(CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST)
In India people are enjoined to meditate on the divinity within and seek to sense the presence of the soul, as an exercise in evolution. The purpose of life is to get to know ones ‘true’ nature (Svabhav in Sanskrit), which is the perfection of the indwelling soul, itself an extension of the Universal Essence. The goal is to recognize and access this divinity within. This is enabled by prayer, contemplation and meditation but above all through dispassionate, compassionate and altruistic action. However, the scriptures mention the great difficulty of sensing the soul. The Gita cautions that the soul is indeed quite inconceivable and difficult to access. It is shown as dwelling within the gross body, divine, eternal, blissful and inactive, mysterious and virtually unfathomable. The Gita speaking of the soul says for instance:
”Some look upon the Self as a marvel, as a marvel another speaks of it and as a wonder another hears of it but though all hear of it none know it.”
According to seers, the difficulty of sensing the soul, divinity within, is so great that people find it easier to objectify divinity by worshipping or admiring a prophet, an Avatar, a Guru, a saint, or even an idol as a sacred symbol.
Search for The Soul - Indrajit Rathore 
Now I think I am ready to embark on a great journey with the Upanishads. I feel I get it now: according to Hindu thought, something like a unique or different soul does not exist. All souls are like Brahman – part of the divine, clear, pure, uncorrupted. I think you are right that the Western thought may be more attached to the notion of individual souls (individuals in the sense of unique and different). But perhaps it is the Hindu thought that has got it right? Also Christian mystics thought along the same line; for example Meister Eckhart said: ““The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” That sounds very Hindu, doesn’t it?
There is one thing that still makes me ponder, though. I am really into astrology and studying my chart helps me, or so I always thought, uncover my soul. I guess we are really into individual differences in the West.
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Thanks for the interest Monika – This is precisely so what you have gleaned about the Hindu concept of the soul – the Christian, Islamic and Judaic concepts of the soul are quite different – that soul is indeed a spiritual entity BUT it is not divine in any way and not synonymous with any Universal Essence – in fact it is created by God only at the moment of conception in the womb ( not eternal therefore in the sense of the Hindu soul) and unlike the Hindu soul is fully responsible for the actions of the ego -personality-body it inhabits because it makes that body do right and wrong and on the day of judgement is held responsible and sent to hell or heaven or purgatory – the Hindu Atman being God’s part does not act and is not tainted by the ego’s actions ( the ego alone is the actor) and of course God within you cannot be sent to heaven or hell! Therefore the Christian or Judaic concept actually approximates to the concept of the subtle body attached to the gross body though it survives it after death to face the consequences which the dead personality body naturally no longer can. Likewise the subtle body in Hinduism survives and reincarnates along with the non-acting Atman into the next incarnation. The Atman therefore is more like the Holy ghost – the spirit of God but in the Hindu belief system this Holy Ghost is within us all and not outside – this is because The Judaic faiths are Dualistic meaning a clear separation between the creator and his creation whereas the Hindu faith is Monist ( the entire burden of Upanishadic thought as you would have noticed) or that The Universal essence and its creation are one – Brahman or Atman are immanent and inseparable from the created world. I dont think one can say one or the other got it right – both , if we think deeply in the ultimate analysis are trying to do the same thing – help man to evolve – the differing notions are cultural – but indeed Monist beliefs help us to realize that we are essentially one and differences must not count in our reckoning else we will return to the earthly plane with all its suffering and trials until we have fully evolved
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Thank you for this amazing explanation! Thank you for taking your time to write this. All of this is really fascinating.
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Your other point about Astrology – In India too we are crazy about following our charts which Hinduism endorses fully ( a lunar chart though ) but the chart is not the chart of the soul ( how can God have a chart?) it is about our personality- ego- present incarnation and how to help it evolve thereby getting to understand its soul force better and through that medium the Universal Essence or God – in fact all Indian priests are adapts at drawing ones natal chart according to the Vedas.
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Furthermore Hindu Astrology is contained in the Vedanga which are vedic explanations of ritual hinduism and is called Jyotish from the sanskrit word Jyoti or light or enlightenment
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Thank you, Indrajit, this is illuminating. The world is God’s chart. ☺
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indeed so
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you said it! – for a fuller idea of the relationship between the ego-personality and the soul ( atman) you may like to glance at my page-post ”Are you your soul?”
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I like your concept of the soul as a sort of an alien. I think the soul is indeed the Other trying to communicate with us. On the other hand, getting in touch with your soul is like coming home.
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thanks – sure
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I may have to write a post on this in future, if I find some time soon… Thank you for all your time and all your teachings.
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please do but just wait a little longer – till i complete the posts of the Upanishads so you can see the ‘whole’ so to speak – you are an erudite philosopher and a symbologist and what you say may have great meaning for those i cannot reach confined in my own cultural constraints – there was one other great Western symbologist and philosopher in the early 20th century whose works taught me more than i could have gleaned on my own – Heinrich Zimmer – his Myths and Symbols in Indian art and Civilization are superb reading (New York 1946) look for his book on the internet- then having absorbed all do write your magnum opus on Indian thopught on the Upanishads
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What a great challenge. I will wait for sure perhaps until the sun enters Pisces. Zimmer rings a lot of bells!
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Zimmer rang all my bells for now over 50 years
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My guide to Indian thought has always been ( among other Western philosophers) this German genius whose works Joseph Campbell presumably an eminent American disciple edited from New York – Zimmers outstanding work which once someone interested picks up cannot leave because it is written so poetically and in masterly fashion was Philosophies of India ( Bollingen series xxvi – Pantheon Books 1951) – never have i come across philosophy written so magnificently. – sorry if i have got carried away a bit Monika.
incidentally i have completed a book on Indian Astrology some years ago which too i shall soon publish – so i know what you are saying about sun entering etc – India lives on astrology from slum dwellers to kings – here we are crazy about it – cant breathe without checking which planet has moved where – lol
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and please – I am no teacher – an eternal student myself like yourself!
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No teacher, perhaps, save that we are all teachers, to ourselves and others. You present your points masterfully, and due to the strength of those points as well as your presentation, you have furthered my own interest in learning more about hinduism. I have ever struggled to define the soul, as many religions seem to demote it to a mere custodian of consciousness. The thought of the soul as divine, as a part of the greater whole, has always rung right to me. Thank you for the thoughtful treatise’ on the soul, they make for a beautiful and clear explanation of the path I have always chosen.
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By the way, it would seem I have some reading to do as well. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have discovered what you have written so eloquently.
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You are welcome – as so often heard in the US of A when one says thankyou
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