‘Aatma’, a term invariably used for ‘soul’ as a plural entity, is the biggest singular truth. Like there cannot be many suns to the earth, there aren’t many Aatmas. It’s one aatma that resides in all earthly beings; it’s our bodies that are different as per the अष्टावक्रः गीता—Aṣṭāvakra Gītā. The Aatma Neither Leaves the Body nor Remains in the Body.
We are all the part of nature, beyond which there is more nature … The vast space, which is a part of the ever-expanding universe, is just the extension of nature that continues as a process, never stopping, signifying the continuity of life.
Indian folklore and the unchecked broadcast of religious thoughts and ideas have completely distorted the understanding of the Aatma, deviating from the teachings of the Vedas and Upanishads.
The self-proclaimed godmen and the grandmother tales have fed us that the soul enters the body at birth, and when it leaves, the body ceases to exist, when in reality our bodies are outcomes of physical, chemical, biological, and scientific processes. Like all other beings’ humans exist due to cellular interaction and the process of evolution over time that has given rise to these complex organ systems that run on different neurotransmitters and hormones. The Aatma Neither Leaves the Body nor Remains in the Body.
It’s the developed human brain that questioned its existence and has instilled in our minds the idea of the existence of a superior Param Aatma and the inferior Aatmas that are different from person to person and thus has given rise to the concept of ‘I’.
People believe that a person’s emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, confusion, or love, stem from the soul. However, science offers a more logical explanation: these emotions are the result of hormonal fluctuations. Controlling these surges or dips subdues or makes emotions more tolerable. Failure to do so would invalidate the entire system of modern and ancient medicine.
A human body is just another piece of working machinery made by nature, nothing more than that.
While the Rishis and Sadhaks knew the Vedic and Upanishadic texts well, which correctly answered the questions of the human mind, the artificial scriptures based on Smritis began to make mistakes and propagate them over the years. These mistakes were never cross-checked or scrutinised against Vedanta concepts. The current idea of the aatma treats it like some source of power that keeps the body running, and when its energy runs out, the bodily functions stop.
