1.3. Characteristics of Soul

The soul has the following characteristics:

i) ‘It is starting less and unending. Its inception can't be known. It is eternal and can't be obliterated using any and all means at all, not even by a nuclear bomb.’^[1] The same description of consciousness is there in Vedic and Buddhist religious philosophies.

ii) Contrary to the belief of some early philosophers, the soul does not reside in a particular part of the body. According to Jain philosophy, ‘it possesses the body like oil in a seed for example the soul contracts or extends as per the extent of the body.’^[2]

iii) ‘The spirit is a non-physical element, it is known distinctly through its capacity of knowing. All the learning that exists on the planet today is because of the spirit's capacity of knowing. For instance: the revelation of law of relativity by Einstein was a direct result of the intensity of knowing about the soul.’^[3] How evidently it can be experienced by each human being on the planet, without our curiosity to know and learn, we would not have been grown scientifically as well as intellectually.

iv) ‘The spirit is the premise of knowledge, insight, happiness and power experienced by a living creature.’^[4] Often in our daily lives we crave for few moments of peace and inner happiness; it is none other than the quest to return home, back to our true nature.

v) ‘The contemplations and activities of an individual leave impacts on the spirit. The impressions are recorded on the karma vargana pulled in by the spirit. These karma vargana establish a material body known as karma sharira or karma body. This karmic body go with the spirit when it transcends from one body to other.’^[5] When someone dies the karma sharira is the one that accompanies him/her to the next life and not a tiny peck of materialistic possession. The karma sharira possesses all the account of one’s actions done till now, the knowledge one has gained, the good or bad one has done, to name a few.

vi) ‘The spirit and karma body are constantly held together. The inquiry with respect to whom came first into reality is pointless.’^[6] A beautiful example of the same is: like the gold is mixed with the sand and stone and it is difficult to guess about the time of their amalgamation, similarly the soul is also bound with karma since time immemorial.

vii) ‘All spirits are similar aside from the karma body, which contrasts. This implies each spirit is at an alternate phase of improvement.’^[7] All consciousness is same, the difference lies in thickness of layers over it, in form of karma. This is the beauty of Jain philosophy that it considers each consciousness as the same, with the same capabilities.

‘In the supreme sense, the spirit has just a single characteristic, cetana or awareness. The dimensions of improvement of cognizance of soul are extraordinary thus every person on the planet is not quite the same as other. The hereditary qualities says DNA of any two living creatures of the universe are never similar, so every person on the planet is unique in relation to other from the angle of genetics.’^[8]

One may get mesmerized at the beauty of how the universe works and how scientifically the workings of the same has been described in the eternal knowledge of ancient scriptures.

All we can do to change this world is to change ourselves as this is the only way.

Imagine a planet where each being is in a self-introspective mode, no one blames no one, and all are working on none other than self-improvement; individual people, societies, and nations. Would not that be heavenly? Would not that be called shedding of karma?

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ibid. pp. 20

[2]:

Ibid. pp. 20

[3]:

Ibid. pp. 20, 21

[4]:

Ibid. pp. 21

[5]:

Ibid. pp. 21

[6]:

Ibid. pp. 21

[7]:

Ibid. pp. 21

[8]:

Ibid. pp. 22