This is the continuation of the Soul and its Nature post
The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can it be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. (Bhagavad Gita as it is 2.23)
Believer or non-believer, East or West, there would hardly be any person who would have not heard the lines above. These lines come from the holy book of Hindus called “The song of God” (Bhagavad Gita). These lines explain how the soul is indestructible. It can never die. And that soul is immortal is not only a statement that comes from Hindu scriptures; there are many evidences in Holy Bible also that the soul doesn’t die with the body. For example this statement:
Ecclesiastes 12:5-7
Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags himself along, and the caperberry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street. Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
A dead body is nothing but a body without soul. A body is alive as long as there is soul inside and as soon as the body becomes unfit for soul to live in, it moves on to another new body and this cycle goes on and on and on, till we start seeking an answer on how to stop it.
The whole science of spirituality is based on one fact – the existence of soul. This is the foundation; if one cannot accept the existence of soul, then the doors of spirituality are closed to him, because then everything will limit itself to this gross body and this gross body is unfortunately perishable.
There is one point we all would agree on, and that is that we all are looking for love and happiness. Whether we look for it in drugs, movies, boyfriends, girlfriends, dance, alcohol, or smoking – we are looking for happiness. But still we don’t feel satisfied; and if you think you are satisfied, wait for just some months and you will find yourself looking for some other sources of so called happiness.
The ancient scriptures tell us that if any of us would be given all beautiful women/men of this world, all riches, all luxuries, name, fame and what not – we would still not be satisfied. At some point or other we are sure to feel frustrated. Let us take one example – Beatles. Who wouldn’t know Beatles? Would you all agree with me that they had all the riches, women were crazy for them, name and fame – they had everything what a mortal can aspire for. But then they turned to Spirituality, especially George Harrison. They all turned Vegetarians as the very first step and went to Eastern part of the globe to seek for a higher truth than all the riches they had had to offer.
Now coming back to our original point that we all are looking for happiness, the question is why we want happiness and why we are not able to find it and why it seems so transitory that we have to again and again look for new sources of happiness. The answer is very simple – as a soul, our nature is “sad-cit-ananda”. That means the nature of soul is that it is ever existing, always full of knowledge and always blissful. And now we have come in contact with a place where nothing is eternal and that is why we feel again and again frustrated in our pursuit of happiness. The fact is that we are looking for happiness in wrong place and in wrong way. And which is the right place and what is the right place? We will discuss it in our next post.
From the time I can recall, I was always interested to know more; not only what we can see with our eyes, but also that what our eyes cannot catch.
