WHAT
IS SOUL (ATMA)?
Many
people are perplexed when they try to fathom the meaning of the word ‘Soul’
or ‘Atma’. They assure and presume the meaning , according to their own
intellectual wave length and remain contended and satisfied.
According
to the author’s perception, the definition of the Soul or Atma is as follows :
Soul
= Spiritually Oriented Universal Light.
Atma
= Automatic Timely Moving Aspect.
In
truth, the Atma is that supernatural power (The Inertia) created by God with His
Sankalpa (Will and Command), which always was, still remains, and will always be
present. The Atma never perishes, nor it ever dies. It always remains because it
is the Truth. It is God.
Electricity
is supplied from the power house to all the inanimate objects, all over the
world, known as various gadgets, such as Ovens, Cookers, Refrigerators,
Air-conditioners, Washing machines, Televisions, Theaters, Automobiles,
Computers and many more such gadgets. Though the supply of the electricity is
the same, yet the functions of each and every individual gadgets is entirely
different.
In
a similar manner, the Atma is the supernatural power or the energy created by
God and supplied by God, not only to all the human beings all over the world but
even to the birds, bees, plants, inanimate objects, planets and to the entire
Universe. Without this Atmic power or energy, the entire Cosmos will come to a
standstill, just as in the case of electricity, when the supply is cut off,
nothing functions and there is chaos and turmoil all over.
Now
the difference between the electrical supply from the power house and the Atmic
energy from the source of God is that the electricity is generated and produced
through the human intellect and resources, and can also be destroyed through the
human resources, like a sabotage operation or by waging a war. But the Atmic
energy cannot be destroyed, unless it is withdrawn by God Himself as per His
Will or Command. Because Atma is God.
Many
people always quote and it is also firmly believed that, “Not even a
leaf moves without the Will of God”. This statement is also confirmed by
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in His present human form. But people try to mis-interrupt
the above statement and put the blame on God for everything they do whether good
or the bad. God is only a witness to the circumstances. He is not the doer of
all the actions committed by the human beings. The fact of the above statement
is that the Atmic power which is God who resides in our hearts, prompts us
through His energy to act this way or that way. Without that energy, we will not
be able to perform any action but will be like a dead log. So, Atmic energy is
the Will of God, and not the actions deliberately done by the human beings could
be considered as the Will of God. This illusion is the cause of the greatest
error on the part of the human beings. God is Love. God cannot hurt anybody or
harm anyone. God is Caring, Consoling and Healer of the all the wounds. How can
He ever be revengeful? It is a bad and vicious judgment on the part of the human
beings to hold God responsible for all their deeds and actions.
The
most oft-used question of all the human beings today is, “Why God created this
Universe, with all the misery, agony, hatred and confusion?” The answer is,
“God never Willed it this way. It is we human beings, who are the cause of all
this turmoil in this beautiful creation of the Loving God, who is so
Compassionate and Perfect”.
As
the story goes..God was all alone and He felt the urge of loving Himself. He
could not do it single-handed. If one wants to express love or experience love,
one needs at least two people. So God said, “Let Me become many”. This He
did in order to experience to love Himself. As per His Will He became many. Then
He thought of the pleasure and comfort of so many people created by Him. So He
created the entire Universe, with the intention to provide all the comforts and
happiness to them, because everybody was Him and Love was the Source. He then
implanted the secret knowledge in the mind of human beings, to enable them to
come back to Him, as and when they so desired. Along with this true knowledge He
also gave them a little of free will, to enable them to know and understand the
purpose of their creation and ultimately to go back to the final source that is
Him. The human beings used this little free will for their own benefit and
physical comforts and got themselves so entangled in the graph, they themselves
planted around them that they forgot the way back to their true home land and
are wandering hither and thither aimlessly and are constantly blaming God for
taking their memory away as they are not able to find the way to their true home
land.
The
Merciful God is now caught up, in His own plight of creating this wonderful
Universe which has now become a vicious circle. He even cannot undo now what He
has already Willed to do. But still out of His own Compassion, He has been kind
and generous enough to take this human body as Sri Sathya Sai Baba and is doing
His utmost to revive the memory of all the human beings after entire world and
is personally guiding them and showing them the way to reach their true
destinations, the aboard of Eternal Peace that is Bhagavan Baba Himself.
He
says, “As you eat nourishing food to sustain your body and keep it healthy, so
that you can enjoy life, you must also give proper food to your Soul (Atma) to
remain fit and trim and that food for the Soul (Atma) is doing Namasmarana
(Singing the glory of the Lord through the Chanting of the Bhajans) every day.
This will sustain your Soul (Atma) and keep it healthy”. He further says that
it is only through the healthy body and the purified Soul (Atma) that you can
reach your destination - that is you can get Moksha (Liberation).
Let
us all resolve today and put an effort to lead our lives and move to the path as
shown by Bhagavan Baba, so that we all the individual Atmas can get merged with
Paramatma (The Power House of all the Atmas).
I
cannot refrain but to mention here a small story about the Love and Compassion
of the Lord which I read somewhere, and cannot get it erased from my memory.
There
was a man who always believed in God. Since the very young age, he trusted God,
and was sure that God was all the time moving along with him walking, talking
and guiding him all the time. When he became old, he tried to recollect all his
past thoughts. He saw a vast forest and could always see the two pairs of
footsteps imprinted on the sand of the forest; only to find out that act the fag
end of his life, when he was passing through a desperate situation of his life,
he could notice only one pair of footsteps on the sand. He then cried and prayed
to God and said how can He the all Merciful Lord leave him alone when he needed
Him the most. There came the reply from the God, “Oh, my dear precious child,
when you see the one pair of footsteps on the sand they are my footsteps because
during that period of time, you were so exhausted that I was carrying you in my
lap”. This consoled the man and tears came to his eyes.
Let
us also learn to cry for the mercy of the Lord. We cry for so many things in
life; whenever desires are not satisfied, or when something we want, we do not
receive. But have we ever cried for the God Himself? Cry for the Love of Bhagava
Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Tell Him that your eyes are yearning to see Him, and to
have His Darshan. Cry out to Him that you cannot live without Him. And see
the Miracle of all the Miracles to happen.
Amen!