28-1: 1st Part: Man’s eternal relation with God

The physiological, anatomical or psychological analysis of the human body along with the advancement of human knowledge has not completely given us the desired perfection of knowing things as it ought to have been. The ephemeral study of physiological constitution of living entities is not all to know what a living entity is, and to speak pedagogically, about a subject of which very little is known, is not the business of a really man of knowledge. We speak loudly about the advancement of human knowledge both in the realm of art and science but we most childishly lament on matters which cometh and goes in the laws of nature. The living entity may it be in any particular form of material shape, is never a product of combining the eight elements of matter, neither the same can be manufactured in the scientist's laboratory by any amount of psycho-physical analysis of the living being. The living entity is therefore never born as is misconceived by human knowledge but be is eternally immortal for all the times namely past, present, and future. It is the material body that changes days after days and years after years or birth after births, as it is experienced in the general growth of a living body. After the birth of a living body in the womb of its mother, the living body grows days after days till it comes out of the womb and the child's body continues to grow from childhood to adolescent, adolescent to youth and from youth to old age. The changes that are visible on the human body never become the subject of serious study for the scholar because every body knows it well that by the external changes of the living body-the living entity evolved in the body does not undergo any sort of change. That is the proof of eternity of living being. The child, even after his becoming a father of another child, remains the same child before his parents and the parents out of love and affection forget the fact that the body of the eternal child has gone many changes by that time. The parents know well that their child is their infinite for many changes in the physical body, and these facts prove without any doubt that the living entity is distinct from the physical body. As such when the living entity leaves off an old and unworkable machinery of physical body, no sane man laments over it as the parents do not lament over the various changes over their child's body.

The feeling of pains and pleasures due to physical changes in the atmospheric nature does not affect the living entity in his pure consciousness. The impure consciousness of the living entity by its misidentification with the physical body obliges him to become subject to such feelings of pains and pleasures and the human being who is on his onward march to self-realization may not bother much with such material pains and pleasure. An avowed determination to eliminate material pains and pleasure is therefore a kind of lunatic effort and one who is sober and thoughtful mitigates such feelings of pains and pleasure in a point of making the best use of a bad bargain. The lunatic mode of civilization which seeks after maximum amount of material comfort is therefore doomed by the laws of nature and a self-realized soul is never affected by such mode of a false civilizing process covered by polished brutalism. The sane and self-realised soul has analysed that the soul has nothing to do with the material body and mind. The soul is always different from these two gross and subtle matters. The soul contacts these matters out of his own will, enters into the matter by his law of 'karma', develops the body and mind in course of time and when the same material coverings become unworkable in the long run, the soul leaves the body. As such the soul is independent of them. The feelings of pains and pleasure in contact with the material body and mind is due to his impure consciousness. As the soul is never manufactured by the combination of all material elements both gross and subtle it is absurd to think that the soul has anything to do with such matters. In other words the material things both gross and subtle are always different from the soul. The matters can never therefore satisfy the eternal needs of the soul at any length, neither can the soul derive any amount of relief from his association with the gross and subtle matters.

The soul is the sample of Godhead. Qualitatively there is no difference between the soul and the supreme Godhead. Godhead is of the same spirit as the soul is. One renowned reformer of Indian culture perceived that we can know Godhead by knowing the living men moving about us. He was right in this sense that we can know Godhead by knowing the constitution of the soul which is qualitatively non-different from Godhead. The soul is the minute particle or atomic existence of Godhead. Godhead is all-pervading throughout the creation and similarly the soul is also all pervading throughout the whole body. Spiritual experts have measured the size of the soul as small as one ten thousandth part of the top of an hair. Thus its measurement is still more finer than the finest atom. But because it is the particle of the Supreme Almighty Godhead, its power is also proportionately more comprehensive than any material force. The extensive power of the soul maintains the material force of psycho-physical combination. Just as a grain of deadly poison can kill a gigantic material body, so the minute particle of Godhead known as spirit soul can maintain, develop and prolong the duration of life of material body. No material power therefore can do any harm 'to the soul because it is made of no material elements but it is made of the same spiritual ingredients as Godhead is made of. The material body is perishable but the soul is imperishable and practically immeasurable.

When we say that such and such man is dead or killed by such and such man, we must understand that the name designated to such and such man is never meant for the soul of the man. The soul can never be named because nobody can see him with material eyes. So all designation that we enjoy during the duration of our life is meant for the body and not for the soul. The designations and titles are all in relation to the body are with the distinction of the body. The soul is undesignated and unaffected. Therefore it is due to ignorance only that we designate a living man and perpetrate the dead body's memory in statue, stones all but falsely.

The soul is therefore neither born and nor killed. It does not take its birth neither it dies. Neither it was ever born before nor it shall be ever born in future. It is transcendental to the measurement and limitation of material time, past, present or future. It is ever existing permanent thing as the Godhead Himself. And because it is not made of any material elements the soul is ever fresh although it is older than the creation even. It has no decay, no old age and no destruction even after the destruction of the designated body in which the soul is [omitted]. This is the fact but generally people is bewildered regarding the constitution of the body and the soul.

The conclusion is, according to Bhagwad Geeta, that the soul, which is the Lord of the body, is ever existing permanent and immutable. It changes the body only like one changes his dress and to distinguish it from matter it is negatively [omitted] as non-destructible by any weapon, non-inflammable by any fire, non-moist able by any water and non-evaporable by any air. In other words it can never be cut into pieces, can never be burnt, can never be moistened nor can it ever be evaporable. It is so permanent that it can go any where and everywhere as it desires and as such the soul exists in different forms all over the universe even in the sun. The soul being unaffected by fire, there is no reason to disbelieve that living entities cannot live in the sun. Nothing can destroy its permanency and therefore eternal. In order to establish its eternity, the Bhagwad Geeta has repeatedly stressed on the point once, twice and thrice.