What is the weight and the size of the soul?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
The soul is a non-material being. That’s why the soul does not have any physical weight.
In fact, there have been some researches done and if you compare the weight of the body just before the moment of death and after death, there are no significant differences found. It is not that a certain chemical pops out of the body. And the important point is to recognize that the soul is not a physical object.
In some cases, because of certain biochemical factors, certain changes may happen in the body because of which there may be some differences in some physical dimensions. But the soul is a spiritual being. And when we talk about spiritual being, it does not have a physical dimension like weight.
So, the soul is non-material. And that’s why it is aprameyam. Aprameyam means, Bhagavad Gita describes in the Bhagavad Gita, in the second chapter, 18th verse, that it is beyond any form of material measurement.
The soul itself does not have any weight. Any other questions? Was your question anything more specific? Yes. What is the description of the spirit or the soul being one hundred thousandth of a hair? Okay, good question.
I was expecting this when I talked about the soul being immeasurable. So, when you have heard that the soul is one ten thousandth the tip of a hair. So now, if you look at it, it is primarily indicative it is not literal.
If somebody says that the soul is Keshagraha Shatabhagasya Shatadhapalkitas Kalpitasicham that is the Upanishadic verse. It is one ten thousandth the tip of a hair. Now, how are we going to measure the size of a tip of a hair? How do you decide what is the tip? Is it this much or is it this much or is it this much? And then how do we decide how much are we going to divide it into? So, the important point is this is not a in this case the emphasis is not on the literal size.
The emphasis is on the number is given as an indicator of minuteness. So, the soul is Apramaya, it is beyond material measurement and the one ten thousandth of a tip of a hair that is not a precise mathematical calculation because the tip of a hair itself is not a precise mathematical dimension. So, the idea of saying one ten thousandth is to convey the minuteness of the soul in a visually evocative way.
But the soul is beyond material dimensions. And just its minuteness is conveyed in a indicative way by giving a dimension. Whenever we hear any statement in scripture we cannot take one statement and see it as the absolute truth because the same scripture say the same Upanishadic body of knowledge which talks about this particular dimension of one ten thousandth of a tip of a hair that same Upanishadic body of knowledge also states that the soul is Apramaya, it is immeasurable.
So, immeasurable means it is not talking about immeasurable in the sense of being immeasurably large but it is talking about immeasurable in terms of being immeasurably solid. So, this is an indicative dimension, not a literal dimension.