| The structure
of individual life, if we may so call it, according to Vedanta is this: Each body has
lodged in it a soul, which fills it with life and changes an unintelligent mass of
lifeless material into a living being. Again, each soul is inspired by the Supreme Soul,
which gives the individual soul its being and its quality as a soul. Just as the soul
gives to the body the capacity to function as a living being, so does the Supreme Being
give to the soul its capacity to function as an individual soul? According to the Hindu faith, the same soul occupies various
tenements in various births. When it is lodged in a particular body, it has no memory of
its past or know ledge of its own true nature. The soul identifies itself completely for
the time being with each body which it succes- sively bears. In like manner, all souls
are, at one and the same time, the body of the Supreme Soul, but they do not realize it
and carry on as if separate from one another.
To take a very mundane analogy, we have seen several
departments deriving existence and authority from the same Government above and
functioning through the single and entire power of that Government, but opposing,
wrangling with and sometimes even over-reaching one another! In a some what similar manner
every soul is inspired by the overall Soul-and functions as a separate entity. |
