The body is separate and the soul is separate and both combine to become a living creature (jiivaatmaa), a living soul (jiivit aatmaa). ‘Living soul’ means the sentient power that works with the body, otherwise neither the soul nor the body can work [separately]. This is compared to a car and its driver. For example, there is a car. If there is a driver in it, it will move. If there is no driver, the car won’t move. It means that the soul… (A brother said: It is air.) It isn’t air. Earth, water, air, fire and sky, these five inert elements that form the body are different. Even when the soul leaves the body made of these five elements, the five elements remain in it. They are either burnt or buried in the earth. Those are inert elements but what is the soul that is different from the body? It is a very subtle point of light (jyotirbindu) along with the mind and intellect. It is described in the Gita as: ‘anoraniyaansamanusmaret yah’ (Ch.8, shloka 9). It means, it is said to be minute than even an atom. It is an atom but it is luminous. That sentient atom in the form of the mind and intellect contains the sanskaars of many births. The soul is said to be the combination of the mind, intellect and sanskaars. It is also mentioned in a ricaa (verse) of the Vedas: ‘manarev aatmaa’, meaning the mind itself is called the soul. When the soul leaves a body, it isn’t said that the mind and intellect are remaining and the soul has left. When everything [else] exists, but the power of the mind and intellect has left, it means the soul has left.
Actually, the other name for the power of the mind and intellect itself is soul. Sanskaars of the present and past births are recorded in the mind and intellect. The meaning of sanskaar is, the influence [on the soul or imprint] of good and bad deeds that are performed is called ‘sanskaar’. Suppose, a child is born in a butcher’s family. [He has seen] the slaughtering of cows there since his childhood. On growing up, when that child is told that slaughtering cows is a serious sin, it won’t sit in his intellect because his sanskaars [of killing cows] have become very strong. In this way, sanskaars is the third thing. So, these three powers, [i.e.] the mind, intellect and sanskaars together are called the point of light soul.
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