Guest guest Posted November 18, 2003 Report Share Posted November 18, 2003 Do Plants Have Soul ? There is a difference of opinion among the scholars on the issue, "whether plants bear soul." Amongst others, motion and growth are the features of soul. My body cells make me move and grow. Therefore, One can feel the presence of soul in me. Even if I am unable to move, due to some incapacity like paralyses etc, you can say that I possess soul because of growth. Hairs, nails and cells keep on growing. Same is the case with plants. They do not move because of their natural feature. But they do grow, respirate, excreate, reproduce therefore they can be considered as bearing the soul.Then the querry will arise regarding absence of features like repulsion, attraction, pains and sorrows in plants. It is true that plants can not speak. It appears that they are continuously doing good to the society but never speak about their contrib-ution. We can not deny it. A person sitting in Samadhi, who has attained the complete state of a Yogi is not disturbed by any good or bad news, not even by the pains and sufferrings of surgery by a doctor. But you can not say that he is a soul-less body. Mahatma Narayan Swami Saraswati was the president of SAPS in 1930s. He underwent a major operation without anesthesia. The doctors were surprised. They querried Swami ji about this. Swami ji replied,"A yogi has to control his prana (breathing). He has to develop a sense of superiority over the body and its organs. That is possible if you firmly believe that soul is the master and body is just a servant. I am a soul, not a body. Body may feel pain or pleasure but these are meaningless for me i.e. soul."To such a Yogi of high stature, who don't feel any pain, pleasure, atraction or repulsion, you can not say that he is soulless. Of course soul is there but like a tree, he is continuously contributing for the well being of the society without showing such disturbing features.Another important aspect - whatever we do is either due to natural compulsion or due to greed (selfishness). An Indian Soldier kills a Pakistani intruder because of compulsion to safeguard his country. We breath and cause killing of minutest living creatures in air, that is also under natural compulsion. We will have to breathe to survive. We have no better alternative. If one kills an animal for his food, whereas he can have better alternative remedies, he is said to have committed violence. If I eat vegetables and fruits obtained from plants, it is not called violence, of course it has caused the killing of living body. But this is under compulsion.Plants do not speak, that is also under compulsion because they have not been provided with an organ to speak. That is why they can not express all those things which a normal human being or an animal can express. Science also believes that living kingdom consists of (1) plants and (2) animals. Both have some common features and some distinctive features. — Vimal Wadhawan India Matrimony: Find your partner online.Post your profile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 18, 2003 Report Share Posted November 18, 2003 advaitin, Vimal Wadhawan <vimalwadhawan> wrote: > > > > Do Plants Have Soul ? There's a book out there called "The Secret Life of Plants". I am not aware of any debunkings of it, but they might exist too. Anyway, if the book is accurate, it makes a strong case for the sentiency of plants, in which case vegetarianism becomes a matter of health rather than compassion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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