soothe the harassed followers and to still their vritties- the turbulent waves and ripples in the sea of matter. They give superlative epithets to their style of medi¬tation and make the followers repeat in their mind that soul has all the attributes of God and it is jnan sarup, prem sarup, shiva sarup, satya sarup, anand sarup etc.

The most glaring contradiction which they make by saying that the manifested soul of even the most corrupt follower, bribe taker, adulterator of food etc., has also the same attributes as God. Thus, such evil-minded persons do not feel any thing wrong in their corrupt practices, which are cause of disharmo¬ny, social strains and stresses in the families and society. This kind of deliberate distortion of Vedic knowledge helps them hefty flow of black money, filthy lucre as donations to their trusts. In most of such cases, the knowledge of soul and God remains unto their mouth and does not reach their hearts.

It is thus apparent that the soul has a number of differences in attributes from its master and Creator. It is only a tiny particle of God and at best, His agent to maintain record of our good or bad deeds, virtuous and non- virtuous thoughts, selfish and selfless desires. According to a qualified monist and Vedantist Ramanajum, soul even on liberation when finally released from "karma" does not merge with God, only attains the status of eternal servant (Sesa). God is the owner, master and controller of all souls and spirits in the world for which he gives a spiritual name "Jiva Jagat". Even the pure idealist and absolute monist Sankracharya also agrees in the stage of avidya with only material and intellectual knowledge the soul has hardly any attributes of God being covered with subtle particles of mostly tamasic and rajasic gunas. However, the soul always yearns for vidya covering complete Brahma jnan.

So long as the cosmic illusion Maya is there, soul's attributes can never be realised. Only when illusion goes with Vedic knowledge, some of the divine attributes of manifested soul start emerging, its shine reaches the entire body creating an "aura" around the gross body. Only then, the unity of soul and Brahma described as Mahavakya is achieved. tat tvam asi (Thou art That), aham Brhma asi (I am Brahma), ayam atma Brahma (my soul is Brahma) are all Mahavakya.

However, Rig-Veda gives differences between God, soul and Prakrti. Some of the Greek philosophers and many western metaphysicists of the science of soul had also come to similar conclusion independently. Plotinus held though soul is free, once enmeshed in the body, its freedom is lost but retains its ability to rescue itself.

Later even a wise savant of Islam, Sial ul Din Yahia-al Suhrawardy held the view that manifested soul is only one part of the complete soul with partial attributes and ever keen to join its other part in heaven to reach celestial abode.

Thus manifested soul can have only very limited attributes of God. Plato also held that soul has a desire to move towards Summan Genus-the supreme God by acquiring godly qualities when enmeshed in human body. If less than godly qualities, to the extent and degree of knowledge it acquires, it is enmeshed in gross bodies of nine kinds ranging from philosopher kings to despots and evil-minded persons. The highest life is that when you do not identify happiness with indul¬gence. Though holy Bible puts it in other way," Pray for leading us not to temptations, evil and forgiveness for all our debts".

Madhvacharya had observed all souls are produced out of "Trish¬ta" and are largely different from God. Soul of tamasic kind of person (leading a greed based life without any social aim) is largely ignorant and even of a sattavic kind of person leading need based life is partly omniscient while Brahma is Omniscient. Both Atma and Jivatma are incapable of fulfilling their own desires whereas Brahma can create, sustain and destroy the whole world. He advises the human beings avoid comparing soul with God. According to him most of the human souls are of three kinds, Mukti yoga, Nitya sansarin and Tamo yoga. Mukti yoga souls are fit for liberation and such a soul is the most rare. Persons having such manifested souls take births after centuries and leave behind the true knowledge of soul, spirit, God, Prakrti etc., for the mankind and save them from utter degeneration. Nitya samsarin are the souls, which travel endlessly through the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Tamo yoga souls are fit to be eternally in Hell.

The gross body containing such kind of soul has uncontrolled senses, turbulent mind and indeterminate intellect. Such persons are their own enemies. All three kinds of souls take birth on this earth amongst all religions, caste and creed. Somewhat similar concept of three kinds of souls was also observed by Plato about two thousands years before Madhavacharya. Plato described three kinds of souls as possessing three different vital powers in the society. These three vital powers are the cause of different activities and even professions of the individuals. He observed three predominant traits in the individuals and each kind of soul has its own peculiar and special excellence or virtue. Based on the quality of souls in each individual, Plato de¬veloped the concept of three classes (not caste) in society.

Vedic metaphysics and ethics do not find any cleft between the interest of the individuals and ideal society or between desires and duty in respect of a person whose body, spirit and soul are well harmonised. Whenever any such conflict arises one should understand his/her own nature and the "real self" and act on the guidance of the inner self and not to be led by senses and outward looking mind. While the inner self or jivatma may not have all the attributes of God but still it remains the light of our inner being. It is also one of the triple bands in the gross body along with spirit and matter.