Sri Acharyaji Debates a Christian Professor

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Sri Acharyaji Debates a Christian Professor

 

The following is a small portion of a debate that occurred between Sri Dharma

Pravartaka Acharya (Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.) and a Christian professor on the

nature of the soul.

 

While they discussed many different theological issues, the primary area of

discussion between Acharyaji and the Christian professor was on the ultimate

nature of the human person. Being a Jehovah's Witness, the professor held that

the soul was not independent of the physical body, but was intimately united

with it. Upon death, the soul " slept " until the impending Judgment Day, after

which our physical bodies would be miraculously raised from the dead to be

mystically reunited with the soul. The destiny of the " saved " was to then rule

over the physical Earth in a new, eternal and perfected physical body. " If

we're going to rule over the Earth in Jehovah's restored paradise, then we need

to have a physical body. Or else, if we're just spirits floating in the air,

how can we farm, work, enjoy this world, and serve the Lord? " the professor

began the debate by asking.

 

Sri Acharyaji: " This is a convenient little eschatological scenario for those

who are especially overly attached to their physical bodies, but isn't it a bit

simplistic philosophically and completely unprovable either scientifically,

rationally, experientially, or metaphysically? Also, this Biblical model of the

nature of self doesn't take into account any psychological or philosophical

concern about the ultimate nature of the intrinsic self. "

 

Christian Professor: " The nature of the self is that we have a soul and a body

and that both are necessary in order to serve God. There must be integrity

between the two in order for the meaning of either to make any sense. "

 

Sri Acharyaji: " But this idea doesn't really go deeply enough to explain

several concerns, including a) the radically contradictory natures of

consciousness juxtaposed to material physicality; b) the varying modes of both

normative and transcendent states of consciousness that we experience in

everyday life, and their meaning; c) the demonstrated ability of the soul to

exist independently and self-sufficiently outside of the body. "

 

Christian Professor: " The soul isn't `consciousness'. Consciousness is only a

description of the soul when the soul is awake – it's then conscious. When a

person dies nothing lives on, the person is dead and is conscious of nothing. In

death, we all literally sleep. When the time comes for Jehovah to resurrect us

from the dead he will create a new body for us. Those who have faith in Jehovah,

witness for him, fear him, and serve him obediently will live forever. All

others will perish forever. And more, what do you mean by the idea that

consciousness and physicality are radically contradictory? How does that make

sense? "

 

Sri Acharyaji: " One of the things that attracted me to the teachings of

Hinduism, and especially the Bhagavad Gita, was precisely Hinduism's teachings

on the soul. The Gita's teachings on the nature of the self are very deeply

developed and are presented in a very logical, common-sense, and philosophical

way. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna doesn't merely ask us to have blind

faith in these teachings, but to use our reasoning abilities, personal

experience, and meditative realizations, coupled with the teachings of the Vedic

scriptures, to confirm His teachings on the nature of reality and of the

eternal, intrinsic spark of consciousness that we all are.

 

" Your idea of `soul' seems to be that the soul is nothing more than an aspect,

albeit a spiritual aspect, of the person. You feel that a person merely has a

soul. For Hinduism, the idea is not merely that we each have a soul as some

object aside from our own self-identity, in the same way that we have a spleen,

a kidney, or a nose. You soul is not merely a possession that you have. No.

Rather, the truth of the matter is that we are the soul. Our soul, or

consciousness, constitutes our inner-most true self. It is that which

experiences all things, and which is the seat of all I-cognition

(aham-pratyaya). We are that perfect spark of consciousness that is a direct

reflection of God's inner qualitative essence. Lord Krishna teaches that all

living beings in this world are inherently spiritual beings temporarily clothed

in various diverse physical bodies as a direct result of our free-will choices

and decisions in this world. Our bodies are analogous to clothing; our bodies

are limited, flawed, always changing, and will all eventually die. Our bodies

just serve a function, namely, to temporarily house the immortal soul as she

traverses this world in her journey toward self-discovery, ethical perfection,

God-realization, and eventual liberation - freedom from the illusion of

separation from God that constitutes the ultimate cause of all our suffering,

anxiety and distress.

 

" Soul (or consciousness) and matter are in every way completely opposite

ontological phenomena. The soul is unchanging, transcends space and time,

perfect, monadic (without parts), and derives its existence from God. Matter,

on the other hand, is ever-fluctuating, bound within the limiting confines of

extension and temporality, imperfect, inherently divisive and multiplicitous,

and derives its formal existence from our illusion of separation from God. Both

consciousness and matter are divine energies of God. But, whereas consciousness

is sentient (purusha) in its constitutional make-up, matter is considered

insentient (prakriti), and thus the two are ontologically distinct and

irreconcilable forms of being. Thus to claim that two irreconcilable forms of

being (soul and the body) are nonetheless destined to be integrally united for

eternity is an unsupportable logical contradiction.

 

" Next, the Biblical world-view doesn't take into account the existence or

ultimate meaning of the full spectrum of modes of consciousness that exist in

the human person. For example, the sub-conscious, the dreaming state, the

intellective, the state of unconsciousness that you mentioned earlier, the

meditative state, trans-personal states, and the seat of perceptual awareness,

among many others. These are all subjectively experienced psychological

phenomena that many human beings undergo. Yet, there simply isn't a science of

consciousness anywhere in the Christian tradition to explain these many subtle

psychological aspects of the self and their inter-relationship, and there never

has been. Yoga psychology, on the other hand, understands the human person as a

multi-dimensional being and has a fully developed science of consciousness that

gives us a clear understanding of these many modes of consciousness.

 

" Finally, we have the demonstrated ability of the soul to exist independently of

the body with full self-sufficiency, even greater volitional expanse, and

ontological integrity. The entirety of human history is full of examples of

yogis, saints, mystics, and even some very ordinary people, who have testified

to having had vivid and very real out of body experiences. Modern science terms

such experiences OBEs. This demonstrates that, not only is the soul in no way

dependent upon the body, but more, since consciousness is superlatively superior

to the body, to be eternally entrapped in the body as you posit in your version

of Jehovah's earthly paradise would be not only logically impossible, but it

would be an undesirable state of hellish suffering for the ever-free soul. We

are made in God's image; as God's soul is ever-free, so is ours. As God

transcends materiality (what you would call `the creation'), so do we. "

 

Christian Professor: " It is true that we're made in God's image. But we are

merely sinful creatures, while God is the pure and perfect Creator. Our souls

are sinful and imperfect. Our bodies, though, are made in God's image,

therefore, we have to have a physical body if we are going to emulate God's

perfect form in our lives after the Resurrection. We will have perfect bodies,

and we will be those bodies, because Jehovah decrees it so. "

 

Sri Acharyaji: " Well, there is an inherent problem with your claim that the

statement 'made in God's image' means that only our body is a reflection of

God's image. Because, if this is what the statement actually means, then that

would mean that God has a physical body for us to be a reflection of! The

problem with this, of course, is that God isn't a physical being. If God were a

physical being, then it would follow from your statements that God would have to

suffer from all the imperfections and limitations that are an inherent aspect of

material physicality. More, if God has a body made of material substance, and

is thus necessarily bound by the spatial and temporal limitations that are

natural to all material substances, then how tall is God? How much does God

weigh? Is God a man or a woman? How old is God's body? Or if you say that

God's body is `eternal', then how old does God's body appear? Is God old,

young, middle age? Do you see how in ascribing something that is inherently

limiting upon the Unlimited, you are denying the unlimited nature of God?

 

" Thus, rather than taking a logically contradictory view about the nature of

God's essence, it makes more sense to interpret the statement that we are 'made

in God's image' to mean that both God and we individual souls are qualitatively

non-distinct, that both God and we individual selves are of the nature of

consciousness, and are thus inseparable. "

 

In this way, Sri Acharyaji and the Christian professor spent several hours in

friendly debate.

 

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About Sri Acharyaji

 

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.) is recognized by the

global Hindu community as one of the leading authorities on Sanatana Dharma,

Yoga spirituality, meditation, and self-realization. He has studied and

practiced the spiritual disciplines of Sanatana Dharma intensely for the last 35

years, is an initiated Hindu priest (brahmana), and has a Ph.D. in Religious

Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thus making him one of the

most qualified Hindu spiritual teachers on Earth today. He is the first

non-Indian spiritual teacher to be accepted as the Acharya of a major Hindu

temple in American history. He is the founder of the International Sanatana

Dharma Society, a dynamic spiritual movement dedicated to sharing the

life-enhancing teachings of Sanatana Dharma with the entire world. He is also

the Director of the Center for Dharma Studies, a new Hindu ashram and

educational center in Omaha, Nebraska, with a dynamic mission of global

outreach.

 

For information on how you can directly help the Center for Dharma Studies in

its mission to share Dharma spirituality with the world, please visit:

 

http://www.dharmacentral.com/ashram.php

 

For more information on the life-affirming teachings and lifestyle of Sanatana

Dharma please visit:

 

http://www.dharmacentral.com

 

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Sanatana Dharma Jayate!