9 Apr 2011 —
Question
Q175: Invisible Soul?
Question 175:
“The soul (Atman) can’t be seen. So, why give so much importance to something invisible?”
Please make your answer clear and brief (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
Question 175:
“The soul (Atman) can’t be seen. So, why give so much importance to something invisible?”
Please make your answer clear and brief (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
Amma Sharnaam. Soul is the SELF. SELF gives eternal happiness which this world doesn’t give. Once you recognize your soul you go beyond birth and death.
Amma says that she’s not just in that 5-foot body but everywhere… I am unable to see her through my physical eyes because god cannot be understood, he can only be experienced… Similarly..visible or invisible soul shouldn’t be a matter.. My aim is god realisation…
The air that we constantly breathe to live is invisible, as the soul. as we accept the air as the vital force (the substratum) for our body, similarly the soul is the vital force (substratum) for our existence. Unfortunately our attention is attract to what we can see with the physical eyes; so we don’t give too much importance to the air and to the soul. But both are the very essence of our being.
May Amma’s Grace help us to withdraw our attention to the invisible and eternal soul that pervade all the creation.
As Amma says only the ATMAN is eternal. If we listen to our conscious the voice of the self or the God will be realised, which never let us down. Whenever we commit a mistake, our SELF keeps correcting us.
We don’t see the things that are at a distance, but even then we believe in their existence. Likewise the existence of the SUPREME SELF which cannot be seen can only be felt only when the mind is surrendered to Sadguru which otherwise keeps being agitated with thousands of useless thoughts.
Hunger invisible, anger invisible, happiness invisible…..! overcome…… soul becomes visible. namasivaya.
The stars can’t be seen when the Sun-God shines on the day,
Even the Full-moon is invisible as the Sun rides on the sky.
Even so, the soul attached to the filthy body and its senses,
Finds not its source, The Atman behind its pains and pleasures.
The sadhaka under the shade of guiding breeze of Guru’s grace,
Has found the Invisible, the Only lasting Reality beyond trace.
Aum Tat Sat Aum
The Atman is the Seer. It is that which sees. It is not a thing that is invisible, but the nature of consciousness itself through which all things are known.
Until you receive the grace of God or Guru, your rational mind will stick to the logic of “seeing is believing. I too was in this line of thinking. After meeting Amma, I realized that Atman is the core of being. It is said that every word and deed of a soul who experiences that state of oneness has a tremendous effect and this is what helped me a lot in eradicating the negative tendencies within me. Now I can absorb Amma’s teachings and trying to be just an instrument in Her hands. Amma Sharanam.
My opinion – It is faith. Spiritual experiences strengthens the faith that there is Atman
in my opinion EVERYTHING has a soul – which is why (again in my opinion) it is essential to treat everything with love in thought, word & deed.
so that we don’t do nonsense by giving importance to something visible..
In the stand point of our material life, if we give importance to only a visible thing, then why we give much importance to our ancestors? We sometimes never get to know or see our parents of grandparents at all, but till the end of the life we like to carry them with our name with lineage, heritage and surname…
The question is more like towards an existing dogma that…that which can be perceived by our senses can only be true. The human tendency to find out the the abstract “objects” and soul and define them in terms of tangible and empirical methods are present all through his history…why? I don’t think, except Amma, anybody can answer that question. Probably, this could be a general human tendency to “peek under the hood”…to know the abstract meaning of everything around us…this is an innate quest we all have…probably this might be what Amma says that human being is superior to other animals…there are some theories but not proven completely…there are some mental disorders in which this is partially removed…but scriptures say that it is the quest of our own mind to find out its source of origin!!!what can I say…about the unknown with the known, if unknown is more than the known and even how much is unknown is also not known!!!!
The soul is only invisible to the eye which sees through the conditioning of distinction. The sages use the physical eyes like all of use, but they are only windows. Whereas our window of sight perception has been smeared with the dirt of varying degrees of rigid distinction by the ego, the sages senses can be used optimally for the dross of the mind has be washed away in the flood of Unitive Knowledge. The soul of humankind is not limited to our false perception of individuality. The Jivatman (Individual Soul) is in fact the Paratman – The Supreme Soul or Undivided Essence which pervades everywhere…
Because I AM simply the SOUL not the physical body!!!