26 Sep 2025

Datta Vedaantah - Jiiva Parva: Chapter-6: Jiivaatma Tattva Jnaanam

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

(Knowledge of the Soul and Individual Soul)

Jump to other chapters

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Ramanuja told that the world is true but not eternal. It is like the flowing water, which changes constantly with the speed. If the truth of the world is taken as relative truth, there is no difference between Shankara and Ramanuja. Ramanuja spoke about relative truth only keeping silent on the absolute truth. Shankara spoke about absolute truth and the relative truth also. This is not any difference between both. Shankara explained the whole subject whereas Ramanuja stressed on a part of it in view of the souls. Shankara spoke about the absolute unimaginable God, the mediated God and the world. Ramanuja spoke about mediated God and world only.
Shankara never told that the world is unreal. World is unreal to God in the context of its creation, maintenance, destruction and miracles of God in it. The world is real to souls in all times and appears as if real to God also in the time of appearing with full clarity to give full entertainment to Him. Whatever is spoken about the world, the same applies to the soul also since soul is a part of the world. Just like the present quantity of water goes away and new quantity of water comes in a specified area of the flowing stream, the souls leave this world to go to upper worlds while new souls enter this world. The water that has gone exists in other place without disappearance and the souls that have gone also exist in the upper world. The correlation between both concepts is existing.
Shankara told that that which is temporary is unreal (Yadanityaṃ tat kṛtakaṃ hi). The bond of a couple-role acting in a cinema-shooting is temporary confined to the shooting scene of such action only. This bond did not exist before the shooting and will not exist after shooting and it is confined only to a small span of time of action. If analyzed deeply, this bond does not exist even during the time of shooting. It appears as if it is existing during the time of shooting. Hence, such bond is non-existent in past, present and future.
Truth exists always in all the three times (Trikālābādhyam). The world including souls did not exist before creation and will not exist after its dissolution, if God wishes so. After dissolution, the world goes from gross state to subtle state (Avyaktam) since God wishes so. The film reel is not destroyed after the show, but, preserved for the next show. If the owner wishes to destroy it, it can be destroyed and hence, we assume that the world does not exist after the assumed destruction. Hence, the world is non-existent in the present time also for God and due to this reason, God is able to do miracles in this world in the present time also. The soul is also a living being printed on the film along with inert items in the subtle state of the preserved world after dissolution and hence, the world is fully real for the soul since the print on the film is as real as the entire film.
Shankara projected the individual soul as God since He has no alternative than this in His time when He was totally surrounded by atheists only (Purvamiimaamsakas and Buddhists). The atheist will not listen anything further if you say in the beginning that God exists separately from the soul. He will listen further only if you say that there is no God other than the soul. Shankara is forced to start with telling that soul is God. Since soul exists, God exists. By this trick, Shankara made the atheist to say with his mouth that God exists. Slowly, Shankara told that the atheist must worship God to clean his mind to realize that he is God so that he can become God. If the soul is already God and if the soul knows simply that he is God, he shall immediately become God. By this trick, the atheist is converted into theist and then devotee to God.
Shankara drank molten lead and told to His disciples, who are unable to drink it, that He alone is God (Śivaḥ Kevalo'ham). This means that the monistic incarnation (like Shankara, Krishna etc.,) alone is God and not every ordinary soul. Shankara is the incarnation of God Shiva and hence, preached about the monism between God and soul in the incarnation. Ramanuja and Madhva came and spoke about ordinary souls since both are ordinary souls. Ramanuja is Aadishesha and Madhva is the angel Vaayu. As ordinary souls, they stressed about the case of ordinary soul by preaching dualism between God and soul. Even through dualism, one can become greater than monistic incarnation through climax devotion in which the soul becomes master of God and such soul is dualistic incarnation. No soul can become any type of incarnation if it wishes to become incarnation of God. The soul shall always feel to be servant of God.
Actually, soul is the inert energy that is transformed into awareness or individual soul while working in functioning nervous system. Generally, the word soul is used for individual soul in approximate sense. The soul is said to be eternal and generator of the world in the sense that the inert energy is eternal (though created by God in the beginning of creation, it stays forever by the will of God). This inert energy, which becomes matter and relative awareness is the material cause of the world. The individual soul is born after deep sleep and vanishes in deep sleep every day.
The soul can never become God since the soul can never create or maintain or destroy this world as told in the Brahma Sutras (Jagadvyāpāra...). The incarnation is not different from God and hence, created the world, maintained it for some time and at last withdrew it into Himself as shown by Krishna in showing the miracle of cosmic vision. In the beginning Chapter itself, several Brahma Sutras say that soul is not God (Netaro'nupapatteḥ etc.,).
In the cosmic vision, several faces appear on the top, which are representing various Gods of various religions. In all these mediated Gods, the same unimaginable God exists. The central three faces are the same three faces of the first energetic incarnation called Datta. Below these heads, the body shows various worlds with various souls in energetic or human bodies. The upper portion (face) shows God and the lower portion (body) shows the entire creation. God is the root of this world-tree. The root (God) is above and the tree (world) is below. This picture is given in the Gita (Ūrdhvamūlamadhaḥ śākham...). If you supply water to the root, the whole tree will be alive. If you drench the tree only with water, the tree will not be alive. If you worship God (root) with devotion (water), your entire family will be alive and flourish well. If you are simply attached to your family without worship of God, your family will fade with dryness.
In the Gita, the soul is clearly stated as the sub-division in Prakruti or creation. The soul is called Paraa prakruti, which means the best part of creation. God speaks clearly that the Paraa Prakruti is a part of His creation (Prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām). If God Himself is Paraa Prakruti, how can God say that Paraa Prakruti is a part of His creation? Nobody says that he is a part of his own property while he is the owner of his property!
Two classifications are given by God in the Gita:- First classification: 1) Purusha as God or creator and 2) Prakruti as creation. Second classification: 1) Purusha as soul, 2) Prakruti as creation and 3) Purushottama as God or creator. In the first classification, the soul comes under Prakruti as a part of it called Paraa Prakruti while the rest part of Prakruti other than soul is called Aparaa Prakruti. In the second classification, the soul or paraa prakruti comes as Purusha while the rest creation other than the soul (Aparaa Prakruti) comes as Prakruti and the God or creator comes as Purushottama. There is no difference between these two classifications if understood carefully. The main point here is that God is mentioned always as different category other than the soul. Purushottama means the human incarnation of God, who is the mediated soul and greatest among all the souls (Puruṣāṇāṃ jīvānām uttamaḥ avatāra rūpajīvaḥ -Purushottamah).
This relative awareness (individual soul) is generated from the plant-food during the course of the process of creation and it is not present in the beginning before the creation. This relative awareness requires the inert energy and the materialized nervous system for its generation. Before the creation, there was neither inert energy nor matter and hence, this relative awareness can’t be present before the creation of this world. If you say that this relative awareness or individual soul existed before the creation, you are saying that the grandson was present in the birth function of his grandfather! We should not mistake that the individual soul is maintaining the world (Yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat— Gita) because the word world here means the world of thoughts or imaginary world. The actually real (relatively) world is bearing and maintaining the relatively real soul.
Only unimaginable God existed before this creation. Such unimaginable God has awareness (which means just to know the object) even though it is not this relative awareness due to the absence of inert energy and matter. The relative awareness also has the same awareness (just to know the object), but, this does not mean that this relative awareness existed in God (since energy and matter are absent in God). Even though relative awareness is absent the process of awareness (just to know the object) takes place in the case of unimaginable God also due to His unimaginable omnipotence. Such process of awareness of God is called unimaginable awareness, which means that its background is unimaginable and not the background of imaginable relative awareness. The unimaginable God can think without being relative awareness and can burn anything without being the relative fire.
The relative awareness needs constant supply of inert energy released from food since the released inert energy is transformed into specific work called relative awareness in the functioning specific nervous system. If the food is not supplied, this relative awareness disappears resulting in death. This is the direct proof of absence of awareness in the absence of food. If the soul is God, God is eternal and the soul or awareness shall not disappear. Even if you say that the central soul is eternal and leaves the body, even that shall not take place since the soul is God and can stay in the body for any long time even without food. The released energy from food is converted into general awareness that surrounds the soul helping its activities called thoughts. When food is not supplied, the soul becomes inactive due to the absence of general awareness and leaves the body, but, this shall not happen if the soul is God.
The awareness is seen as pulses of inert energy on the screen of electronic instruments and the thoughts are seen as waves. This means that both the soul (inert energy) and the individual soul (bundle of thoughts) are seen by eyes of scientists as told in the Gita (Paśyanti Jñānacakṣuṣaḥ). The soul or individual soul is imaginable and visible part of creation. Both the soul and individual soul were created by God and continue forever by the will of God. But, we shall remember that both these can disappear forever at any time by the will of God. The continuous existence of the soul and the world is not due to its inherent merit, but, continue due to the will of God. Such eternality is not absolutely real. Since the date of creation of this world or soul is not known, the world or soul can be told as eternal items without birth and death (Ajo nityaḥ... -Gita). The eternality of the soul is only relative with respect to the non-eternal body (Hanyamāne śarīre— Gita).
The word soul (Aatman) is also used to indicate God. Just like the soul is the top most controlling authority of the body, God is also the top most controlling authority of this world. Hence, God is called soul. The Veda says that the soul created the space and here soul means God or absolute unimaginable awareness and not this relative imaginable awareness (Ātmana ākāśaḥ...). Another Vedic statement says that God created the subtle energy (Tat tejo asṛjata—Veda), which appears as space and this results that space is subtle energy and not absolute nothing.
If the soul is God, Krishna created new duplicate souls when some souls as cowherds and cows were stolen by assistant of the creator called Prajaapati (Prajaapati is assistant only and not the creator, God Brahma). Duplicate God can’t be created and this shows that the soul is a part of creation only and not the creator. The soul is inert energy and individual soul is awareness created by the transformation of inert energy in to awareness. Both these are created items only. Inert energy is created by God and God is not seen by us. The awareness is created by the inert energy and the inert energy is also seen (by eyes or instruments) by us. Awareness is just a work form of inert energy like light, heat, sound, magnetism, electricity etc.
If we are saying that the flowing water in a running stream is not eternal, what about the case of awareness that disappears every day in the deep sleep and is born with the awaken state! The water that passed away is not disappearing by going elsewhere. This awareness is born every day and dying every day (Atha cainaṃ nityajātam... Gita). Pure awareness without thoughts is not the individual soul of an ordinary human being. The individual soul is a bundle of thoughts like the inert magnetic disc storing information in the form of pulses (sphoṭa siddhānta) and the general pure awareness is like the electricity that displays the information from the storing disc (Chittam) on the mind-screen.
When the awareness is absent in the deep sleep, the inert information-disc remains in the brain without any activity of knowledge of any thought. During the time of death, the awareness is contaminated with the subtle form of thoughts (Manomayaḥ Prāṇaśarīra netā— Veda, Vāyurgandhānivāśayāt— Gita) and leaves the gross body in a tiny energetic body called Praanashariiram. The individual soul can’t be treated as absolutely eternal because neither the information disc is eternal (because thoughts or Vaasanaas are also destroyable) nor the awareness is eternal (which disappears if the inert energy is not supplied). Both these are components of soul and the bundle of thoughts is the main part of the individual soul as said in the Gita (Nānyaṃ guṇebhyaḥ kartāram...).
When the individual soul is travelling to the upper world in the energetic body (Suukshmashariiram), such body is also mixed with the mind or the subtle bundle of thoughts. Hence, the subtle body is called energetic (taijasa) as well as contaminated with the effects of subtle thoughts so that we call this subtle body also as bundle of effects of thoughts (Vaasanaamaya or Gunamaya). The gross body is made of inert matter as well as some inert energy. The constant nature of the individual soul is to undergo illusion (Avidyaa) often and such nature is called causal body (Kaarana shariiram), which is the third body. The fourth body is the super illusion (Maayaa) which can’t be crossed at any time by the individual soul without the grace of the God (Mama māyā..., Māyāmetāṃ taranti te— Gita).
The aim of this chapter is to advise the individual soul to keep on putting efforts to please God through service without aspiring to become God, which is the greatest sin. What about the case of souls, which are feeling that they are already God? At least, demons are better because they feel that they are God after doing long penance and after attaining some miraculous powers from God. If you feel that you are always the servant of God, you will become God by becoming incarnation as early as possible for the sake of the welfare of this world. We shall keep always Hanuman as the goal in our eyes, who felt that He is the servant of God even after becoming the incarnation.

।।Iti Datta Vedānte Jīvaparvaṇi
Jīvātma tattva jñānaṃ nāma Ṣaṣṭhādhyāyaḥ ।।

The Sixth Chapter of Jiivaparva of Datta Vedanta, which is the knowledge of the soul and individual soul, is completed.

Datta Vedaantah

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-1: Anuyogajnanam

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-2: Anuhya Parabrahma Jnanam

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-3: Ishvaraavataara Jnanam

Part-1: Brahmaparva: Chapter-4: Datta Vaishishtya Jnanam

Part-2: Jiiva Parva: Chapter-5: Jagattattva Jnaanam

Part-2: Jiiva Parva: Chapter-6: Jiivaatma Tattva Jnaanam

★ ★ ★ ★ ★