Shri Ramanath asked whether the soul can be seen.
Swami told “Veda and Gita say that the soul can be visualized by very careful analysis and vision (Drusyate Tvagrayaa…, Pasyanti Jnana Chakshushah….). After all, the soul is only pure awareness which is the nervous energy flowing in the nerves. Today we have very sophisticated instruments through which we can see this nervous energy flowing in nerves as waves. The soul is essentially the inert energy only. Ofcourse, the chip of the information (Jeeva) existing in the brain is specific for an individual i.e., accumulated from several births. Your body is like computer.
The electricity flowing in the computer (Power) is the awareness or the soul. The information fed into the computer (Programme) is specific and is called as the individual soul or Jeeva. Therefore, you can see the soul in its essential form as energy. At the time of death this chip of information (Jeeva) comes out of the body. When the radio station transmits some speech in to the space, it travels in the space with a specific frequency and it is essentially energy only. But when it enters the radio the speech is heard. Similarly, the individual soul on entering a new alive body again transmits the information. Therefore, the soul or individual soul can be visualized as the energy only.
When it enters another system (another human body), it behaves like the soul or individual soul which is the specific work form of energy. If you take the soul or individual soul as the specific form of energy only, it cannot be isolated like energy. You cannot take the photo of grinding work. The machine, the current, the motion of the rod that grinds the grains (Kinetic energy), grains etc., can be visualized. But none of these is the grinding work. The grinding work depends on all these components and we can see its effect as the flour of grains. The actual specific work cannot be visualized but can be experienced. By this point people have misunderstood that the soul is God because God is also not visible but can be experienced.
But the difference is that God is independent, whereas the awareness (Specific form of work) depends on the brain, nervous system, food, oxygen and proper oxidation of food to release energy etc. Awareness is unreal by itself when isolated from all the components. God is the completely independent and ultimate absolute reality. A scientist told that the life energy is like the sound produced from the drum and stick. The sound is essentially mechanical energy and is neither the drum, nor the stick, nor the beat (Kinetic energy) nor the ear-drum that experiences the sound.
Every item of the creation is a relative reality (Mithya) like the awareness except God. You can visualize the sound as energy waves but those waves are not sound. Only the effect of those waves is sound. Such effect is not self-existent independent item. Its existence is a compounded effect of all the parts of the system. Therefore, the soul in the form of inert energy can be visualized, which is its original form i.e., remaining in the state of deep sleep”.
At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami
Anil Antony
www.universal-spirituality.org
Universal Spirituality for World Peace
antonyanil@universal-spirituality.org