Introduction to the ‘Science of Soul’ through the Wisdom of the Bhagavad Culture

Mamantam Aribam *

The quest for the existence of the soul has intrigued many in the world, including learned scholars, great scientists, philosophers, and transcendentalists. With evolving material science, eminent scientists have been trying to prove its existence and few quantum experts are willing and have illustrated the proofs through their works. Moreover, not all material scientists are necessarily opposed to grappling with religious concepts.

The five great religions of the world, namely, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism believe in some version of a “self” that survives death, by accepting its origin, journey, and destination in quite different and distinctive ways.

The Bhagavad philosophy mentions the science of the soul in detail and answers intriguing questions of what exactly the soul is, its symptoms, size, nature, origin, how and where it is located after contact with material bodies, its connection with the cosmic manifestation, et cetera.

Any layman understands that when the life force is not present in a living being, it is called dead, and all attributes of that individual are lost in that state. So, what is that life force that differentiates living and non-living states? The invisible and indestructible spiritual spark that gives life to living beings is termed as Soul.

His Holiness Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami (Dr. T.D. Singh), a well-known ‘Scientist and Saint’ used to coin the term ‘Spiriton’ (for a soul) in his interactions with various Nobel Laureates in numerous dialogues on ‘Science and Spirituality’ across the globe.

In the Bhagavad Gita, 2.17, we find the verse that explains the real nature of the soul.
avinasi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idam tatam
vinasam avyayasyasya
na kascit kartum arhati

(Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.)

Anyone can understand what is spread all over the body: it is consciousness. Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body in part or as a whole. This spreading of consciousness is limited within one's own body. The pains and pleasures of one body are unknown to another.

Therefore, each and everybody is the embodiment of an individual soul, and the symptom of the soul's presence is perceived as individual consciousness. The size of the soul is confirmed in Svetasvatara Upanisad (5.9) as:
balagra-sata-bhagasya
satadha kalpitasya ca
bhago jivah vijneyah
sa canantyaya kalpate

(When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.)

kesagra-sata-bhagasya
satamsah sadrsatmakah
jivah suksma-svarupo 'yam
sankhyatito hi cit-kanah

(There are innumerable particles of spiritual atoms, which are measured as one ten-thousandth of the upper portion of the hair.)

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that the individual particle of the spirit soul is a spiritual atom smaller than the material atoms, and such atoms are innumerable. This very small spiritual spark is the basic principle of a material body. The influence of such a spiritual spark is spread all over the body, as the influence of the active principle of some medicine spreads throughout the body.

This current of the spirit soul is felt all over the body as consciousness, and that is the proof of the presence of a soul. As stated above, a material body minus consciousness is a dead body, and this consciousness cannot be revived in the dead body by any means of material administration.

In the Mundaka Upanisad (3.1.9) the measurement of the atomic spirit soul, how and where it is located in the body is further explained as:
eso 'nur atma cetasa veditavyo
yasmin pranah pancadha samvivesa
pranais cittam sarvam otam prajanam
yasmin visuddhe vibhavaty esa atma

(The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air [prana, apana, vyana, samana, and udana], is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited.)

The hatha-yoga system (one of the yoga practices) is meant to control the five kinds of air (encircling the pure soul) by different kinds of sitting postures for the liberation of the minute soul from the entanglement of the material atmosphere.

The influence of the atomic soul can be spread all over a particular body; and because the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul. The individual atomic soul is there in the heart along with the Supersoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating from this part of the body.

The fragmental parts of the Supreme Lord are atomic sparks of the rays of the Supreme Lord, called by the name Prabha, or superior energy. Neither Vedic knowledge nor modern science denies the existence of the spirit soul in the body, and this science of the soul is explicitly described in the Bhagavad Gita by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna Himself.

na jayate mriyate va kadacin
nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano
na hanyate hanyamane sarire

(For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does He ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying, and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.)

As the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present, or future. He is eternal, ever-existing, and primeval - that is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. In Katha Upanisad (1.2.18), the above nature is explained as:
na jayate mriyate va vipascin
nayam kutascin na babhuva kascit
ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano
na hanyate hanyamane sarire

The soul is full of knowledge, or full always with consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Even if one does not find the soul within the heart, where he is situated, one can still understand the presence of the soul simply by the presence of consciousness. There are two kinds of souls - the minute particle soul (anu-atma) and the Supersoul (vibhu-atma).

This is also confirmed in the Katha Upanisad (1.2.20) in this way:
anor aniyan mahato mahiyan
atmasya jantor nihito guhayam
tam akratuh pasyati vita-soko
dhatuh prasadan mahimanam atmanah

(Both the Supersoul [Paramatma] and the atomic soul [jivatma] are situated on the same tree of the body within the same heart of the living being, and only one who has become free from all material desires as well as lamentations can, by the grace of the Supreme, understand the glories of the soul.)

Sri Kirshna explains further about soul in following verses of Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2 - Text 22,13, 23,24, 29:
vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya
navani grhnati naro 'parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
anyani samyati navani dehi

(As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.)

nainam chindanti sastrani
nainam dahati pavakah
na cainam kledayanty apo
na sosayati marutah

(The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.)

dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati

(As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change)

acchedyo 'yam adahyo 'yam
akledyo 'sosya eva ca
nityah sarva-gatah sthanur
acalo 'yam sanatanah

(This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.)

ascarya-vat pasyati kascid enam ascarya-vad vadati tathaiva canyah
ascarya-vac cainam anyah srnoti srutvapy enam veda na caiva kascit

(Some look at the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.)

To conclude, all the above qualifications of the atomic soul prove that the individual soul is eternally an atomic particle of the spirit whole, and he remains the same atom eternally, without change. The soul, by nature, has the qualities of Sat-Chit-Ananda, i.e., eternity, full of knowledge and blissful, and always subservient to the Supreme Soul / Controller.

When embodied with material body and consciousness, these qualities remain dormant. However, reviving the actual position of the soul opens the way to liberation and never falls back to this miserable material world filled with Birth, Death, Disease, and Old age.

Reference:
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Bhagavad Gita As It Is. BBT.