7 Amazing Things About Soul That Will Blow Your Mind

And how understanding them can change your perspective towards life

“How well do you know me?” Have you ever had this experience of asking your close friend or parent the same question?

Well, at such times, the question has more to do with the depth of the understanding than just understanding.

So, let us consider what are the different levels or depths to which one may understand anyone or anything.

For example, now I am directly seeing this article — this is the sensual platform. But if you describe it to me, then I see it on the mental platform. These two visions — sensual and mental — are different. And when an expert content writer thinks of how to improve the article, he is seeing on the intellectual platform. That is another vision.

So, even in our ordinary affairs, there are three visions, three platforms: sensual, mental, and intellectual.

Above all these is the spiritual platform — the platform that drives our perceptions on the other platforms. On this platform is soul, who experiences the world through the material senses, mind, and intelligence.

Now that you have understood how soul is the real seer & doer, let’s dive into its attributes: —

1. The Source of Consciousness

“This is my body. This is my hand. This is my leg. This is my country. This is my mother. This is my father. This is my school.”

“This is my!”

Let’s accept this, we all have this concept of “my”!

But who is conceiving or claiming “my”?

Under misconception, you understand the body as yourself.

You say: “It is my body,” but you misidentify the body with yourself, right?

And how can you understand that you are within this body?

Simply by feeling, isn’t it?

If there is some pain or pleasure in your body, you can feel it. You are conscious that you are there.

And what is this consciousness?

This consciousness is the reflection of the real self. The self means soul.

So, as long as this soul is within our body, there is the perception of pains and pleasure, heat and cold, and so many things. That is consciousness. And as soon as the soul leaves this body, there is no more pain & pleasure or heat & cold. A dead body, if you cut it into pieces, will not protest.

Therefore, this consciousness is the symptom of the soul.

2. Pin-pointing the soul

The smallest thing that we can see with a ‘light’ microscope is about 500 nanometers. A nanometer is one-billionth (that’s 1,000,000,000th) of a meter. So, the smallest thing that you can see with a light microscope is about 200 times smaller than the width of a hair. Bacterias are about 1000 nanometers in size.

In Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a verse which states that when the upper point of the hair is divided into a ten thousand parts, and each such part is the dimension of the soul.

This atomic soul is situated in the region of the heart and spreads its influence over the body of the embodied living entity.

With the rapid advancement in nanotechnology, isn’t it possible that someday down the line, we may be able to see the soul?

Also what happens when the heart is transplanted?

Well, considering that the soul is a spiritual entity, you will not be able to see it with your eyes even if you were trying to see with the required precision at the exact location.

The soul is described to be seated in the heart just as the chair is the seat of a person. When an old chair is replaced with a new chair, the person doesn’t get replaced, the person just shifts to the new chair. Similarly, when an old heart needs to be replaced with a new heart, the soul doesn’t get replaced. It just shifts to the new heart.

So by giving the description of the size and location, the scriptures are saying that it’s really really really fine. It’s not something you can grasp directly if you’re searching out the soul using physical eyes.

3. Soooo great yet soooo small!

Do animals have the same soul as we have?

Yes.

Astonishing, right?

There are mind-boggling varieties of bodily habitats that it can enliven, from the body of a whale, the body of a gigantic banyan tree and also in the microscopic germs, millions of which occupy only an inch of space.

It is hard to imagine how such a small particle can become both so great and so small!

4. The maintainer of the freshness and fitness

Isn’t it surprising that from the unicellular organisms to the big animals, different bodies may not have the same intelligence but they are all able to meet the requirements of eating, sleeping, mating and defending?

How does a seed have the encoding for the huge banyan tree? How are tons of water transported from the ground to the coconuts?

Because the soul is within the body, the body changes through so many forms. There is a soul within the body of every living creature, whether animal, tree, bird or human being, and the soul is transmigrating from one type of body to another.

So, because the spirit soul is there, your body looks healthy. But as soon as the spirit soul is gone from your body, your body will immediately begin to decompose. This is the distinction between a living body and a dead body.

Therefore, you should always keep yourself spiritually fit. That way, you will be mentally, intellectually, and physically fit.

5. The persistent one (‘Sat’ or Eternal)

You do not want to die. Neither do I. Nor do the tribals in the Amazons.

Since the creation of the material world, everyone has been trying to attain a permanent life. We can hardly consider the prospect of a future in which we won’t have any part to play, where we won’t exist at all. We instinctively recoil at the thought of our own mortality, and we are not alone. Even the tiniest of creatures display the most amazing skills to avoid death.

A study on Euthanasia and suicide cases shows that even when nothing seems to be going in favor, you hold your life very dear —

I NEVER WANTED TO DIE, I ONLY WANTED TO END MY PAIN.

This clearly shows that this desire is not due to any conditioning.

If we are just our physical bodies, then why do we have such a deep-rooted desire for some eternal existence that is so utterly unnatural?

…especially now amidst Covid, when every day we hear about the inevitable frustration in our own and others’ dying bodies.

You wouldn’t be bewildered any longer.

Actually, this seems very natural when you understand —

We, as souls, are eternal individuals, who used to have eternal life, with eternal relatives in our eternal home.

In one of the most epic battles in history, we find the commander in chief of one side finds himself in a bewildering position. Seeing his friends, brother and close relatives on the opposite side, he considers whether he should actually go ahead with the fight as victory would mean the loss of his beloved kinsmen.

Yes, I am talking about the hero Arjuna from Mahabharata.

When Arjuna learns about the science of the soul being eternal, he becomes very relieved.

There are many incidents where I have seen people changing their decision to commit suicide on reading this preliminary instruction in Bhagavad Gita —

6. Full of knowledge (‘Chit’)

Can you stop the notifications on your phone and do away with social media for a few days?

Most of us cannot.

All of us are insatiably curious.

You may want to know about the latest Covid stats and I may want to know about the nature of the farthest star.

And we humans are not alone in this curiosity drive.

Experiments have shown that monkeys work longer and harder to discover what lies on the other side of a trapdoor than to get food or sex!

If we try to understand this curiosity drive in the context of the notion that we are just our physical bodies, we encounter an illogical dead-end.

Over decades of scientific advancement, we have learned quite a bit about the world using our mind and senses, but the very expansion of our learning has expanded our vision of how little we are capable of knowing.

If we are just our physical bodies, then why do we have a hunger for knowledge that we are physically so incapable of satisfying?

Our insatiable curiosity originates from the soul, which is by nature, conscious and all knowledgeable.

7. Full of bliss (‘Ananda’)

All of us are instinctively happiness-seeking be it through indulging in sensual pleasures performing heroic feats, participating in life-risking sports, watching TV soap operas, reading literatures, hearing music or playing video games.

The number of bodily pleasures are few, the number of bodily diseases and de-stresses are numerous. Indeed, the ways in which the body can inflict pain far outnumber the ways in which it can yield pleasure.

If we were just our material bodies, then why would we have a thirst for pleasure that we are physically so ill-equipped to quench?

Our thirst for pleasure originates in the joyfulness that is inherent to the soul.

By soberly reflecting on the contrasting nature of our innate longings and our bodily trappings, you can get a glimpse of the nature of the soul.

You may wonder —

If I am actually immortal, then why don’t I feel indestructible?

Why do I feel so susceptible to destruction?

The answer given in the Vedic wisdom, lies in the depth at which the soul is buried beneath a nearly impenetrable mass of misconceived notions and misdirected cravings.

Our past prolonged actions under a materialistic conception of life have created deep impressions on our psyche that have almost entirely obscured our awareness of our spiritual identity.

We will dig deeper into how one can revive our original nature based on the soul platform in our future articles.

…until then, Hare Krishna!

The science of the soul is described very elaborately in the book Science of Self Realization, based on Bhagavad Gita, the timeless jewel from the Indian Vedic texts. A full understanding can be gained from this source.

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