Gita Series – 144: Bhagavad Gita Chapter XV. Verse 7 – 10
“The individual soul is a tiny particle of Mine, which draws towards it, mind and the five senses, that prevail in prakṛti. Like the wind taking away with it, the fragrance of flowers, the soul that controls the body takes away with it, the mind and subtle senses from the body and enters another body. The soul enjoys the sensory world while presiding over the senses and the mind. The ignorant do not understand this concept of the soul, either during their life time or at the time of death. Neither do they understand the soul when it is connected to the three guṇa-s, nor during enjoying sensory pleasures. Those who are endowed with the eye of knowledge alone perceive it.”
Krishna begins to explain Soul and soul. The individual soul forms a tiny part of the Lord, who is also referred as Soul. There is no difference between Soul and soul, except for the fact that soul forms a miniscule part of the Lord. There are two aspects to any living being. One is gross and the other one is the subtle. Subtle is the source of energy to make the gross form to act. A motor car without fuel is the shell or the body. The motor car can function only if it is filled with fuel. The fuel is filled with a dispenser, a tool to aid filling. Now the motor car is the physical body, fuel filled in the motor car is the soul or self and the reservoir of fuel from which the fuel is drawn is the Self or the Brahman. Thus, a soul becomes the source of energy for a body to function.
The soul alone cannot manifest. When a soul is ready to manifest, as discussed in the earlier chapters, it conjoins with prakṛti, which is full of kinetic energy. The soul, when it conjoins with prakṛti, attracts towards it, the mind and subtle elements and when this conjugation is complete, the gross form begins to sprout. The gross body begins to manifest around the soul, making it as the source for all its actions. Though the soul becomes the primary source for manifestation, the soul itself does not partake in any action that is done by the body. This can be compared to sun and its rays. The sun being a witness to all the happenings in the earth merely provides its energy to the earth. But the sun does not directly get involved in any of the actions that happen in the earth, nor does the sun decide how its energies are to be utilized. But, the sun still watches how his rays cause various actions in the earth. The sun merely acts as a witness for actions caused by its own energy. In the same way, a soul merely acts a witness to all the actions that unfold through the gross body. Irrespective of all the actions that take place due to the energy of the sun, the sun itself does not undergo any changes. The soul also does not get modified due to the actions of the body that primarily unfold due to antaḥkaraṇa, the internal faculty along with five rudimentary elements such as sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Through this combination, the soul seated within, enjoys the actions of the body. Though actions of the body do not modify the soul within, which is nothing but the Brahman Himself, actions of the body leave lasting impressions in the mind called vāsanā. The five basic elements are produced from the five subtle elements (tanmātra-s). The tanmātra-s are a portion of the subtle body.
When the soul departs from the body at the time of death, it leaves along with the subtle body where the mind and rudimentary principles are found, leaving the gross body to disintegrate and perish. The gross body is consumed to prakṛti, from where it actually originated. The soul along with mind and five subtle elements after leaving the body enter another body to unfold their actions again. This time, the actions depend upon the impressions left in the mind and dominance of a particular guṇa is determined. Kṛṣṇa says that spiritually ignorant men do not understand this concept of the soul during their life time or even at the time of death, because of their absolute bewilderment. This process can be understood only by those who have spiritual eye, which is also called the eye of wisdom or the third eye.
At the time of leaving the body, the soul has three options. One is merge with the Soul, second is to sojourn and the third is to enter another body.
Further Readings:
Bhagavad Gita Chapter XV. 1 - 2
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