“Atma ki atma hain Govinda Radhey,
Ve hi ek tera nitya sanga nibha dey.”
(Synopsis of a talk by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on August 9, 2009, Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, explaining this new kirtan verse)
The soul or atma is the continuous sense of ‘I’ that we experience, whether in waking state, dream state or even deep dreamless sleep, yet it is also completely separate from these states. “That same ‘I’ that was in Allahabad yesterday is here today. The same ‘I’ that was seeing dreams in my sleep is here right now.” You all experience this. This sense of ‘I’ is called the soul.
Although the soul is based in the heart, it permeates the entire body. The soul’s presence gives rise to the body’s life or consciousness. Many verses from the Vedas have detailed this point that the soul permeates the entire body, regardless if it is the body of an elephant or an ant.
How big is the soul? The Kathopanishad (1/2/8) states that the soul is more subtle than the sublest thing that could be conceived. The same soul permeates a physical body. This is stated in the Mahopanishad (5/15).
The supreme soul of all the souls is God (paramatma). After death, the one’s to whom your physical body is related, such as one’s mother, father, daughter, son, wife, husband and so on, all change. But God is such a companion that he never leaves the soul. God eternally remains with the soul, regardless of the life form it enters. Even during Mahapralaya (complete universal dissolution) God is with the soul. He is the soul’s eternal companion. This is what we have to realize.
© Radha Govinda Samiti and Bhakti Bliss
