Q: Is embodied soul a physical reality or is it just a concept used to explain certain things?
A: The video portion embedded below addresses this issue from the perspective of Swami Anubhavananda. Below the video some important points have been raised and explained. Continue reading Is Embodied Soul Real?→
After realising Self, sometimes it feels like laughing due to fact that the truth was so obvious that what was there to seek for months/years. After all, the search leads one to the source which is ordinary awareness – no bells and whistles. Kabir says, “Paani mein meen piyasi, mohe sun sun aave haasi” which means it makes me laugh to hear that fish is thirsty in water. He also says, “Sahaj mile avinasi re” which means that the indestructible is easily found. But to be fair, during seeking it does not look that simple. First doer has to do the seeking and eventually in the final stage when the doer (i.e. the seeker) surrenders to the Self or when the Self annihilates the doer, the truth appears. The doer is like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre which itself is eventually thrown in the fire.
Jiva is the reference point in the consciousness field from where consciousness is reflected in a way that this point of reference appears to be animated to other Jivas. Jiva has limited free will and an ego (sense of separateness) as long as there is an alert body. In case of humans, ego (sense of separateness) is predominantly due to the left brain. No matter how much Self Actualised an enlightened being is, there will be a sense of separateness as long as there is body. In fact, sense of separateness can be removed from even an unenlightened person with no interest in spirituality by using drugs that affect left brain in certain manner. A decease can do the same thing by affecting the left brain. In this state, there will be a feeling of oneness and bliss etc. as left brain is subdued. Our left brain appears to be acting as a filter and hence seems to be responsible for converting one (oneness) into many (separateness).
Consider a dark room full of smoke. A few sources of thin light rays are now turned on. The light rays hit the smoke particles and are reflected*. One can see the path of light due to this phenomenon. Had there been no particles at all (vacuum), the path of light would not be visible. This reflection will still be there if in place of thin light rays, the whole room is flooded with light. The light is analogues to consciousness, the smoke particles are analogues to sentient beings. The bounced light is analogues to reflected consciousness.
Taking the discussion a step further, if in place of smoke particles suppose there is just air (nitrogen+oxygen etc.), the path of light is not visible even when light is present. This is analogues to the situation where there is consciousness and there are dead/insentient objects like stones for example. The insentient objects are not able to bounce consciousness in a way sentient objects do and hence appear to be inert. In reality every object is inert as everything is made up of atoms, it is just that sentient objects appear animated as they bounce consciousness in a certain way and the insentient objects appear inanimate as they do not bounce consciousness in similar manner. It is due to the embodied soul that consciousness is bounced in a special way in case of a sentient being. Embodied soul implies mind in ordinary language.
*Reflected word is used for the sake of simplicity. More technically correct word is scattered. This phenomenon of scattering is called Tyndall Effect.
Sometimes the most available thing is not noticed just because we are so much accustomed to it. For example, we are constantly pressed by the atmosphere of the earth and do not feel its pressure at all. Likewise, what we really are, we do not even recognise it. Embedded below is the video by Sri James Swartz – a Vedanta teacher. Continue reading The Most Obvious Thing→
