Understanding the Soul & Body
So you Hindus believe we all have souls inside us, what crap ha!
No, that’s the most easily misunderstood concept in Sanatan Dharma & here’s the tea.
In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says,
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि |
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही || 2:22 ||
[Prn: Vaasaansi Jirnaani yatha vihaaya, navaani grihnati naro paraani, tatha shariraani vihaaya jirnaa, nyanyaani sanyati navani dehi]
This means that just as we discard worn-out clothes, our soul sheds old bodies & takes on another after death.
So technically, the body doesn’t have a soul … the soul has a temporary body & our consciousness or feeling of being alive is a symptom of this soul.
This small difference is actually very important because it affects the entire way in which we think about life.
First, it helps us deal with death better because this means it isn’t the end of the journey for that soul we knew as XYZ - they’ll come back in another form.
Second, this leads to the discussion that soul wasn’t created by God. It has always existed & will always exist because it can’t be destroyed either because it is a spark of God. The only thing that separates us is our ignorance of our connection & nature as we’re trapped in the material world called “samsara” in the cycle of life & death. The nature of this world is illusory, enveloped in maya (ignorance) making us think its permanent but its temporary.
Third, the only way to get out of this cycle is to get moksha i.e. freedom, which is possible when we detach ourselves from all desires of the mind & their effects by doing good deeds & actions without any selfish motive (karma yoga), seeking out knowledge (jnana yoga), journeying inward through meditation (raja yoga) & devoting ourself to spiritual growth (bhakti yoga).
So this helps us get our priorities straight because the goal becomes not to get to heaven & enjoy pleasure because that is still a trap in the cycle, but to become selfless & devoid of all pleasures, desires or wants, to get the ultimate joy i.e. moksha.
But how does the soul exactly transition - what’s the time period & how do we select our new body?