SOUL, BODY AND SPIRIT CONNECTION

INTRODUCTION:

Soul is regarded as an immaterial aspect within the body of the human person.  Some consider the soul to be an integral part of life and functions and also the source of the highest mental activities. Soul is almost synonymous with self, spirit or mind.  The basic conception of soul in the ancient civilizations was life. 

LIFE:

Life of the body is regarded as the soul. Breath, life and movement are associated with the soul. At death all bodily functions stop and the soul departs from the body. The location of the soul could be any part of the body or function.  The ancient Hebrews and Greeks viewed that the soul also ceases on death of the body. 

RELIGIOUS CONCEPT:

 Greek philosophers Plato and Plotoinus believed that soul pre-exists the body and at death it separates from the body to attain its full and perfect state.  Hindus and Buddhists believe that the soul is reincarnated through recurrent life cycles until it is relieved through moral, intellectual or spiritual perfection.   The Jews, Christians and Muslims believe that the souls are held to rejoin their bodies on the day of Judgment/ Resurrection (1). 

The western concepts of the soul were shaped by the traditional western philosophy, which started with the ancient Greeks. Plato said that the soul achieves a pure state only after the release from its prison house of the body. Aristotle told the inseperability of the soul from the living organis,. He connected the soul to the vegetative and animal functions. 

Rene Descartes of 17^th century French Philosopher emphasized the thinking aspect of the soul and identified it with mind or understanding. He referred that the soul is the vital force in the animal bodies and called them mind or spirit. From all these we believe that the soul is immortal. Coming to the great Indian book, Bhagavad Gita says that the soul is immortal and it changes bodies like human beings change their clothes.

 All spiritual people believe that the man has three elements: spirit, soul and body. The body encases the soul and the soul encases the spirit. At the death time, only the body dies but the soul and spirit live on. Animals are believed to have only souls but not spirit. It is also believed that human spirit exists eternally as a part of Universal spirit. The spiritualists hold that the soul enters the body at conception , some hold that this entry happens a few months after the conception.

The Islamic views on this concept are presented here which are taken from Quran and commentaries of Allama Yusuf Ali. According to those views Mankind was created from single soul.

 "0 mankind reverence your Lord, who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath scattered countless men and women." ………… 4:1

"0 ye who believe Guard your own souls, if ye follow  (right) guidance, no hurt can come to you from those who stray. The goal of you all is to God: it is He that will show you the truth of all that ye do."  ---5: 105

TO BENEFIT ONE’S SOUL:

 "Whoever works righteousness benefits his own soul, whoever works evil, it is against his own soul."   --41:46

DEATH AND SOUL:

 "Every soul earneth only on its own account, no bearer of burdens   can   bear   the   burden   of another.  Your goal   in  the  end  is towards  God:  He  will  tell  you  the truth  of  things  wherein  ye  disputed (differed)."    6:164

 "On no soul does God place a burden greater than it can bear (in terms of material  wealth  or   spiritual duty)."   ---2:286;  23:62

 "But   those   who   believe   and   work righteousness, - no burden do We place on any soul, but that which it can bear."    7:42

 "On the day when every soul will be confronted with all the good it has done, and all the evil it has done, it will wish there were a great distance between it and its evil." -3:30

 "Every soul will be  (held) in pledge for its deeds."  74:38  

Man cannot shift his responsibility to vicarious saviors or saints. His redemption is possible only by God grace, for which he should whole heartedly serve the God and righteousness. If he or she does, they redeem.

"One day every soul will come up struggling for itself, and every soul will be recompensed  (fully) for all its actions, and none will be unjustly dealt with." 16:111  

No other soul can help the other soul from the danger and everyone are responsible for their own soul. Full justice will be done and final emancipation is granted depending on his Karma.

Three stages of development of human soul:

1) AMMARA:

This is prone to evil and if not evaluated and controlled will lead to total destruction and ruin

2) LAWWAMA:

 The soul feels conscious of evil, and resists it , asks for God grace and pardon after repentance and tries to amend, to hopes to reach salvation.

 3)MUTMAINNA:

The highest stage of all , when it achieves full rest and satisfaction. The second stage may be compared to conscience , except that conscience is a faculty and not a stage in spiritual develop ment.

SLEEP AND DEATH:

"It is God that takes the souls at death, and those that die not during their sleep.  He keeps that (soul) for which He hath ordained death and dismisseth the rest till an appointed term.  Verily in this are signs    for    those  who reflect." --39:42  

The more spiritual truths are:

Our existence is not only the whole story of our soul.

In our bodily life we may die to the spiritual world and in our bodily death, may be our awakening to spiritual world rises.

There is a spiritual truth that our nightly sleep, besides performing the physical life, gives us a foretaste of what we call death, which does ot end our personality

The another truth is that the resurrection is not more wonderful than our daily rising from sleep “ twin- brother of death”.

TASTE OF DEATH:

"Every soul shall have a taste of death."  21:35;     29:57

The soul does not die but it only seperates from the body , the soul gets a taste of death. If we prove our spirituality after many obstacles given by the god then we can almost return to him and then will or life be appraised at its true value.

SOUL HOMEPLACE IS HEAVEN NOT BODY:

(To the righteous soul will be said) "0 (thou) soul, in    (complete) rest    and satisfaction!  Come back thou to thy Lord - well pleased (thyself) and well pleasing unto Him Enter thou, then among My devotees!  Yea enter thou My Heaven '. "    89:27-30

Death is the freedom from all the pains, sorrow , struggle, doubt, disappointment, passion and every desire. In Muslim theology this stage of the soul is the final stage of bliss.

SCIENITIFIC VIEWS ON SOUL BODY CONNECTION:

The physical world consists of material objects that occupy space and has some properties like mass, magnetsm etc whereas mental world is not of material objects but our thoughts. The Bible’s Old Testament presents that the soul is breath or life. The New Testament identifies soul with the self and mind. 

The catholics believe that the “soul is the source of thought activity.” " The above concept of soul appears to be necessary because soul is neither visible nor its physical presence be detected in any direct way. If soul is not space, then it exists in time. 

Here the issue 1s more subtle. If soul is the source of the human perception then   this   must   include   the   human perception of time.  If a concept is abstract rather than substantial does not make it unreal or illusory.  For example one's nationality. 

In computer analogy if body is the hardware then soul or mind could be compared to software. Therefore in principle it is possible for the mind to survive after death of the brain by transferring it to some other mechanism or system.