KNOWING THE SOUL

BY HDG B.S. TIRTHA MAHARAJ


No, At Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, His Divine Grace B. S. Tirtha Maharaj guides the students on  KNOWING THE SOUL.

Today, the whole world is in a chaotic situation. A truly intelligent person should ask why? Many may analytically present various reasons with elaborate theorization. Many may offer solutions too, as others did in the past. Nothing worked, nothing works and nothing will work. All speculations and theorizing will fail until spiritual awareness is promoted in the human society. It is only the true spiritual knowledge that can put a stop to all human sufferings.  

The students of this university, I am told, are genius and hence I have come here to present in detail spiritual knowledge in its proper perspective. When we say ‘I’, ‘You’ or ‘He’ or ‘She’ – we refer to three constituent parts namely, Gross Body, Subtle body and the Soul. Gross body is the physical body with hands, legs, etc. Subtle body consists of mind, intelligence, false ego and contaminated consciousness. Of these, both gross and subtle bodies are material whereas the soul is spiritual. In Bhagavat Gita, a Vedic literature, the Supreme Lord Krishna says that His total material energy constitutes eight material elements; Bhumi - earth, Apo - water, Analo - fire, Vayu - wind, Kham - sky, Mano - mind, Buddhi - intelligence and Ahankara - false ego. Of these eight elements, the five, namely, earth, water, fire, air and sky are called gross elements. Three elements namely mind, intelligence and false ego are known as subtle elements. In other words, Gross body is made of five gross elements. The Spirit Soul is lodged in the subtle body. It is just like an item of medicine. Generally, a medicine consists of an ‘outer carton’ and a ‘bottle’ inside it. There is a tablet or capsule inside the bottle. Gross body is the outer carton, subtle body is the bottle and capsule is the soul.­ Material Body - Gross and Subtle The total material energy consists of three gunas or quality features, namely, Sattva - mode of goodness, Raja - mode of passion and Tamah - mode of ignorance. Due to interaction of these three qualities, the original eleven elements undergo transformation and as a result twenty four divisions of elements manifest. They are:

  1. Five gross elements – earth, water, fire, air and sky.
  2. Five sense objects – smell, taste, form, touch and sound.
  3. Five knowledge acquiring senses – eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.
  4. Five action performing senses – hands, legs, throat, anus and genitals.
  5. Mind, Intelligence, False Ego (the idea that I am this body) and Material Consciousness.


Being influenced by the three quality features of the material nature a living being performs various activities in goodness, passion or ignorance and suffers or enjoys the results. According to Vedic Literatures, there are 8,400,000 varieties of bodies that exist in this universe. They are:

  1. Aquatic-900,000
  2. Plants and Trees-2,000,000
  3. Insects and Reptiles-1,100,000
  4. Birds-1,000,000
  5. Animals-3,000,000
  6. Human Beings-400,000


These bodies come into being through four processes as follows:

  1. Born of embryo - Human beings and animals like cows, etc.
  2. Born from eggs -  Birds etc.
  3. Born from sweat –  Bugs etc.
  4. Appear by piercing earth – Plants and trees.


All these material bodies undergo six stages of transformations:

  1. Birth
  2. Growth
  3. Exist for sometime
  4. Produce by-products
  5. Dwindle
  6. Get destroyed


Soul In Bhagavad Gita, Supreme Lord Krishna says His material energy is inferior because its products are temporary and ultimately perishable. He has spiritual energy which is superior because it is eternal, ever existing and imperishable. It does not undergo any transformation whatsoever. Supreme Lord Krishna is the Supreme Spirit Soul and all the other living beings of this universe are atomic spirit souls. It is the spirit soul that sustains the material existences. It is the spirit soul dwelling inside the body that sustains the body. In other words spirit soul is the shelter of the physical body. We have no experience of a body moving about without the presence of the spirit soul in it. It is the Spirit soul which is the real living being and not the body. That is why we say ‘my hands’, ‘my legs’, ‘my eyes’, etc. Nobody says ‘I head’ or ‘I leg’.  A diseased person is sometimes seen telling a physician during diagnosis that ”My whole body is paining.” This means the whole body, belongs to him or her, the spirit soul. It is the spirit soul that possesses the body. When a travel-agent executive was finding it difficult to understand, I explained that all the Airlines of the world consider a living person as a ‘passenger’ during the air travel whereas the dead body of the same person is considered as ‘cargo’. The body of the traveller is the same, dead or alive. Why then is this difference in treatment of the person’s travel status? Obviously, therefore, it is not the body but the soul, the actual living force, which is the passenger. Though the Airlines may not have this understanding as the basis for this policy, it is an inference by common sense.  Similarly, only an ignorant child thinks that bulb gives light when an electric switch is turned on. The fact is that it is the electricity which gives light and the glass bulb is merely a diffusing medium. Body is just like a bulb whereas the spirit soul can be compared to electricity. An ignorant person thinks that body grows up from a combination of chemicals. Chemical combinations do not constitute the living force. A dead child cannot grow up by injecting chemicals. It is due to the presence of the spirit soul that the physical body grows up. Hence, all existences are a combination of material body and spirit soul. Animals, Trees, Birds and Human beings are all of the same type of combination.  

The actual living entity is individual and spiritual whereas the body is composed of material elements. This can be easily understood when a person dies. At death, the spirit soul quits the body leaving the body a mere conglomeration of matter. The dimension of the atomic individual spirit soul is one ten-thousandth portion of the tip of the hair. The quality of the spirit soul is consciousness. Although it resides in the heart, the consciousness spreads throughout the body. It is just like a lamp which stays fixed in one place whilst its light spreads all over the room. Different living entities exhibit different levels of consciousness. Covered consciousness- stones, mountains, etc. Shrunken consciousness – animals and birds. Budding consciousness – human beings. Slightly blossomed consciousness - God conscious beings. Fully bloomed consciousness – completely surrendered God conscious beings.

The spirit soul transmigrates from one body to another. There are 8,400,000 species of lives that the soul passes through. The different bodies are like dresses. Just as we change our dresses, the soul discards one set of dress and accepts another.  

Who can understand the presence of the Spirit Soul? Just as an expert geologist can identify the locations where the golden ores exist and extract gold from the ore through various processes, a spiritually advanced person can understand the existence of spiritual particle in the body and by cultivating spiritual knowledge, he or she can attain spiritual perfection. One, in animalistic conception, cannot understand the distinction between spirit and matter just as one who is not a geologist cannot identify sites where golden ores are located.  

Soul and Super Soul Upanishads, the knowledge portion of the Vedas say that there are two souls inside the heart of all living beings just like two birds perched on a branch of a tree, the individual atomic soul and the individual Supersoul, the God. Supreme Lord Krishna declares in Bhagavad Gita that all the atomic individual souls are His fragmented portions and they are eternal, just like fire and its sparks. The atomic individual soul is the master of the material body he or she occupies whereas the Supersoul, the God, is the master of total material energy. Supreme Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that one who knows the material body and the two individual souls, is a person of real and perfect knowledge and all the others are ignorant. As long as men and women perform eating, sleeping, defending and mating, basic functions that are common to even birds and beasts, they continue to remain on the animal platform until they make enquiry about their true identity and eternal relationship with God, the Supreme Spiritual Entity. Out of 8,400,000 species, it is only in the human form of life that the living entity possesses extraordinary intelligence and highly evolved consciousness, which ­enables a person to ascertain his actual self as well as his or her eternal relationship with God. This is the only goal of human life.

The Bhagavat Vani Magazine 2007