Nature of the soul and its bondage.
Nature and function of the Soul and the body: -
Creatures are thought to possess a body inside which is pervading a Soul. The phenomenon of the Soul comes into existence owing to the fact that on the death of the creature there finds something lacking. It appears as if a pot moved throughout its life due to some hidden power and now that power had stopped itself functioning. And then that the body, even looking same as before, does not possess that functioning power. That power which causes a physical structure to function and makes it look alive is known as ‘Soul’ of that body.
This Soul is believed to possess many bodies inside a body. They are the Physical Body, Vital Body, Mental Body, Intellectual Body and the hidden innermost essence of life, Bliss. A compounding of all these is then terminated as ‘Soul’. The physical structure could be thought of as an instrument through which this Soul satisfies its desires and communicates with the external world in various ways or it may be thought of as the outer casing of the Soul. Therefore the “Bliss” is the nature of the Soul, which is pervading throughout the other bodies in the universe. Bliss is the genuine nature of human beings.
The finite and the infinite nature of Soul:-
The Human Soul is strange and exhibits wonderful characteristics. It owns the qualities of God and a brute both and between these there lies quality of human. The finite Soul is self centered and infinite Soul is impartial. The finite Soul exhibits characteristics of smaller visions of here and now, love to the owns and hatred to the others, it essentially separates one man from another and rest of the universe it consist of self centered thoughts, desires, distortions, errors, strives, feelings of mine and yours, small love to allies, no love to enemies, untruth in thought, injustice in action, has a life with boundaries and barriers, is private, based on principle of division and results in essential conflict, desire of self preservation, builds prison-walls around it, endeavors to restrain from freedom (i.e. emancipation), aims dominion or lordship and thus is a source of all miseries and grieves.
Whereas the infinite Soul is universal, impartial, aims at the good, give love to all, leads to truth in thought, justice in action and universal love in feeling, has a life without barriers, embraces the whole creation. It is independent of here, now and me, it is the principle of union in the world, provides a ways to a more complete life, it gets around the prison-walls built about the finite self. It is liberal, peaceful, devoid of conflicts and disturbances, gives deeper insight to the individual, provides a harmonious life, infinite wisdom and love.
Nature of bondage: -
The savage man, knowing that the individual life is brief and impotent, is always terrified by the fact of death. The finite life of man is one, particular, finite, self centered, is attached to the body and views the world from the standpoint of the here and now. All those loves and hatreds which are established upon some service to the self belong to the finite life. The beloved of man and woman and the love of parents and children, when they don’t go beyond the promptings of the instincts are still part of animal nature. They see the universe as grouped about one point, the single struggling self. So the finite part of our life contains all that makes the individual man essentially separate from other men and from the rest of the universe.
All those thoughts and desires that cannot in their nature are dealt by the inhabitants of a different body. All the distortions that make error and the entire insistent claim that leads strife. The finite nature of the ego, is the principle of division of the universe and seek the welfare of the body and its descendants. The finite self impelled by the desire of self preservation builds prison—walls round the finite character of our nature and endeavor to restrain it from that free life in the whole which constitutes its being. The finite self aims at dominion and it is the major cause of bondage and slavery of the soul.
