On leaving the body, does the soul retain its identity or merge with the cosmic whole?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
When the soul leaves the body, does it retain its identity or does it merge with other souls? No, the soul is an eternal individual. I’d write the first words of instruction that Krishna gives to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita is 2.12 when he says, नत्वेवाहं जातु नासं नत्वं नेमे जनातेपा नचेवन भविष्षामा सर्वेवयप्रम अताःपरं He says, oh Arjuna, I, you and all these kings, the Bhagavad Gita is spoken on a battlefield where two armies are facing each other.
So that’s why Krishna is saying, I, you and all these kings, we have all existed in the past and we will all exist in the future. So Krishna is talking about everyone as an individual. So when we say the identity, we often think of identity in terms of our present physical or biological identity.
That identity may not continue because that identity is associated with the body. But the soul as an individual will continue to exist. Just like, say, somebody, maybe a police officer.
When somebody is a police officer in India and they come to America and then they may become an engineer or they may take a job as an engineer, some other profession. The profession may change, the dress may change, the person remains the same. The soul, the Bhagavad Gita explains like a dress.
The body is like a dress for the soul. वासांसी जीर्णाने था विहाया नवानी ग्रणाति नरोपराणि था शर्णानी विहाया जीर्णानी अन्यानी सइन्याति नवानी देहे In 2.22 in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that just as a person when they grow, when their clothes get old and worn out, they discard the old clothes and get new clothes. Like that the soul discards old and worn out bodies and gets new body.
So the individuality of the soul is an eternal reality. And its identity, essential identity is not our biological identity. Its essential identity is its individual relationship with God and whatever identity it has in relationship with God.
So that identity is not manifest right now. But the individuality is something which is eternal.