Who am I

1
Who am I ? Nature of the SOUL
2
Who am I ?
My real identity
is NOT this temporary BODY, but...
the eternal SOUL !!!
3
Proof for the existence of
the Soul

• Common sense

Difference between the dead body and the living
person

• Intuitive understanding

The real self I distinct from body, mind and
intelligence
4

• Consciousness - the symptom of the
• existence of the soul

Consciousness distinguishes a dead body from a
living one
Consciousness gives circumstantial evidence of
the soul

• Near Death Experiences (NDEs)

• Past-life memories

• Astral body travel

5
Knowledge of the Soul
The Soul is

• indestructible

BG 7.7
The soul can never be cut to pieces by any
weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by
water, nor withered by the wind
nainam chindanti sastraninainam dahati
pavakahna cainam kledayanty apona sosayati
marutah
6

• individual

BG 2.12
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor
you, nor all these kings nor in the future shall
any of us cease to be
na tv evaham jatu nasamna tvam neme
janadhipahna caiva na bhavisyamahsarve vayam
atah param
BG 15.7
The living entities in this conditioned world are
my eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned
life, they are struggling very hard with 6
senses, which include the mind.
mamaivamsho jiva-loke jiva-bhutah
sanatanah manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti sthani
karsati
7

• sat-cid-ananda

Eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss Body is
asat, acit, nirananda

• changes bodies

BG 2.22
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old
ones, the soul similarly accepts new material
bodies, giving up the old and useless ones
vasamsi jirnani yatha vihayanavani grhnati naro
'paranitatha sarirani vihaya jirnanyanyani
samyati navani dehi
8
BG 2.13
dehino 'smin yatha dehekaumaram yauvanam
jaratatha dehantara-praptirdhiras tatra na
muhyati
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this
body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul
similarly passes into another body at death. A
sober person is not bewildered by such a change
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• infinitesimal

Kesa agra sata bhagasya Satadha kalpitasyaca
The size of the soul is 1/10,000 the size of the
tip of hair.
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• inconceivable

BG 2.25
It is said that the soul is invisible,
inconceivable and immutable. Knowing this, you
should not grieve for the body.
avyakto 'yam acintyo 'yamavikaryo 'yam
ucyatetasmad evam viditvainamnanusocitum arhasi
11

• Material energy is formless. But form, and all
  properties, are inherent in spiritual energy, and
  are perversely reflected in material energy.
• Why can it not be argued that there are no
  qualities of one's own nature, at all, but all
  qualities are merely acquired by association?
• For several reasons some of them are
• While there are instances of qualities being
  acquired, there is never an instance of the
  property of having qualities itself being
  acquired.
• An entity that has no quality similar (even in
  being opposite) to the one being acquired, cannot
  even form the association necessary to effect the
  acquisition.
• Considering that the qualities of good,
  indifference, and evil cannot be said to reside
  in the Lord or in inanimate nature, the question
  arises as to where they are being acquired from.
• Material qualities are inconceivably different
  from the spiritual.

12
Material energy undergoes transformations. Transfo
rmations occur under the influence of the Three
Modes of Nature, and Time
stays
Grows
Takes Birth
Produces offsprings
dwindles
Dies
13
Spirit soul does not undergo these
transformations. It is transcendental to the
Modes, Time, etc.
BG 2.20
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at
any time. He has not come into being, does not
come into being, and will not come into being. He
is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval.
He is not slain when the body is slain
na jayate mriyate va kadacinnayam bhutva bhavita
va na bhuyahajo nityah sasvato 'yam puranona
hanyate hanyamane sarire
14
Am I GOD ?
We are

• not GODS

• Qualitative oneness

• can never become GOD

The unitive aspect of religious doctrine is a
qualitative monotheism, not a numerical unity!
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Soul
Supersoul

• Infinitesimal (anu)

Infinite (vibhu)

• Marginal Free
• Will

Ablative, Causative, Locative omnipresence
Cognizant of everyone and everything

• Cognizant of
• ones body

• A loving
• instrument

Eternally a loving predominator
BG 1861 isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna
tisthati bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani
mayaya
The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart,
O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all
living entities, who are seated as on a machine,
made of the material energy.
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Simply saying is not enough, one should act
accordingly
By chanting mantra, Person becomes
Brahmabhuta prasannatma
We are one in quality with GOD, but different in
quantity. Our salvation depends on the
acceptance of this reality. False Ego is the
antithesis of this.
BG 168 asatyam apratistham te jagad ahur
anisvaram aparaspara-sambhutam kim anyat
kama-haitukam
They say that this world is unreal, that there is
no foundation and that there is no God in control
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lt H.D.G. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati H.D.G.
Bhaktivedanta Swami gt
Krishna as Object of worship is one-Half, and,
as the Support of His worshipper, He Himself is
the other Half of the Whole. The variety of
reciprocal activity of these Two Moieties
constitutes the Fullness of the Divinity. Krishna
is the complete realization of the Support of His
worship.
The Prime Cause of all effects should not be
mutilated or manufactured through the agency of
our unblossomed prerogatives. We are limited
entities, but the Unlimited Infinity minus our
infinitesimality would give us, as a result, an
almost infinite gulf.
18
SOUL Intelligence Mind Senses
False ego-consciousness
God-consciousness
If one gives up his subtle body before the time
of death, he gets liberated