soul

[Guest guest]

Further to the conversation about the 'soul' this appropriate

posting may be relevant......

 

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 58

Earlier postings can be seen at

http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

 

 

2. The Atman - The Real Person - Is One and Infinite, the Omnipresent Spirit

 

The Vedas teach that the soul is infinite and in no way affected by the

death of the body. (24)

 

The Vedanta philosophy teaches that humanity is not bound by the five

senses. They only know the present, and neither the future nor the past; but

as the present signifies both past and future, and all three are only

demarcations of time, the present also would be unknown if it were not for

something above the senses, something independent of time, which unifies the

past and the future and in the present.

 

But what is independent? Not the body, for it depends on outward conditions;

nor our mind, because the thoughts of which it is composed are caused. It is

our soul. (25)

 

Time begins with mind; space is also in the mind. Causation cannot stand

without time. Without the idea of succession there cannot be any idea of

causation. Time, space, and causation, therefore, are in the mind, and as

this Atman is beyond the mind and formless, it must be beyond time, beyond

space, and beyond causation. Now, if it is beyond time, space and causation,

it must be infinite. Then comes the highest speculation in our philosophy.

The infinite cannot be two. If the soul be infinite, there can be only one

Soul, and all ideas of various souls - you having one soul, and I having

another, and so forth - are not real. The real Person, therefore, is one and

infinite, the omnipresent Spirit. And the apparent person is only a

limitation of the real Person. In that sense the mythologies are true that

the apparent person, however great he or she may be, is only a dim

reflection of the real Person who is beyond. The real Person, the Spirit

beyond cause and effect, not bound by space and time must, therefore, be

free. He or she was never bound, and could not be bound. The apparent

person, the reflection, is limited by time, space, and causation and is,

therefore, bound. Or, in the language of some of our philosophers, he or she

appears to be bound, but really is not. This is the reality of our souls,

this omnipresence, this spiritual nature, this infinity. Every soul is

infinite; therefore there is no question of birth and death. (26)

 

 

Cross reference to:

 

Cha. Up., 6.2.1