Guest guest Posted May 24, 1999 Report Share Posted May 24, 1999 Dear advaitins, Hari Om! Coming from a prolonged silence, I have a question to dear knowledgable members of the list. In Gita verse 2.13 it says: 'As the soul passes in this body through childhood, youth and age, even so is its taking on of another body. The sage is not perplexed by this'. The question is: At which point the meeting between soul and body takes place? If the body begins with a single cell and develops into an embryo and a baby, then the soul joins it... when? And is there a point at which the soul 'forgets' about its infinite nature to start its journey to infinite? With love, Lilia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 24, 1999 Report Share Posted May 24, 1999 > >Lilia Stepanova <ls691035 > > >Dear advaitins, > >Hari Om! > >Coming from a prolonged silence, I have a question to dear knowledgable >members of the list. > >In Gita verse 2.13 it says: >'As the soul passes in this body through childhood, youth and age, even so >is its taking on of another body. The sage is not perplexed by this'. > >The question is: At which point the meeting between soul and body takes >place? If the body begins with a single cell and develops into an embryo >and a baby, then the soul joins it... when? And is there a point at which >the soul 'forgets' about its infinite nature to start its journey to >infinite? > >With love, > >Lilia > Lilia. Greetings – I do not think I am going to answer the question the way you want. I will try to answer it they way I understand. First I am not sure there is any correct answer. If the body is alive then there is some kind of life force that enlivens it. At what stage of the embryo growth, the embryo can be separately considered as a life force that sustains the embryo? A fertilized egg cannot grow by itself. It has to be implanted in a host until it can sustain major life activities. Till then it may have only a dormant life. Soul as understood in Adviata Vedanta is different from others. In Advaita, what we refer to the soul or jeeva bhaavana is only the subtle body; that is mind and intellect, which may be in a rudimentary form in the plants and little more evolved mind in animals and fully evolved in man with intellect fully developed. When death occurs the subtle body leaves the gross body and moves in the direction dictated by its last powerful vasana that is germinating in that subtle body. It goes in search of a conducive environment to its stock of vaasanas. Rather I should say it gravitates to that environment. In deep sleep, the soul is engulfed by the tamasic guna that it is completely dormant. That does not mean the one who is sleeping is not alive. Hence even in the fertilized egg the subtle body of that will be in the dormant phase – tamasic. When the body, mind and intellect develop, it manifests in its full glory. Subtler the intellect the greater it shines. Actually the soul in a true sense is the consciousness itself but identified with the subtle body. If the subtle body is pure like a clean mirror, then it shines through it completely. If the mirror is dull, even though the light is bright, the reflection is poor. If it is completely dull then even if it reflects nothing can be seen through. This is essentially the state of an egg, which is fully in the Tamasic State. Krishna of course is referring to the individuality, which is the ego, which is identification of the consciousness with the mind and intellect as ‘I am this’. That notion is not fully developed in an embryo or in the plant. It exists with full ignorance with lack of consciousness, and of course, self-consciousness. By the time it evolves into an animal it has consciousness but not self-consciousness. That is it is conscious of the surroundings and may be to some extent about itself. But only with intellect the shining is fuller. Science can tell us that if the cell has the capacity to divide itself it has made it – of expression of life is already manifested. Whether it is conscious or not is not the criteria just as a sleeping man is not conscious of his environment. Krishna’s declaration is one cannot destroy a soul. At the most the subtle body can leave the gross body when it is no more advantageous to live there or when it is forced to leave the gross body, due to its prarabda. Hari Om! Sadananda _____________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 24, 1999 Report Share Posted May 24, 1999 > ----Original Message----- > Lilia Stepanova [sMTP:ls691035] > Monday, May 24, 1999 10:08 AM > advaitin > Soul and body > > The question is: At which point the meeting between soul and body takes > place? [Madhava Replies:] This is what I learned: This happens at the seventh month. The husband has to chant a rigvedic hymn requesting the Aryama, the manager of the pitRlOka, to send a divine soul who could get good name to the family, or a soul that has some good wishes to be fulfilled, or a soul that has fallen from the path of yoga...; And while chanting this hymn, husband has to take a comb, that is carved out of a bone, and show the path to the soul (we call it as pApaDi) on his wife's head, where the hair is equally divided. The soul that arrives is supposed to land on his wife's forehead (where we put sindhur) and walk through the path and descend in to the womb through the "brahma randhra". Then the Aryama, having received the application, consults the fore fathers who are interested in taking re-birth in that particular family. Then the soul, having taken the permission from the Aryama, starts his travel through the krishna paksha and reaches the womb. Also a saMavEda pundiT has to play the bruhat saama, in the back ground, during this time. This is to ease the pain that the soul has undergone while traveling through the Krishnagati (dark path). All the demi-Gods will come down to watch this divine show and bless the soul that is descending in to the womb. By the way, it is the same Aryama who is referred by Bhagawan in his holy geeta. (pitRuNAm "aryama"scAsmi) In my ethnic community, we call this function as SeemamtaM. This is one of the obligatory duties for all the grahastas. It is said that if one doesn't perform this function, his forefathers will cry in the pitRlOka! > If the body begins with a single cell and develops into an embryo > and a baby, then the soul joins it... when? And is there a point at which > the soul 'forgets' about its infinite nature to start its journey to > infinite? [Madhava Replies:] Yes! Please read Geeta, Bhawan says "dvaMdva mOhEna abhijAtOsi pAnDava", by *birth* all beings forget about their infinite nature, and by death (of the mortal coil) they get the knowledge of their infinite nature again, for a limited time. > With love, > > Lilia > > > > > > ------ > Give back to your community through "Grow to Give." > http://www.ONElist.com > See homepage for details. > ------ > Discussion of the True Meaning of Sankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy > focusing on non-duality between mind and matter. List Archives available > at: /viewarchive.cgi?listname=advaitin > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 26, 1999 Report Share Posted May 26, 1999 Thank you dear advaitins for answering my question. I tried to explain to myself a recent experience, but can not reach any conclusions. Thanks again Lilia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 30, 2006 Report Share Posted October 30, 2006 hello, i am a man from spain. I would like to meet to lilia sarapova. If somebody know you meseeger please tell me. I like to muct archery and i am of spanish team abut and i am a handsom boy. my e=mail is archy_83@hotmail.com please send me the mesenger or email of lilia. thank a lot of, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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