Posted on: 29 Dec 2021
[Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya asked: Pādanamaskāram Swami, According to Bhagavad Gita, the soul, self or atman, is indestructible and eternal (2.18). It neither slays, nor can it be slain (2.19). It is never born and it never dies. After coming into existence, it never ceases to be. It is nitya (always), sasvatah (permanent) and purana (very ancient) (2.20). It does not suffer, nor can it be tainted. At the time of death it does not die, but leaves the body and enters a new one (2.22). Weapons cannot pierce it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot moisten it and wind cannot dry it (2.23). It is impenetrable, incombustible, all pervading, stable and immobile (2.24). It is invisible, imperceptible and immutable (2.25).
The Gita says, "That condition is the aim of all yoga, in which through the practice of yoga, the mind become stilled, in which the self beholds the Self within and is absorbed in the Self, in which the yogi finds supreme ecstasy," (6.21-22). When the yogi develops the unified and holistic vision through the practice of yoga, he sees the Self in all and all in the Self (6.29).
Swami, Gita never said that soul is omnipotent and omniscient like God. But, it says that a Yogi can attain ecstasy (Bliss) when absorbed in self (soul). We know that Bliss is the associated property of God (Ānando Brahma) and many devotees of God have attained bliss in devotion to God. How are these two kinds of bliss different from each other? Kindly enlighten us. At Your Divine Lotus Feet, Laxmi Thrylokya]
Swami Replied:- The soul is the awareness that is generated from the inert energy released from the oxidation of digested food in mitochondria. The inert energy is transformed into awareness while it is working in a functional brain-nervous system. The basic inert energy, which is this entire cosmic energy in quality is called soul and all the adjectives used for God also apply to the cosmic energy thereby applying to the soul. The only difference between God and cosmic energy is that God is having unimaginable awareness and unimaginable power. While the cosmic energy is inert without any unimaginable power. The soul is qualitatively cosmic energy and is often misunderstood as God due to similarities between God and cosmic energy. The soul is eternal because the cosmic energy is also eternal. But, this eternality is with respect to the perishing body in which the soul lives. The individual soul or jiiva is the awareness with its thoughts. This eternality of the soul is not the eternality of God. The individual soul or awareness is also eternal with respect to the perishing body. The individual soul dies every day in deep sleep and is generated every day on awaking. The eternality of God is in absolute sense and not in the relative sense. In relative sense, the eternality of soul or individual soul is to be understood with reference to the non-eternal body.
The worldly bliss is the extreme happiness and in fact, it should be called as pleasure or happiness only and not bliss. In fact, it should not be called as bliss since the extreme happiness derived in the spiritual line due to God can alone be called as bliss. Bliss does not mean happiness greater (quantitatively) than worldly happiness and thus the divine bliss and worldly bliss differ in quality only and not in quantity. The heart of human being can tolerate the bliss to certain level only and beyond that the heart is shocked, which is called as heart attack. Divine bliss is thus special from the point of quality. When the divine bliss to be derived in spiritual line is holy, it brings God’s grace on the soul. Because of this God’s grace, the soul is given royal treatment by the authorities of hell and the soul is directed to the abode of God. The worldly bliss ends here only and not helpful in the upper worlds after death. In this way, the holy divine bliss has higher value than unholy human bliss.