Krishna Wisdom

Main Menu

  • Home
  • FAQs
  • Free wisdom ebooks
  • Discuss philosophy
    • Questions archive
    • Ask a question
  • Wisdom Blog
  • Find Us
    • Bhaktivedanta Manor, Watford
    • UK Groups

logo

Krishna Wisdom

  • Home
  • FAQs
  • Free wisdom ebooks
    • IQ EQ SQ - Spiritual Quotient

      May 13, 2017
      0
    • Tattva

      May 13, 2017
      0
    • Gita Life

      May 13, 2017
      0
    • Bhakti Life

      May 13, 2017
      0
  • Discuss philosophy
    • Questions archive
    • Ask a question
  • Wisdom Blog
  • Find Us
    • Bhaktivedanta Manor, Watford
    • UK Groups
Wisdom tube
Home›Wisdom tube›The Spirituality Quest 1: What is the Soul?

The Spirituality Quest 1: What is the Soul?

By Apprentice Monk
August 10, 2018
5106
2
Share:

SOUL: You are not the body… or the mind

Think about it – we can’t see more than a few hundred metres without a telescope, neither can we see things too close – like viruses, or even our own eyelids (pretty naft, huh!) There is more to life than what we can see, and there are way too many important things beyond our sensory perception to miss! We don’t need to prove that. You can just go on YouTube and check out some optical illusions and you’ll see what I mean.

The Bhagavad Gita explains that we’re not the body, but spiritual beings within the body. The body is just a machine that we use as a tool to do things. In due course of time, over a period of many years and decades (and even lifetimes) we start identifying ourselves with the body and mind. This misidentification according to the Bhagvad Gita is the source of all our problems. It’s not the only problem though, but other problems build on this conception. If we change the way we understand life, slowly the other problems disappear too.

Our body changes over time, but we (the soul) remain the same. The Bhagavad Gita explains:

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.

Like for example, you may see president Trump’s car and go – “Look, there’s the president!” (Or you may just wanna swear!)

Either way, it’s not the president himself. You’re just looking at a blinking car – a body made of plastic and tin. Mr. Trump is seated inside. But we identify with the car. You see the point? That’s what we do to people, animals, and every living entity we preceive.

It is said that this misidentification is the source of all our problems. We need a change of perspective!

Ok, all that makes sense (hopefully) But you might say…

What do I (or the soul) actually look like?

And I would say – this is getting more and more exciting!




There are various descriptions of the soul given across the entire Vedas. First of all, let’s see what the books have to say about the size of the soul

When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul – Svetasvatara Upanisad 5.9

So as you can see it’s pretty tiny. But here’s some interesting stuff – in this world we are used to seeing size as an emblem of strength, but it’s not the case with spiritual stuff. Even though the size is really small, it can manoeuvre the entire body – pretty much in the same way that a little battery can manoeuvre a big clock, but in spiritual terms. So don’t get put off by size! So really – size doesn’t matter!

But then your next question would be – what about the form? Are we just some speck?

Far from that. The soul always has a body – either mundane or spiritual. Our consciousness and activities make that choice. If you cultivate a mundane material consciousness, then you have a material body like we do now. And if you develop a spiritual consciousness, at the end of life the soul takes on a spiritual body.

Pretty cool, huh? Don’t stop here then. Check out the ones on Karma & Meditation too!

 

Tagsanimatedanimationcartoonkarmakrishnalovemeditationpeacereincarnationsoulspiritualspiritualitywisdomyoga
Previous Article

The Spirituality Quest 2: How does Karma ...

Next Article

IN ESSENCE: An online course – Soul, ...

Share:

Apprentice Monk

Radha Govinda has been living as a monk at Bhaktivedanta Manor for over 8 years now, and is a musician, motivational speaker and a writer. He likes sharing inspirational stories and wisdom from the ancient East and has a passion to encourage people to take up spritual practices. He holds a Master's degree in Mechatronics and worked in Control Systems engineering for Fluor before deciding to take up spiritual life full time as a monk in 2009. He now travels around the country sharing his experiences with people interested in yoga and spirituality.

Related articles More from author

  • Reflections

    A Starving Bird in a Polished Cage

    April 24, 2019
    By Nikhil Gohil
  • Practical Spirituality

    How not to meditate

    November 30, 2016
    By Apprentice Monk
  • Science corner

    Brain Dead

    July 28, 2016
    By Researcher Ryan
  • Reflections

    What Miley Cyrus knows about life and death

    November 14, 2014
    By Apprentice Monk
  • Bhagavad Gita wisdom

    Efficient endeavour

    September 8, 2016
    By Chaitanya Charan
  • Practical Spirituality

    Do you give a lot in a relationship and don’t get enough back?

    February 21, 2017
    By Apprentice Monk

2 comments

  1. Prana Dasa 30 March, 2019 at 01:31 Reply

    Awesome work guys. Keep it up

    Ys Prana dasa

  2. Nitin 1 September, 2019 at 05:28 Reply

    This is such a great presentation of philosophy. I showed it to kids aged between 6-13yrs old, everyone of them could get an idea of the diff between body n soul. It was their first time to hear about Soul.

    Well animated for the present generation. Thoughtful.

    Regards
    Nadiachandra das

Leave a reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recommended for you

  • Bhagavad Gita wisdom

    Hacking your inner hacker

  • EventsInteractive & Quiz

    The Soulful Saturday Experience

  • Bhagavad Gita wisdom

    How our conscience works

Feeling inquisitive?

Ask a question and allow us to scratch your philosophical itch and bring you some peace!


 

Post Categories

Quiz and Courses

EventsInteractive & Quiz

The Mystic India Retreat 2023

  • The Soulful Saturday Experience

    By Radha Govinda das
    April 30, 2022

Timeline

  • October 8, 2022

    The Mystic India Retreat 2023

  • July 20, 2022

    Be part of the Krishna Wisdom tribe

  • April 30, 2022

    The Soulful Saturday Experience

  • March 1, 2022

    Soul Expressions

  • November 20, 2021

    The Simple Retreat

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • The Mystic India Retreat 2023

    By Radha Govinda das
    October 8, 2022
  • Be part of the Krishna Wisdom tribe

    By Radha Govinda das
    July 20, 2022
  • The Soulful Saturday Experience

    By Radha Govinda das
    April 30, 2022
  • Soul Expressions

    By Radha Govinda das
    March 1, 2022
  • The Simple Retreat

    By Radha Govinda das
    November 20, 2021
  • IN ESSENCE: An online course – Soul, Karma, Reincarnation, Meditation, Yoga and Relationships

    By Apprentice Monk
    December 1, 2018
  • These 3 secrets of meditation will transform your life

    By Apprentice Monk
    April 25, 2017
  • The happiness quotient quiz

    By Apprentice Monk
    March 26, 2017
  • How not to meditate

    By Apprentice Monk
    November 30, 2016
  • Mind Body Soul – Bhakti yoga for beginners

    By Radha Govinda das
    February 7, 2021
  • Radha Govinda das
    on
    May 25, 2022

    These 3 secrets of meditation will transform your life

  • Radha Govinda das
    on
    May 25, 2022

    BEAMONK

  • Radha Govinda das
    on
    May 25, 2022

    Groups in the UK

  • Radha Govinda das
    on
    May 25, 2022

    Groups in the UK

  • Marianne
    on
    May 21, 2022

    Groups in the UK

Tag Cloud

animated (3) animation (3) atheism (3) atheist (3) bhagavad (9) bhakti (4) body (5) care (2) cartoon (3) compassion (3) consciousness (3) death (3) devotional service (3) earth (2) eastern (3) ebook (4) free (4) getaway (3) gita (10) god (7) happiness (3) hare (5) karma (9) krishna (12) life (12) love (17) lust (2) mantra (4) meditation (11) mind (6) peace (5) philosophy (3) problems (2) reincarnation (10) relationship (5) retreat (3) science (6) service (3) sex (3) soul (14) spiritual (22) spirituality (16) wisdom (10) world (2) yoga (18)

What is Krishna Wisdom?

Krishna Wisdom is a spiritual initiative based at Bhaktivedanta Manor, working in collaboration with School of Bhakti that is aimed at providing spiritual wisdom to seekers of spirituality and philosophy.

We believe that ‘Change begins within’ and hence, an inner transformation precedes universal betterment.

Our aim is to provide knowledge and wisdom of spiritual matters through events, music, courses and most of all – love and spiritual friendship.

© Krishna Wisdom, School of Bhakti, Bhaktivedanta Manor, 2022

Login

Forgot Password?

Insert/edit link

Enter the destination URL

Or link to existing content

    No search term specified. Showing recent items. Search or use up and down arrow keys to select an item.