| Essence Of Hinduism |
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HINDU PHILOSOPHY |
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| At the centre of
every soul there is the same divine spark. The Atman, when it is clothed in upadhis, which
mean the moral, mental and physical limitations of the individual, becomes the Jiva.
Jivas are separate from one another as islands in the ocean. Islands in the ocean appear
as separate places with different physical features and with different fauna and flora.
But we know that deep down in the ocean they are all connected together by land. Without
that internal connection they could never stand. So also individual souls. For sill practical purposes each individual is a separate unit. He is a moral agent. He sins and falls. He does good and is raised. As he sows, he reaps-either in this world or in the next. But his salvation lies in his finally transcending his individuality. We know as much even from our everyday lives. At first sight, we all seem to be rigidly apart from one another. But we are able to understand one another, love one another and enter into one another's minds. This sense of unity raised to the maximum constitutes the mystic vision of the living unity of all creation, of which the scriptures speak. It is not, therefore, our highest scriptures, but its ultimate reality as a separate and independent unity deny that the existence of the individual soul. When the limitations of the body, mind and understanding are removed, the individual is no longer an individual. H becomes one with the universal spirit in which he lives and moves, just as, when a pot is broken, the space hitherto 'enclosed within becomes one with the infinite space without. Thus, as on the question of the reality of the world, we have on this question of the individuality of the soul also a higher view and a lower view. The lower view, namely, that there are separate individuals is not a false view. |
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