I of the soul Vs I of God

[dattaswami]

The Advaita philosophy says that the I of the soul should be transformed into I of God. The process of transformation should be carefully analyzed. If the I of the soul is destroyed there will be no experience for the soul that it has become God. In deep sleep, the I of the soul is disappearing and there is no experience at all for the soul. Moreover, the I of God neither increases nor decreases at any time. It remains constant. Even though God created this entire universe, God does not decrease by quantity because no part of God is transformed into universe. The worldly logic fails in the process of creation.

Even if a soul merges in God, God does not increase. Since God is beyond spatial dimensions, the increase and decrease become meaningless since volume is the property of space. When you have not understood the God, who is the product of transformation, how can you mention the process of transformation? Transformation is only between two imaginable items. If you say that soul merges in God, it should mean that the imaginable soul disappears and the unimaginable God is left over. This is not the process of transformation.

When milk is transformed into curd, there is a physical change. When an element is transformed into another element by radioactive reaction, there is change in the configuration of atom by loss or gain of some fundamental particles. When two chemicals react, a third chemical appears after the reaction and this cannot be transformation because there should be one substance only for transformation. All this analysis pertains to the substances of creation only, which are imaginable items. This logic cannot be applied to the transformation of imaginable soul into unimaginable God. Let us take the deep sleep.

The I disappears in that state because the pulse of I is not active. After the deep sleep, again this pulse become active and I appears again. But as long as I is not experienced, it is as good as dead. It is a temporary death of the pulse being inactive and there is no difference between the permanent death and temporary death of the pulse as for as the span of the time of the temporary death is concerned. Now, Rama is in deep sleep and the I is destroyed, since it is not experienced.

Here the entire experience of all the feelings disappeared. In the awaken state, the I may be forgotten, but the experience of other feelings exists. Therefore, the I may be inactive even in the awaken state and this inactiveness can be also considered as the temporary death.
Let us take another person called Krishna, who is awake in both these states. Rama did not become Krishna in both these states. The I of Krishna is also an imaginable item like that of Rama. When the transformation is impossible between the two imaginable items i.e., I of Rama and I of Krishna, how can you imagine the transformation of I of the imaginable soul into I of the unimaginable God?

When your individuality is lost, you cannot experience the process of transformation or the final fruit of the transformation. Even though this is impossible, the transformation of I of the soul is advocated by Shankara for good purpose. When the I looses its strength in the effort of its dissolution, the ego and selfishness become almost zero and this state is necessary for the devotion. The I of the soul is like the seed from which the tree with two main branches grows up. The two branches are ego and selfishness.
The word ahankara stands for ego as well as the basic seed. The basic seed is responsible to keep the experience of individual soul. The seed is not at all harmful. The ego is harmful and should be dissolved. It is impossible to dissolve the basic seed. Even after death, this seed is necessary for enjoying both good and bad results. But, in the efforts to destroy the seed, the ego and selfishness get destroyed. Therefore, the dissolution of seed is recommended though it is impossible. The dissolution of the basic seed takes place only if the total complex of feelings called as Jeeva is destroyed. To try for this is foolishness.

If the Jeeva is destroyed, the basic inert energy called as Atman alone is leftover like the standstill water after disappearance of waves. This means that you are transformed into inert entity like a stone. Hence, one should not aspire for the dissolution of I, which is the central component of Jeeva. The transformation of I into God is not practically possible. God remains as Himself in the same status before and after your transformation.
This means that you are simply destroyed and God remains as Himself. However, Shankara recommended the dissolution of I for the sake of transformation into God so that based on this the destruction of ego and selfishness can be achieved, which is essential for devotion. In Gita it is said that the soul enters God (Praveshtumcha.....) and here the word God stands for not the unimaginable God but the imaginable energetic incarnation of God. The soul surrounded by energetic body after death can defuse into the energetic body of God. Though the transformation of I into God is not possible, the reverse is possible.

The I of imaginable soul cannot merge in God since the imaginable soul has to do that through imaginable process only. No imaginable process is possible here. But, the unimaginable God can be transformed into the imaginable soul through some unimaginable process. Even after the transformation, God can come out of the soul without any change due to His unimaginable power. In this process, since the I of imaginable soul is retained, the soul experiences the transformation of itself into God and also experiences God after transformation. This is what happens when God enters the soul in its human body while taking the human incarnation.

The God is said to be DATTA, meaning that God Himself donates Himself to the soul. You can say this as a transformation of soul into God and there is no need of dissolution of I here. Such transformation is meaningful because the retained I of the soul experiences the process of transformation as well as the final fruit of transforming itself into God. This is called as Jeevanmukti, which means that the soul becomes God while its body is alive in this world.

Even after the death, such transformation is possible because after death the soul is surrounded by the energetic body instead of materialistic body. When such process happens, the result is the formation of energetic incarnation of God living in the upper worlds for the sake of departed souls surrounded by the energetic bodies.

For the souls surrounded by materialistic bodies (human beings), in this world, the human incarnation is relevant, which is called as Satguru. The past human incarnation is also not relevant to the present living human beings. The past human incarnations and the energetic incarnations can be worshipped in the form of photos and statues to develop the theoretical devotion. For the sake of practical devotion or service, only the contemporary human incarnation is meaningful and search for that is reminded by this auspicious function of GuruPurnima.

[popeye1945]

The I of the soul is in every living creature despite structure and form, for the essence of the living is the same across the board only the differing experiences serve to blind us to our commonality. Identity is evoked from the experiences of context and how the organism thinks and feels about that experience, but the essence remains the same in our common carbon-based biology.

[dattaswami]

The I of the soul is in every living creature despite structure and form, for the essence of the living is the same across the board only the differing experiences serve to blind us to our commonality. Identity is evoked from the experiences of context and how the organism thinks and feels about that experience, but the essence remains the same in our common carbon-based biology.

1) This creation is of two parts:- i) Paraa, which is the non-inert awareness or souls and ii) Aparaa, which is inert matter and inert energy. Thus, soul is a part of creation only. Such soul shall not discard the creation as unreal being a part of it.

2) Brahma represents awareness or knowledge. Vishnu represents the inert matter or wealth. Shiva represents inert energy or power in the form of wave represented by a stone (Shivalingam). These concepts are supported by their wives or powers called as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Gauri. Since awareness and matter are forms of inert energy only, Gauri also represents the root source subtle energy called as Aadishakti (space). Inert energy is converted in to inert matter and vice-versa indicating that Vishnu and Shiva are inter-convertible forms.

3) Soul or awareness is a special work form of inert energy only. This soul associated with a bundle of thoughts is individual soul. When this individual soul is associated with body of pure awareness (which is like pure inert energy detached from all thoughts and hence, the pure awareness is almost like pure inert energy) only, such body is called as subtle body (Sukshma shariram). When it is associated with body of matter associated with energy, such body is called as gross body (Sthula shariram). When the individual soul results by association of bundle of thoughts, such bundle of thoughts is its causal body (Kaarana Shariram). The soul or pure awareness along with three (gross, subtle and causal body) types of bodies (Pindaanda) represents the entire world (Brahmaanda).
4) In the Gita, the two parts of Prakruti are mentioned. In the Aparaa part are the inert five elements along with mind, intelligence and ego. Paraa part is the storage potentiality called as chittam or grasping potentiality called as chit. These potentialities of storage of information to help the memory and grasping information from the memory or external world (act of knowing) are the functions of Chittam or chit (chiti samjnaane smarane cha). This is called as the soul that controls mind, intelligence and ego. The soul as controller with full freedom is called as Paraa prakruti. The controlled mind, intelligence and ego are kept in Aparaa prakruti.

5) In the Gita, it is said that this soul maintains all the creation (Yayedam dhaaryate jagat). This is misunderstood as the soul maintaining the world and hence, the soul is concluded as God! Even all the souls put together can’t maintain this world! The world here means the world of thoughts. We call all the animals as ‘animal world’. World means a group of similar items. We also say that a person is immersed in his own world, which means that the person is continuously engaged in his imaginary world, which is a group of thoughts. An individual soul (Jeeva) is awareness in the form of a bundle of thoughts, which proves that awareness is the storage of thoughts.

6) The Veda says that the awareness associated with mind carries on the energetic subtle living body after death (manomayah pranashareeranetaa). The bundle of worldly thoughts (Vaasanaas) of the awareness is responsible for the rebirth and is called as causal body (kaarana shariram) of the soul or pure awareness. This casual body represents mind that generates thoughts. The pure awareness closely associated with the bundle of thoughts (a thought is also made of awareness and some general awareness exists between these thoughts as binding material) is called as individual soul. The pure awareness or the inert energy, which is basic essential source of awareness, can be called as soul. From the common point of detachment from thoughts, the pure awareness totally resembling the inert energy is taken as soul in more real sense. Actually the basic inert energy that is converted into awareness is the real soul and pure awareness being similar to inert energy is also treated as soul. The inert energy is always detached from every thought. If You give inert energy as the essential meaning of the soul, You can say that the entire world is maintained by inert energy only so that the soul is said to be the maintainer of the world in the Gita. But, the soul is taken as infinite cosmic energy in the qualitative sense and not in the quantitative sense.

7) Since mind, intelligence and ego are working faculties of soul, these are mentioned in Aparaa along with five elements that form the food. The Veda says that food generated awareness or soul (Annat purushah). These three are just works of soul and treated as inert due to lack of freedom, which is enjoyed by the soul only.

Grasping the information from external world, storing important information and deleting the unnecessary negligible (decided by the soul) part of it are the functions of awareness called as chittam. Mind thinks a point (sankalpa) and alters it (vikalpa). Intelligence does analysis and reaches the conclusion (Nishchayaatmikaa buddhih). Ego meaning the maintenance of I continuously. All these three are just works of soul only.

9) The work of chittam is to know something and store it if necessary to bring it back as memory whenever and wherever needed. Chittam does these works with full freedom. If these works are not done, chittam becomes chit or pure awareness, which is almost like inert energy detached from all thoughts. Since the nervous system is functioning, it is not converted into inert energy. In deep sleep, the inert energy is not converted into awareness and the soul as awareness disappears. The source of awareness, which is inert energy, remains in the state of full ignorance in deep sleep. This inert energy is very close to pure awareness and even scholars have mistaken the pure awareness in this state (of detachment from thoughts) as soul for the inert energy, which is actually the essential soul, being the source of awareness.
10) In the deep sleep, after some time, nervous system starts functioning and pure awareness is regenerated. This pure awareness is not the real pure awareness that can be attained in meditation. In the state of dream, such so called pure awareness comes in touch with the strong worldly thoughts of this birth and previous births stored in sub-conscious state, which construct the dream. If nervous system stops functioning again, the dream state is converted into the deep sleep. Even though awareness disappears in the deep sleep, its thoughts are stored in brain in the form of pulses like the information stored in a chip of computer even if it is not functioning. When the awareness is generated in the period of sleep itself, dream appears because the generated awareness in touch with the chip (sub-conscious state) produces dream. After the full period of sleep, the awareness appears connected to the external world since nervous system completes its periodical regular rest and functions in this awaken state.

11) When the sleep is over, the nervous system after taking full rest becomes fresh and strong in the work and this is the happiness generated at the end of sleep. This happiness is not generated in the rest period since happiness exists only when the awareness exists. Hence, it is wrong to say that the soul or awareness is enjoying the happiness in the deep sleep, which is against the experience.

12) After the sleep, the soul is regenerated doing its works. Mind, intelligence and ego start functioning under the control of the soul. These three are works of the soul only done as separate faculties.

13) When the food is taken, it is assimilated to form the blood representing Rajas due to its energy. The rejected food forms the excretion representing Tamas. The inert energy supplied by blood is converted into awareness in the nervous system. The basic ego called as ‘I’ is maintained continuously by the activation of corresponding pulse in awaken and dream states. In awaken state, the ‘I’ is connected to the external world and in dream state, the awareness as ‘I’ is connected with strong thoughts stored in the brain as pulses called as ‘sphotas’ (sphota siddhaanta).


14) Chittam contains general awareness that takes information, stores the information temporarily and deletes if it is not important. The most liked information is maintained continuously by this, which is sent into its part of storage in the form of a pulse. The general awareness is like an ocean in which this storage part with important informations solidified as pulses looks like island.

15) The general awareness is modified into subtle body in the time of death dragging out the individual soul (storage part of chittam) and surrounds the soul. If the soul is to go to hell, it is called as yatanaa shariram. If the soul is to go to heaven, it is called as bhoga shariram. If the soul is to go to the abode of God, it is called as divya shariram. This subtle body is made of awareness and is called as living body or prana shariram. The inner individual soul is full of strong thoughts and is made of mind, which is the source of thoughts.

The Veda says that the individual soul made of mind goes to the upper worlds dragging his alive body (manomayah praanashareera netaa). This body is very far sensitive than inert gross body since it is made of awareness or nervous energy. Even in the absence of materialised nervous system in the body of inert energy, the awareness exists by a super technology. It receives the pain in hell and happiness in heaven with million times more sensitivity than the gross body. The pain received by this body is million times more than the gross body receiving the pain from the same beating!

The individual soul enjoys results of intensive sins and good deeds in this world to give witness to others regarding hell and heaven. God always follows the progress of the soul here as well as in the upper world and has full freedom to give fruit of good or bad deed to the soul at any time and at any place in view of the reformation of soul, which is the main aim of all this divine administration.

16) The real punishment is always severe and is given secretly. A thief is dragged on the road by police giving slight punishment so that people witness it. After dragging the criminal to the jail, severe punishments are given for the same crime. For any intensive sin, slight punishment is only given here for the witness of people and the rest severe punishment is given in the hell. This is to save the false prestige of the sinner before public.

17) Chittam is the individual soul in which strong worldly fascinations are solidified like diamonds. Around this soul, general awareness spreads as a circle just like intensive sunlight spreads around the sun. This soul is dragged by the general awareness from the body in the death by My will. The soul doesn’t come out by itself due to strong bond with its body. After coming out, this soul drags awareness-body to the upper worlds as per My will. Dragging is reversed here.


18) The gross body (sthula) is inert. The subtle body (sukshma) is energy as awareness, which does not require materialized brain and nervous system. This is sophisticated technology in the case of energetic bodies of angels also since the material of the energetic body is awareness itself. The causal body (kaarana) is the bundle of fascinations. The root causal body (mahaa kaarana) of the soul is the basic ignorance created by maayaa. Soul is the pure awareness (binding material) entangled by thoughts in the chittam. This pure awareness along with the thoughts is called as individual soul.

19) After death, the soul in energetic body (awareness is a form of energy) goes to upper sub-world, called as Preta loka and stays there for ten days. Below Pretaloka exists Martyaloka, which is this earth. Above Pretaloka exits Narakaloka or hell. Above Narakaloka exists Pitruloka. These four are the four sub-worlds of world Bhuuloka. Above Bhuuloka, Bhuvarloka world exists, which is the world of planets and stars. Above Bhuvarloka lies Suvarloka-world, which is the heaven. The soul goes to hell for its sins. It goes to heaven for its good deeds. A neutral soul with neither good nor bad deeds or with mixed deeds goes to Pitruloka. For ten days after death, I enquire about the soul in Preta loka and give final judgment based on which the soul goes to hell (sub-world) or Pitruloka (sub-world) or heaven (third world). My devotee will come straight to My abode, which is the seventh top most Brahmaloka or Satyaloka.

During the time of My enquiry, the deity of justice argues against the soul like the public prosecutor. Some hopeless souls are sent to the births of birds and animals. These hopeless souls led their entire lives in worldly matters only without caring for the God. For such souls, human birth is unnecessary. They are given births of birds and animals, which are always engaged in eating food, drinking water, sex and sleep. I gave that only in which they are totally interested and hence, this is My favour to My issues and not anger. If You don’t care for God, intelligence or human birth is unnecessary for You. Birds and animals have mind only and are always involved in worldly activates. Only I am pushing the soul into womb of its mother for next birth through cloud, rain, plants, food and sperm of its father step by step.

20) When I send My servants into this earth for propagation of spiritual knowledge, sometimes I push the soul directly into the womb of the mother without sperm. In the womb of the mother, the body of baby is alive with life and pure awareness without any fascination. In every case, only this individual soul (causal) enters its corresponding body (gross or subtle), which stands in the middle of that pure general awareness, as told above.