Adhikarana 10: The Individual Spirit Souls are Eternal and Without Beginning

Adhyāya 2: No Conflict Between Vedānta and Other Vedic Scriptures;
Pāda 3: The Supreme Personality of Godhead Manifests the Material Elements;

Viṣaya [thesis or statement]: Because He is the origin of everything, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no other origin from which He was created. This has already been described. Now we will determine the nature of the individual spirit soul.

The modern materialist philosophers do not want to admit the existence of the soul. This is because of their envy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As soon as one acknowledges the existence of the soul, the very next question will be about the source of the soul, and that line of inquiry has to end in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus all materialist philosophies deny the existence and eternality of the soul.

Some modern theologians speculate that the soul is created at the beginning of human life, but exists forever in heaven or hell as a result of his actions in this life. They wish to avoid accepting the truth of reincarnation. However, this position leads to intractable philosophical problems, because it cannot explain how some souls are born into good families and favorable situations and others into poverty or other difficulties. It also implied that God is not fair, or that He may not be perfectly omnipotent. For if the soul is newly created, then how do we explain that some souls are born into difficult situations such as poverty and ignorance, and others are blessed with wealth, education and other advantages? This means that God is either not all-good, since He allows some new souls to suffer and others to enjoy; or that God is not all-powerful, because He cannot help that some children are born in worse circumstances than others. Of course, the real answer is that each soul exists eternally, and has specific karma resulting from his activities in previous lives.

We have discussed these issues earlier; the eternality of the soul, both in the past and the future, is necessary if we want to preserve the idea that God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good. Eternal means beginningless and endless. Thus the idea that the soul is created at a particular time is incorrect. Therefore, first the idea that the individual soul has an origin in time will be refuted.

In the Taittirīya Araṇyaka, Mahā-Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad [1.4] it is said:

यतः प्रसूता जगतः प्रसूती
तोयेन जीवान् व्यससर्ज भूम्याम्

yataḥ prasūtā jagataḥ prasūtī
toyena jīvān vyasasarja bhūmyām

“From the Supreme Personality of Godhead the universe was born. With water He created the living entities on the earth.”

In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad it is said:

सन्-मूलाः सौम्येमाः सर्वाः प्रजाः

san-mūlāḥ saumyemāḥ sarvāḥ prajāḥ

“O gentle one, all living entities have their roots in the Supreme.”

Saṃśaya [doubt]: Do the individual spirit souls have an origin or not?

Pūrvapakṣa [the opponent speaks]: Because He is the creator of the material universe, which contains both sentient living entities and insentient matter, the Supreme Personality of Godhead must be the creator of the individual spirit souls. Any other idea would be illogical.

Siddhānta [conclusion]: The author of the sūtras gives the following conclusion.