Re: [nukkad] Soul Mind

["Mahesh chandra Gupta" <>]

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Tip of the day:  When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. - Mark Twain 
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I had decided not to send any more mails on this topic. I received a few
acrimonious, almost sarcastic responses which, however, leave me
unperturbed. But, genuine queries or expressions of interest are most
welcome. Please find the answer to your query below. I will follow a
question-answer format for sake of brevity,clarity and objectivity:

Q. What is soul?
A. Soul is that which is present in the human body but does not die with it.
The word for soul in Hindu philosophy is Atman or Purush. When Purush and
prakriti combine, human being is produced.

Q. What is the nature of purush [soul]?
A. It has no physical attributes. It is pure energy. The soul is trapped in
the body. When it is liberated from the body, it reaches god.

Q. What happens when it reaches god?
A. There are two schools of thought. The adwait  or vedanta school says the
soul mingles with and becomes one with and indistinguishable from god. The
dvaita or sankhya scool of Kapil  says the soul gets attached to god but
does not merge with it.

Q. What is the nature of prakriti?
A. It consists of 23 elements as follows:

    a. . 5 gross elements: earth, water,fire,sky [space],air
    b. 5 tanmatras or fine elements: Shabda, sparsha, roop, ras, gandha
    c. 5 sensory organs: ears, skin,eyes,tongue [taste],nose [olfaction]
    d. 5 motor organs: hands, feet, tongue [speech], anus and genitalia
    e. Man [mind]
    f. Budhi [intellect]
    g. Ahamkar [feeling of self, self consciousness]

Q. What is the nature of  body?
A. As per sankhya philosophy propounded by the sage Kapil 3000 years ago,
* a to g together form the whole body or sthool sharir.
* When we die, a is destoyed, but b to g survive as linga sharir, which is
the ethereal body [may be, loosely, called as or soul, which enters the
foetus in the womb, gets attached to it, and is reborn as a baby.

Q. What are sukhshma and kaaran sharir?
A. Sukhshma sharir is akin to or same as linga sharir. Sthool body minus a
is sukhshma sharir. Sukhshma sharir minus b is kaaran sharir.

Q. What are the stages of spiritual evolution of man?

A. The soul or atman or purush  is perceived in Hindu philosophy as pure
energy form. It gets tainted by interaction with prakriti. God, in its lila,
infuses prakriti with purush and creation takes place. When the atman
repurifies itself and gets free from prakriti, it is said to be liberated.
This liberation occurs in evolutionary stages. These stages are as follows:
    a. The aim of being born as human is to lead a pure life and get
disentangled from the web of karmas which get generated through interaction
between purush and prakriti.
    b. Through the cycle of birth and rebirths, during which period the
atman or soul  lives  in corporeal and sukhshma sharir alternatively, the
man ultimately gets purified enough [sheds enough karma] to reach a stage
when he does not have to come back on earth. At this stage of evolution, the
atman lives only in the sukhshma sharir.
    c. When it gets purified further, it is able to shed it and live only in
the kaaran sharir.
    d. The final step in evolution is getting rid of kaaran sharir and
attaining salvation and reaching god.

Q. What is life after death?
A. This is described by Swami Yoganand, who established Self Realization
Society in California. He wrote "The autobiography of a Yogi". I very
strongly recommend it for reading. Even if one may not be religiously
minded, 90% of it is very interesting reading as such, like a novel, and
hence even general reading will be enjoyable. It will be informative too.

    In general, the life of atman in sukhshma sharir is very different from
the earthly body. There are no physical, speed or communication barriers.
The sukhshma sharir of exalted souls can  transform itself into earthly body
for specific purpose and back. That purpose is to do good to humanity.
Kaaran sharir is even more free.

Q. What is the experience of those who have come back from the clutches of
death?
A. This has been extensively studied by scientists during last 2-3 decades.
NDE means near death experience. Persons with NDE are those who have met
fatal accident, disease or heart attack etc., or have have met death on the
operation table, but have either become alive miraculously or have been
revived  by doctors. several scientific papers and books have been
published. Raymond Modi's Life after life has been a best seller. He is MD
and Ph D. Pasricha in India from NIMHANS, Bangalore, has also published on
this, as also Ian Stevenson  in Virginea. Certain common features emerge in
all these studies. These are as follows:

    a. While the physical body was on the operation table or bed, the
ethereal body was hovering around, may be on the ceiling, watching the
surgeons making their vain attempts at resuscitation, making remarks about
his condition, or otherwise talking. this body even visited relatives in the
waiting room, transcending barriers of doors and walls, and listened to
their talks, all of the talks and observations, sometimes surprisingly
confidential, being recounted by the person after revival.
    b. after death, the soul felt as if it is passing through a tunnel, at
the end of which there was extremely brilliant, yet non-dazzling, and sort
of benevolent light, which was very kind. There were very often many other
relatives, who had died earlier, who welcomed the soul and helped it come
out of the previous body.
    c. Very often, when the soul was asked to go back into the body, it was
unwilling to do so, because of the serene, kind atmosphere in the other
world. It needed persuasion to make it go back into the body.
    d. Almost all stated that their life was not the same after NDE. all
said they became more kind, compassionate; their outlook to life changed.
    e. Many stated that the bright, kind light form told the soul in a very
kind way: look, here is what I have to show you what you have done during
this life. Then followed in vivid detail, but in quick succession, a
panaromic view of his various life events and deeds, good or bad, but
without any anger or rebuff from the saintly light.

Q. Is there any other source of information about life after death [or, life
before life -- both are the same thing] besides NDE?
A. Yes. I have described it in my earlier mail as part of the summary of the
Reader's Digest book "Into the Unknown".


NB: Those who may think the above is trash are entitled to their opinion. I
will not mind even if they tell me so, but I would prefer serious comments
or queries rather than ridicule. I am not writing this e mail as an
evangelist, which I am not. I am a scientist with an open mind. And this
mail is being written as specific answer to specific question by Sharmistha.

MC Gupta
July 4




1.
----- Original
Message ----- -----------------------------------------------------
From: "Sharmistha Mandal" <Sharmistha.Mandal@alltel.com>
>
Can u explain me what is soul after dead??? what is life after dead
> ???
>  We can get a proper answer from those people who has come back from
> dead or has experienced dead
> for sometime ..



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