The Soul and the Spirit - The difference!
Hello all,
Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. It came live on Vijayadasami day, the last day of Navrathri, 7th of October 2019. This is my way of offering my services to anyone who needs it. The details are described on the website. The actual service offering may take another few months while I figure out the remaining technical details. Now to the post.
Hope all of you had a great week, where you were able to bring in exactly the kind of life you envisioned for yourself. Last week we discussed how Kethu can bring the wisdom from the Soul. Each of us has amazing potential and capabilities that are waiting to be unwrapped. The only way to unravel this is to trust our own intuition. But as we have discussed many times, we have been conditioned from young age to look outside for our guidance. This leads us to ignore our inner guidance.
The same person who was attuned to their intuition at young age now after lots of schooling and college totally leave the intuition behind and fully embrace the logical or the rational mind. The second we leave our intuition behind, the major huge mind of subconscious is getting discarded. That second onwards our feelings would say one thing, and we decide on another thing. This leads us away from our duty, purpose, Dharma and meaning for our life.
Look at the world nowadays. Most of us humans have become a staggering bunch in the darkness called life. We really don't know what are our true desires that lead to our true intentions. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads it is mystically written, the words I am borrowing from Sri 'Eknath Eswaran's The Upanishads (second edition)-
"You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
Here, as a human if we don't know what our true desire is, how can we get to our will, deed or destiny. This deep desire is embedded deep within our subconscious mind or our very core. I intuit every single person has this deep desire. Some know it from the day they were born. They just start to totally go behind it. Some have no idea what this is. They 'think' they know it and go behind whatever their mind shows them. It is these people who become disillusioned with life when they cannot find a meaning in their every day actions and tasks.
From the amount of Quora questions, I have come across, I can sense that many people have no clue what they are supposed to do with their life. Only when we as a being is deeply plugged into our true purpose, life takes on a higher perspective. Otherwise, our every day actions and desires lead us to live life at a surface level with no roots connecting us deeply to our own life. This is what leads us to become disenchanted with life.which later leads us to the path of deep dissatisfaction and Soul level stagnation. It can many times lead us to things that not that good for our own life whether it is drugs, drinks or other vices.
The mind: Already we as a being is confused about our purpose. Our mind is all over the place trying to make sense of our every day life. Now, above this if we fall into vices, the mind becomes even more trapped under the layers of confusion that life takes on. The vices take a human very far away from their own mind. This then leads to the mental and psychological stations that a person may never be able to come out of.
So, it becomes desperately necessary to find one's own true Dharma so that one can lead a very true life. The very purpose of this blog and my entrepreneurship is tailored towards the same. Any help I may be able to extend towards some souls who may be lost in the maze of their own life. Here it becomes utmost necessary to keep the mind crystal clear to tap into the intuition and feelings the body or Soul is sending. This is the reason, mind is kept as the prime focus on a Vedic horoscope chart.
Without a very clear mind, or our own Moon (Chandra) in the horoscope, no energy of Jupiter (Guru), Venus (Shukra), Mercury (Budha), Sun (Surya), Saturn (Shani), North node (Rahu) or South node (Kethu) can be accessed. All these eight energies as well as other positional energies come to the life of a person through their mind. If that mind is eclipsed, weak or in Moudya (combust), the energies stays in the horoscope as potential that could have been tapped into, if the being had realized. It becomes the case of could have, would have, should have.
So, think of the utmost importance of the mind. How, it can take you to places or break you to pieces! (My caption for my Quora account). So, it becomes our prime duty to keep our mind crystal clear, so that we can take up fully our purpose for this current life. Anything that interferes with our mind should be kept at bay through our cutting intellect, whether it is vices, toxic situations or toxic people. Our first Dharma is towards ourselves and our Soul. This Dharma or expression of this Dharma should grow out as our creativity that takes care of us, our family, our friends, our loved ones, the globe and even the Universe. The true way a being is supposed to live and thrive. This clear mind would bring us the awareness to realize our own true nature or Soul.
Soul or Spirit: In this context, another question that needs to be asked is what is spirit and what is Soul? I have seen these two terms used interchangeably many times. Some people say that the spirit should lead the way and some say Soul should be our leader. Before 2015-2016, I used to think both are the same. Why even bother? Both may be same. Of course, I was also a totally confused being running behind biotechnology, regulatory affairs, science and molecular biology. Who cares? I was only worried about a job. Confused mind!
This mind would not allow a being to do anything. The intuition is ignored, the feelings are ignored and the mind becomes lulled in an ocean of emotions, whatever that day or the situation for that day brings. The being goes from one emotion to the next, one situation to the next, reacting to every thing as the life unfolds. Is this a good way to lead our life, reacting to every circumstance life throws at us? No. So, here comes the explanation of both these stages as per my understanding nowadays.
A being who has not brought the mind under control to develop awareness has actually no connection to their own higher self. The 'I AM' essence. The energy of the higher self should be the one driving the being's life, but here it is not. Such a higher self is called the 'spirit'. This spirit has no connection to the mind of the person or to the being itself. The spirit or the energy of the higher self sits silently watching the shenanigans of the being, many times, moving very far away from their own purpose.
A deep awareness of oneself, one's life, one's purpose, how to go about it, a deep connection to one's own mind, will and intentions are needed. As long as the mind has not developed this awareness of one's own life, we the being has really not much connection to our own higher self. The being would dream or sleep through the life praying to an outside God to fix the problems and whining to themselves that life is hard with struggles and there is no hope or help.
This is the status of life from a very powerless state. We wait for help so that we can fix our life. Here what happens to our power? As we are not powerfully leading our life, that spirit of life slowly starts to flicker and eventually dies down. Think back to some great kids who when they became adults stayed to lead a mediocre, every day life. What happened in between? They lost touch with themselves, who they are and what they want for themselves at their very core. Such a higher self that stays away from a very unaware being is called the 'Spirit'.
Now, the Soul. When the being has gone through enough life circumstances or experiences where they find themselves in some situation that they just cannot fix themselves, their mind is pushed to the very limit to find a solution. Such a mind would have deeply contemplated on their own life, their place in their world, their connection to their own life, to the other relationships and how they have found themselves in some circumstance that makes them mentally very tired. Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Vivekananda has spoken sometimes about this deep burden on a mind.
This burden of life is needed for a mind to think that may be, just may be there is another way to live or exist. Now, the mind is given a ray of hope to follow. The curious mind starts to follow this ray, which finally leads them to their own higher self. The mind here as it has done the deep inner work has become very aware of itself, the being, their purpose, their desires, who they are, what they want to do with their life and more. This mind that is aware recognizes that there is much more to the being than just the physical body.
Such a mind when it finds its own higher self and a deep connection to that higher self, it becomes very aware of the existence of the being, the connection with the Universe, nature and its purpose in the greater design of existence. The higher self of such a being is called a 'Soul'. Here the being is led by the higher self or their own Soul.
Soul- The charioteer: Suddenly the being bursts into their deep, truthful existence being led by their Soul. Every Hindu in this world would have heard about the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna, the Divine charioteer leads Arjuna through the battle of Kurukshethra in the epic Mahabharata. Arjuna is asked to fight against the enemies of his clan. This we have discussed before. The Soul becomes Krishna, the charioteer who through the intuition leads Arjuna, the mind. In the chariot, our body, the mind, Arjuna has to fight the enemies, our vices, confusion, toxic circumstances or toxic beings, so that we find our own victory to capture the true power of our life.
This transformation of the spirit to the Soul only happens if the being is ready to undertake the deep work of knowing oneself, one's true desires, one's own mind and the aspirations of the being. Until then the higher self remains as a spirit much removed from the mind as well as the being. Even here the spirit of the higher self sends intuition to bring the being to their true path. But due to the confusion and chaos of the mind, it never gets registered or recognized.
But it is a given, either in this lifetime or another lifetime, each being has to go through the humongous objective of self-realization. Every path leads to that purpose one way or another. But to reach there a mind that is as clear as crystal is needed. A confused mind leads a being through chaotic maze of their life. But even here, the day the being decided to listen to their own intuition, the path to transform their spirit to their own Soul gets accelerated. But not every being is interested in purusing the path of Self-realization. But then the question bubbles up, 'Should we wait or come around another life time to do this work?' Now, that is the free will and choice of a being!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday!😉
Next week: Prakruthi and Purusha- Energy and matter!
Credits: Images from Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.com
Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. It came live on Vijayadasami day, the last day of Navrathri, 7th of October 2019. This is my way of offering my services to anyone who needs it. The details are described on the website. The actual service offering may take another few months while I figure out the remaining technical details. Now to the post.
Hope all of you had a great week, where you were able to bring in exactly the kind of life you envisioned for yourself. Last week we discussed how Kethu can bring the wisdom from the Soul. Each of us has amazing potential and capabilities that are waiting to be unwrapped. The only way to unravel this is to trust our own intuition. But as we have discussed many times, we have been conditioned from young age to look outside for our guidance. This leads us to ignore our inner guidance.
The same person who was attuned to their intuition at young age now after lots of schooling and college totally leave the intuition behind and fully embrace the logical or the rational mind. The second we leave our intuition behind, the major huge mind of subconscious is getting discarded. That second onwards our feelings would say one thing, and we decide on another thing. This leads us away from our duty, purpose, Dharma and meaning for our life.
Look at the world nowadays. Most of us humans have become a staggering bunch in the darkness called life. We really don't know what are our true desires that lead to our true intentions. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishads it is mystically written, the words I am borrowing from Sri 'Eknath Eswaran's The Upanishads (second edition)-
"You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
Here, as a human if we don't know what our true desire is, how can we get to our will, deed or destiny. This deep desire is embedded deep within our subconscious mind or our very core. I intuit every single person has this deep desire. Some know it from the day they were born. They just start to totally go behind it. Some have no idea what this is. They 'think' they know it and go behind whatever their mind shows them. It is these people who become disillusioned with life when they cannot find a meaning in their every day actions and tasks.
 |
| A page from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad! Image credits - Ms Sarah Welch [CC BY-SA 4.0 ] |
From the amount of Quora questions, I have come across, I can sense that many people have no clue what they are supposed to do with their life. Only when we as a being is deeply plugged into our true purpose, life takes on a higher perspective. Otherwise, our every day actions and desires lead us to live life at a surface level with no roots connecting us deeply to our own life. This is what leads us to become disenchanted with life.which later leads us to the path of deep dissatisfaction and Soul level stagnation. It can many times lead us to things that not that good for our own life whether it is drugs, drinks or other vices.
The mind: Already we as a being is confused about our purpose. Our mind is all over the place trying to make sense of our every day life. Now, above this if we fall into vices, the mind becomes even more trapped under the layers of confusion that life takes on. The vices take a human very far away from their own mind. This then leads to the mental and psychological stations that a person may never be able to come out of.
So, it becomes desperately necessary to find one's own true Dharma so that one can lead a very true life. The very purpose of this blog and my entrepreneurship is tailored towards the same. Any help I may be able to extend towards some souls who may be lost in the maze of their own life. Here it becomes utmost necessary to keep the mind crystal clear to tap into the intuition and feelings the body or Soul is sending. This is the reason, mind is kept as the prime focus on a Vedic horoscope chart.
Without a very clear mind, or our own Moon (Chandra) in the horoscope, no energy of Jupiter (Guru), Venus (Shukra), Mercury (Budha), Sun (Surya), Saturn (Shani), North node (Rahu) or South node (Kethu) can be accessed. All these eight energies as well as other positional energies come to the life of a person through their mind. If that mind is eclipsed, weak or in Moudya (combust), the energies stays in the horoscope as potential that could have been tapped into, if the being had realized. It becomes the case of could have, would have, should have.
 |
| The different faculties of the mind! Image credits - Pixabay.com |
So, think of the utmost importance of the mind. How, it can take you to places or break you to pieces! (My caption for my Quora account). So, it becomes our prime duty to keep our mind crystal clear, so that we can take up fully our purpose for this current life. Anything that interferes with our mind should be kept at bay through our cutting intellect, whether it is vices, toxic situations or toxic people. Our first Dharma is towards ourselves and our Soul. This Dharma or expression of this Dharma should grow out as our creativity that takes care of us, our family, our friends, our loved ones, the globe and even the Universe. The true way a being is supposed to live and thrive. This clear mind would bring us the awareness to realize our own true nature or Soul.
Soul or Spirit: In this context, another question that needs to be asked is what is spirit and what is Soul? I have seen these two terms used interchangeably many times. Some people say that the spirit should lead the way and some say Soul should be our leader. Before 2015-2016, I used to think both are the same. Why even bother? Both may be same. Of course, I was also a totally confused being running behind biotechnology, regulatory affairs, science and molecular biology. Who cares? I was only worried about a job. Confused mind!
This mind would not allow a being to do anything. The intuition is ignored, the feelings are ignored and the mind becomes lulled in an ocean of emotions, whatever that day or the situation for that day brings. The being goes from one emotion to the next, one situation to the next, reacting to every thing as the life unfolds. Is this a good way to lead our life, reacting to every circumstance life throws at us? No. So, here comes the explanation of both these stages as per my understanding nowadays.
A being who has not brought the mind under control to develop awareness has actually no connection to their own higher self. The 'I AM' essence. The energy of the higher self should be the one driving the being's life, but here it is not. Such a higher self is called the 'spirit'. This spirit has no connection to the mind of the person or to the being itself. The spirit or the energy of the higher self sits silently watching the shenanigans of the being, many times, moving very far away from their own purpose.
A deep awareness of oneself, one's life, one's purpose, how to go about it, a deep connection to one's own mind, will and intentions are needed. As long as the mind has not developed this awareness of one's own life, we the being has really not much connection to our own higher self. The being would dream or sleep through the life praying to an outside God to fix the problems and whining to themselves that life is hard with struggles and there is no hope or help.
This is the status of life from a very powerless state. We wait for help so that we can fix our life. Here what happens to our power? As we are not powerfully leading our life, that spirit of life slowly starts to flicker and eventually dies down. Think back to some great kids who when they became adults stayed to lead a mediocre, every day life. What happened in between? They lost touch with themselves, who they are and what they want for themselves at their very core. Such a higher self that stays away from a very unaware being is called the 'Spirit'.
 |
| A mind with awareness transforms the spirit to the Soul! Image credits - Pixabay.com |
Now, the Soul. When the being has gone through enough life circumstances or experiences where they find themselves in some situation that they just cannot fix themselves, their mind is pushed to the very limit to find a solution. Such a mind would have deeply contemplated on their own life, their place in their world, their connection to their own life, to the other relationships and how they have found themselves in some circumstance that makes them mentally very tired. Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Vivekananda has spoken sometimes about this deep burden on a mind.
This burden of life is needed for a mind to think that may be, just may be there is another way to live or exist. Now, the mind is given a ray of hope to follow. The curious mind starts to follow this ray, which finally leads them to their own higher self. The mind here as it has done the deep inner work has become very aware of itself, the being, their purpose, their desires, who they are, what they want to do with their life and more. This mind that is aware recognizes that there is much more to the being than just the physical body.
Such a mind when it finds its own higher self and a deep connection to that higher self, it becomes very aware of the existence of the being, the connection with the Universe, nature and its purpose in the greater design of existence. The higher self of such a being is called a 'Soul'. Here the being is led by the higher self or their own Soul.
Soul- The charioteer: Suddenly the being bursts into their deep, truthful existence being led by their Soul. Every Hindu in this world would have heard about the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna, the Divine charioteer leads Arjuna through the battle of Kurukshethra in the epic Mahabharata. Arjuna is asked to fight against the enemies of his clan. This we have discussed before. The Soul becomes Krishna, the charioteer who through the intuition leads Arjuna, the mind. In the chariot, our body, the mind, Arjuna has to fight the enemies, our vices, confusion, toxic circumstances or toxic beings, so that we find our own victory to capture the true power of our life.
 |
| Different dimensions of the Self! Image credits - Andris Jansons [CC BY-SA 4.0] |
This transformation of the spirit to the Soul only happens if the being is ready to undertake the deep work of knowing oneself, one's true desires, one's own mind and the aspirations of the being. Until then the higher self remains as a spirit much removed from the mind as well as the being. Even here the spirit of the higher self sends intuition to bring the being to their true path. But due to the confusion and chaos of the mind, it never gets registered or recognized.
But it is a given, either in this lifetime or another lifetime, each being has to go through the humongous objective of self-realization. Every path leads to that purpose one way or another. But to reach there a mind that is as clear as crystal is needed. A confused mind leads a being through chaotic maze of their life. But even here, the day the being decided to listen to their own intuition, the path to transform their spirit to their own Soul gets accelerated. But not every being is interested in purusing the path of Self-realization. But then the question bubbles up, 'Should we wait or come around another life time to do this work?' Now, that is the free will and choice of a being!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday!😉
Next week: Prakruthi and Purusha- Energy and matter!
Credits: Images from Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.com
![Ms Sarah Welch [CC BY-SA 4.0 ]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brihadaranyaka_upanishad_adhyaya_1_folio_3b,_page_1,_Schoenberg_Center_manuscript,_Penn_Library.jpg){kind=link}
![Andris Jansons [CC BY-SA 4.0]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dimensions_of_the_Self.jpg){kind=link}
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