The Amazing Jiva – The Spiritual Spark

​In the Introduction to the Spiritual Science and in earlier posts I’ve referred to the living being as the jiva, or the spiritual energy, and have given some explanation of what I mean by that. In this post I want to explain the jiva in detail.

When we say jiva we refer to the soul. For many people that doesn’t help much for the simple reason that this word is so poorly explained in the Western religious traditions. I was raised as a Catholic and attended parochial school through the eighth grade. Additionally I served as an altar boy attending the priest during the mass. With that background I have a as much education about Catholic theology as most Catholics. What did I learn there? That we are the soul and the body. At the time of death the body goes to the grave and the soul (undefined) goes to purgatory to await the final judgment.
​At that time the bodies will be resurrected from the grave (ugh! Such a nasty thought!), become whole again, and reunite with the soul to ascend to heaven with the Lord or be damned to hell forever. This was a concept that I could never accept, nonetheless that is what was taught and expected to be accepted without question. Of course I had questions, like, what happens if the body is burned, or if it is eaten by an animal? I don’t remember them offering any satisfying answers, so I kept my doubts.

Perhaps the church has updated this concept by now, but that is what was taught 60 or so years ago. The other Judeo-Christian religions don’t do much better for the simple reason that their primary scripture, The Bible, doesn’t give much of an explanation of spirit or soul, or any philosophical explanation for how it all works. People are just told to accept the concepts on faith and to believe, and if they believe they will be “saved.” Just as for me, that doesn’t work for a lot of people and hence they leave the churches in droves.

But there is a much better explanation of the soul available from the Vedic literature, beginning with the Bhagavad-gita, which is the introductory source book of spiritual wisdom.

A Word about the Bhagavad-gita

The Bhagavad-gita is accepted in the Vedic tradition as being spoken by God (Krishna) Himself, who was present on this earth some 5,000 years ago. It covers the fundamental principles of theology in five areas: God, the living being, material activities or karma, the nature of this material world, and time. The Gita provides answers to our existential questions that are philosophically sound without the need of accepting dogma on blind faith. It thus satisfies the intellect, but it satisfies the heart also in describing the relationship between the jiva and the Lord, and how the Lord pervades and supports the material world as well as is the ever-present companion of the jiva as the Supersoul.

The setting for the Gita is a great battle wherein the protagonist of the Gita, Arjuna, is both a warrior and friend of Krishna. Just prior to the beginning of the battle Arjuna, seeing his friends and relatives on the opposing side, loses heart and shrinks from the fight, despondent over the prospect of having to fight and kill them. In response Lord Krishna speaks the entire Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, not only explaining that the soul is eternal and never subject to death, but its relationship with the Supreme Lord as well as its situation in this material world. We will have much more to say about the Gita in future posts.

The Nature and Qualities of the Soul

Lord Krishna thoroughly explains the nature and qualities of the soul. Here is what He says:

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings [on the battlefield] nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. For the soul there is never birth nor death, nor having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. Just as the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized person is not bewildered by such a change.

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material energy] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the spiritual energy] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.

He who thinks that the living entity is the slayer or that he is slain, does not understand. One who is in knowledge knows that the self slays not nor is slain. Only the material body of the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal living entity is subject to destruction. How can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable kill anyone or cause anyone to kill? That which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.

The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. The individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same. Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.

It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable and immutable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body. For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty [as a warrior], you should not lament. All created beings are unmanifest [in this world] in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation? He who dwells in the body can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any living being.

By constant repetition Lord Krishna makes clear the nature of the soul as eternal and unchangeable and that it inhabits one body after another in what is known as reincarnation. Further He makes it clear that the soul is never affected or impacted by anything in this world – fire, wind, cold, water, etc. – only can affect the body, but the soul is impervious.

Where is the Soul?

Because our consciousness seems to be behind our eyes there is a tendency to think that the soul is somehow situated there. But elsewhere in the Vedic literature we learn that the jiva is a mere spark of spiritual energy, 1/10,000th the size of the tip of a hair (subatomic) that is situated in the heart, along with the Lord Himself as the Supersoul. This of course explains the heart as the seat of deep feelings, longing and love. The consciousness seems to be behind the eyes because that’s the location of the mind. The mind functions as the nexus of the senses, and the soul sees, hears, smells, etc. through the agency of the mind.

There is an interesting anecdote regarding the soul in the heart. A heart surgeon and brain surgeon were once lunching together, and over their meal they were discussing the inexplicable highway of nerves that runs between the heart and the brain. Generally the heart is thought of as a muscle whose purpose is to pump blood. But other muscles have only on nerve that activates them, while the heart has dozens. They decided to investigate the situation and what they found from their study is that many times the heart is telling the brain what to do, rather than the brain telling the heart what to do! That is because the soul and Supersoul are located there and they are telling the brain what to do. This is why the heart is sometimes thought of as a source of inspiration, when we say for example, that we “have a feeling” to do something. The doctors have gone much deeper into their study and have developed HeartMath into an entire field of treatment – “HeartMath scientifically monitors your physical and emotional health and helps you improve it.” See www.heartmath.com,

The Spiritual Science teaches how to contact your own self in the heart, as well as the Supersoul. Not only will your health improve but you will learn to be guided in every action by the Lord Himself.

The above should make it perfectly clear that we are the soul and we have only a temporary relationship with this body. We had another body prior to this one and will most likely have another body after this one. Further, the end goal of spiritual pursuit is to become forever free from reincarnation in this world by transferring ourselves to the spiritual world in a completely spiritual body. Understanding this is fundamental to spiritual pursuits. Not understanding this people use religion praying to God to give them a nice and happy material experience, overlooking the fact that everything here is temporary and ultimately a waste of time. We will never find the happiness and satisfaction we desire in this material world!

The Vaishnava spiritual tradition, from which I teach, explains that this is like trying to enjoy a dream, and however nice the dream may be we wake up and it’s gone. Rather than praying to God for material sense pleasures we should pray to God for liberation from this temporary world of death! Let’s wake up to the fact that there is another reality besides this faulty material world. This is not the best that God can do! It is made faulty for the purpose to awaken us to another higher reality, and human life is meant to be used to achieve that ultimate state of existence.

I hope that it is clear now that when I refer to the jiva I am referring to the living spiritual being, the soul that is endowed with these qualities.

If you have any questions after reading this, or any other post, please send them via the question box on the home page. I will answer them periodically in this blog.