What is a soul really?

[Miss Hepburn]

I love when you drop in, peteyzen.

[Redchic12]

Yes I understood that only part of the energy of soul came down to join the person.

Ide be interested to know more about that.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Redchic12

Yes I understood that only part of the energy of soul came down to join the person. I'd be interested to know more about that.

There is a verse in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says something like:

Pervading this universe with a fragment of myself, I remain.

We are told that it is the same with the Soul on a lower level. The Soul extends a part of itself into the human form (via the sutratma) to provide life and consciousness to the human being, but otherwise the Soul remains on its own plane, doing whatever it does.

Because for a long time during the many cycles of incarnation and development there is little in the human lifetime to attract the attention of the Soul. It is only when the human personality seeks answers and looks within that the attention of the Soul is drawn to the personality, its reflection in form. Then the personality becomes something which the Soul can work through.

The exception to the above is at the time of physical death. Even for the average person this is sufficiently momentous to attract the attention of the Soul. So the personal consciousness (the extension of the Soul in form) leaves the body and sees a brilliant loving compassionate Light, which they may mistake for God. They do not realise that this is in fact their own Soul which has remained on its own plane throughout the incarnation.

And the exception to all the above is the case of those Souls who incarnate in such rare beings as Ramana Maharshi and Anandamayi Ma. A greater part of the energy of the Soul comes down to join the person because these particular human forms allow a greater reflection and expression of Soul consciousness.

So say various teachings. It does make sense to me.

Peace

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 43 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by iamthat

There is a verse in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says something like:
Pervading this universe with a fragment of myself, I remain.

My spiritual mentor's soul sister, Anandamayi Ma, revealed herself with words very similar to that Krishna quote.

"I am the all-pervading Reality".

Our ashram in Haridwar (India) is within walking distance of Anandamayi Ma's mausoleum. The place has awesome energy.

[Redchic12]

thanks IamThat.

Yes it makes sense to me as well.

[Maisy]

Originally Posted by Redchic12

Yes I understood that only part of the energy of soul came down to join the person.

I read about that in various new age books. Imagine a soul is 100% energy. Too much of this in a human body would be a pointless life because the soul energy would easily "tame" the human mind. Too little and the soul would be overwhelmed by the human life. So depending on how developed the soul is and what they want to accomplish on earth or learn, they can put something like 5% (old soul) to 95% (new soul) I would guess if an old soul came to be a teacher, they may want 85%, if they came to experience hardships, perhaps 10%. I read some souls overestimate their development and don't come down with enough and end up failing that incarnation as they can't beat certain bad traits.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by iamthat

There is a verse in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says something like:
Pervading this universe with a fragment of myself, I remain.

Ah, Ch 10, my favorite! v42 :)
The chapter I would take to a deserted island.

"With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe.''
or
What need is there for all this detailed knowledge, O Arjun?
Simply know that by one fraction of My being, I pervade and support this entire creation."

(Notice - ''simply know..." as if this is all one needs. )

[Redchic12]

Thanks guys. Yep that is something that I was told at a workshop that I went to many years ago. Apparently the amount of energy you take from your soul to come here is dependant on the amount of karma that you want to deal with but there is always a part of your energy left behind. When you go back to the other side the energy will be absorbed back in to the soul.

Not that it’s really important to me. I just found it an interesting concept and wondered if anybody else knew about this so thanks for your response.

Yes indeed Miss H………”what need is there for all this detailed knowledge”

Interesting tho.

[Catsquotl]

In my mind Soul is just a bigger thought construct than the ego is.
Each time we identify with anything. man, father, person, being, soul, deity, etc.
We broaden our perspective just enough to encompass what we identify with.

Even though Soul is probably a lot bigger and wider a perspective than a human on earth is. I feel it's still a made up separation/identification between an I and All that is.

[Redchic12]

Yep good point!