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Who Are You?

Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak in the Indian Punjab in the late 1500s, like most Eastern religions, teaches that the individual soul (or jivatman) is something other than the body. According to Guru Nanak, like the Sanatana Dharma, there are 8.4 million types of beings in the world. Half of these life forms live in the water; the other half are divided between the land and air (the physical heavens). Occupying these embodied life forms are the transient souls. Through the processes of conception, birth, aging, and death, these souls constantly pass through their seemingly endless lives. Through this transmigration process (known as reincarnation, gilgul neshamot, rebirth, etc.), the jivatman or soul passes from one life form to another, gradually working their way up the ladder of realization through rebirths until the human form is achieved. You can see, therefore, how special this human form of life truly is. It is one out of 8.4 million possible life forms! In Jewish terminology, only when the entity achieves a human form is the soul truly in the image of One God.

According to Sanatana Dharma, Judaism, Christianity, Sikhism, and most other spiritual systems, the human form is the highest form of physical life because only in this lifeform can the embodied soul attain liberation from the dualism of physicality. This is because the human form is uniquely endowed with a reasoning mind capable of pondering itself and One God. Only humans can seek the answers whereby the entity can achieve liberation from dualism. Each rung of the biological ladder provides ever greater self-awareness to the roaming soul, from single-celled amoeba to fish and birds, mammals to humans. The Sikh understanding of this is confirmed in Gurbani (or "the Divinely revealed Word"):

This time having been born as a human being.
This is your turn to meet the Supreme Lord.
Your other activities will be of no avail in the end,
Seek the company of holy people and only contemplate God.
Set your mind on crossing the sea of life,
For your life is being wasted away
In pursuits of pleasures of the world — Asa Mohalla.

Human life opens the portal to liberation for those who choose to enter. In order to use this golden opportunity, one must resist the temptations of the material world, especially the tendency to see oneself as a material being rather than a spiritual being. From this perspective, it took us a very long time to realize there is more to us than creature forms. Guru Nanak says the 'other activities (we performed before becoming human) will be of no avail in the end.' With this reasoning, most people of the biblical traditions who embrace the truth of Gilgul Neshamot believe souls only return in human forms. Most other paths say the souls can pass through all forms of life to achieve the mukti or liberation. Are there valid reasons for returning as a non-human? Certainly. There is much to be learned as the various experiences are 'stamped' into the soul's consciousness. Whether the soul returns as nonhuman is an unanswerable doctrinal question. There are Scriptures (Shastras) that take both sides of the question. In any case, only as humans can the entity rise above physicality, transcend physical forms, and return Home. Doing so is the next step in our spiritual evolution. If we only use this opportunity to enjoy or lament our physical states, we will slip back into ever lower life forms or become trapped in the animal soul nature. Who can say how long it took us to gain this human form with the consciousness to choose One God? Who can say how long it would take us to achieve it again if we do not use this opportunity? Is it not best to learn to view the soul properly in order to accomplish this transformation into our next form rather than digress again?

The goal of the Sant Mat (or Sikhism) is not the attainment of a Christian/Islamic Heaven, a Jewish earthly paradise, nor the Swarga or 'spiritual realms' of popular Hinduism. The ultimate goal of life, according to Sikhism, is to merge into the 'Supreme Soul' (known as Nirguna Brahman or Infinite Formlessness) and, as in Buddhism, cease individual existence altogether. This has been described as spiritual suicide by its critics.

Sikhism, like Buddhism, seeks to extinguish (they would say transcend) individual existence by merging it into the totality of all existence wherein the duality of Paramatma and atma (Self and self) cease. Sikhs do not seek to "become gods." Sikhs seek to unite with everything as a single consciousness. Sikh writers refer to this as the "Uninterrupted Bliss," which is experienced after mukti or liberation is achieved. Jainism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism all use the term mukti or moksha to describe this state. However, they have differing understandings of what the term means. For Sikhs and Buddhists, the ego-self does not actually experience this sought-after bliss because once moksha is achieved, the jiva ceases to experience anything! They say the liberated jiva is absorbed into the unified consciousness of all, wherein it ceases to exist as an individual Self. This belief is at odds with Jewish, Christianity, Islam, and the Sanatana Dharma (other than the followers of Adi Shankar).

'Personalist' religious systems, on the other hand, seek to perfect the individual souls and enhance their experiences with One God continually into eternity. For most Jewish Chasidim, Christians, Jains, and most Hindus (those who do not follow the teachings of Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta), individual existence continues in an ever-purified state. This state of continuing consciousness is described in many ways. According to Sanatana Dharma teacher Swaminarayan's Vachanamrut, such a joyful existence is not only a future prospect. It can be enjoyed in the present moment. Most Personalist schools would agree with his assessment. As Vachanamrut, Gadhadā III-8 teaches:

[The] Means to remaining eternally happy in this world and the realm beyond:

a. Gaining control of the senses [indriyas] with detachment [vairāgya] and swadharma [or dharma: religious principles according to one's marga or God-defined destiny, and karma or fruitive results].
b. To God and his Bhakta [or, Devotees]:
i. Developing intense love and maintaining friendship with them.
ii. Never becoming indifferent towards them.
iii. Being pleased only by their company.
c. Not liking the company of a non-believer.

Obstacles in bhakti [or devotion] toward God:

a. Not realizing one's own weaknesses and strengths.
b. Becoming aloof from God and His Bhaktas.
c. Developing indifference towards the Bhaktas of God.

The Path of Faith and Devotion (Bhakti Yoga) leads to eternal joy for the atman or individual soul. Complete loving attachment, faith in, and devotion to, One God. In Hebrew, this state of enhanced consciousness is known as devekut]. It is the Way of complete Self-Enlightenment and Unending Joy.

The two primary types of "Impersonalists," The "Mayavadi" and "Brahmavadi," believe that once united with the Absolute (or Brahman), all independent existence ceases. At that point, they are utterly and eternally "reabsorbed" into nirguna brahman, which they consider to be the only True Reality. The same is true with Buddhism and Sikhism.

According to the Bhagavad Gita, all entities, including the "Mayavadin" and "Brahmavadin" are eternally progressing upon their diverse Paths (or margas) seeking One God. Omnism, therefore, considers atheism a spiritual path. The Mayavadin, being deceived by illusion (or Maya) become so enamored by duality they cannot see beyond it. Such people are often hostile towards the Bhaktis and other renunciates because their faith in Bhagavan or God seems like an unspoken accusation against Mayavadi hedonism. When such people embrace spirituality, which they often do, it is not out of love for One God but out of a desire to become gods themselves. Such people are described as the Erev Rav in the Talmudic literature. Rather than desiring to serve God and the living entities, they demand to be served, to be honored, and to be shown ritualistic respect. Such people are "Show bottle Spiritualists" who have not reached even the first rung on the ladder of spirituality. They are the source of much that is wrong in all religious traditions.

The Brahmavadin are sincerely enamored by the spiritual mysteries and splendors surrounding God's Throne and yet have never achieved the experience of the One seated there. Whereas the Mayavadin reject One God and desire no concord with the Supreme Being other than out of self-interests and personal power, the Brahmavadin, once tasting the spiritual nectar, usually accept God as God and humble themselves before the Holy One. This is often difficult for them, however, because, having experienced and thereby absorbing slight glory into themselves, it can be difficult for the Brahmavadin to surrender their perceived personal glory to the One from Whom all glory comes and is due.

For impersonalists of either type, having achieved a touch of the impersonal effulgence (known as "sat" or eternality), radiating from Bhagavan, without coming to know Bhagavan, there is no sense of knowledge or bliss. The impersonalists sense the reality of eternity, which transcends time as we know it, but they lack experiential knowledge of God, and therefore, their experience of going beyond time and space brings them no bliss (or ananda).

On the one hand, the bhakta or devotee of One God experiences the reality of "sat" (eternality) by being in the very presence of Paramatma (i.e., the Supreme Person, One God), and thereby the devotee realizes "chit" or inward knowledge (i.e., da'at in Hebrew) which produces "ananda" or lasting bliss. In a Hebrew context, these three, sat, chit, ananda elevate the soul to the highest triad of Chokmah and Binah, whereby Da'at elevates one to Keter, the equivalent of the crown chakra in the Sanatana Dharma systems. One who has achieved this truly knows "sat, chit, ananda vigraha," or "the form of existence, consciousness, and bliss. In other words, One God, Who is the divine form and embodiment of eternal being (sat), pure awareness (chit), and absolute happiness (ananda).

There are innumerable paths to God, as many as there are people walking them. One God lovingly accepts all efforts at Self-realization. However, most Scriptures agree that non-devotees, those following paths other than pure faith and devotion, do not achieve an audience with Sat, Chit, Ananda Vigraha until they decide to seek One God's Presence without other distractions.

In the Brahmavadin conception, there is no variegatedness, no service, no experience. There is only a sense of eternal oneness. Such oneness, while at first desired, is actually pretty boring! There's only so much unmanifest "Om" anyone can take! The Soul craves "Om Nama Bhagavate Vasudevaaya," an intimate relationship with One God. This is far beyond the Brahman conception of oneness, where there is no spiritual joy, only the Void. As said in the Torah, "It is not good for people to be alone." Souls need other souls. The Shastras of the Sanatana Dharma are filled with such divine and human associations.

Most Christians believe that upon death, the Soul goes to "Heaven" and lives forever in bliss. The New Testament says at Matthew 22:

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” 33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

Very little about this life is included in the New Testament or in Christian writings. In biblical times, the Sadducees found no evidence in the Tanach of an afterlife and believed that upon death, the soul ceases to exist. The Pharisees (or Rabbis) taught that at death, one either reincarnates or waits in the grave until resurrecting and entering an earthly paradise, Gan Eden. They were undecided on which. Some Kairaits believe as the Sadducees did, while most, since the 12th Century CE, believe in an afterlife as described in the 10 principles of faith taught by Hakham Yehudah Hadass. In either case, according to standard biblical religion, the soul is believed to be reembodied to live on the earth again in some manner. The Christian duality of Heaven and Hell aside.

Hinduism varies on the question of an afterlife. Some believe the soul continues to reincarnate until, at last achieving Svarga, an incomprehensible realm of light similar to the nondescript Christian Heaven. Biblical religion, Jewish and Christian, is lacking information about the afterlife they say they believe in. Others, such as the Hindu Vaishnavas, speak of many spiritual realms of bliss, such as Goloka Vrindavan, where the liberated souls interact with other liberated beings and with One God, Who manifests the Divine Self in myriad forms in order to have communion with the inhabitants of those realms while maintaining an eternal abode known as Akshardham. These spiritual realms may be considered mythological by those who lack understanding, but in the spiritual constructs of the Indian sastras (scriptures) and conceptions, their existence is both logical and, indeed, imperative. Souls continue ro reincarnate until, through the human form, they transcend Maya. They continue to grow and learn. The Path to God is unending.

In standard Sanatana Dharma, there are said to be seven higher realms. Svarga is one of these. Svarga is the realm inhabited by the devas or gods. Each of these seven realms are described as "heaven" (not unlike the Seven Heavens spoken of in the Talmud). However, these realms vary from each other in various ways and are said to be temporary and achieved as the Souls continue to advance. Hindus who follow the teachings of Adi Shankara (8th century CE), like the Buddhists and Sikhs, anticipate an end to all individualized existence and complete absorption into Nirguna or non-being, while standard Hindu theology, in their many sects, believe individual existence will continue forever. In Srimad Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna tells Arjuna:

15:4-6: That abode should be sought whence, having gone, one does not return but takes refuge in God, the primeval Person, from whom all activities eternally originate.
Devoid of pride and delusion, having conquered the contamination of attachment, established in eternal individuality, having quenched all desires, liberated from the dualities of pleasure and suffering, one who is thus undeluded attains that imperishable abode.
The sun, the moon, or fire do not illumine that supreme abode of Mine. Those who go there do not return.

As discussed last time, Sri Krishna addresses this issue in what is sometimes called the Bible of India. In paraphrase:

Bhagavad Gita 2:22: Just as a person casts off worn-out clothing and accepts new ones, so the embodied Soul [jiva atman] discards worn-out bodies and enters different ones.
2:23, 24: The Soul [atman] cannot be severed by weapons, burned by fire, wetted with water, nor dried by the wind. The Soul is unbreakable, unburnable. It cannot be made wet or dry. It is eternal and all-pervading, equable, immovable, and eternally constant.
2:25 - 28: Understand that the Soul is unmanifested. It is inconceivable and unchanging. Therefore, knowing the Soul to be thus, you should not lament. Furthermore, if you conclude that the Soul is constantly born and eternally dying, even then... you still ought not lament. For those born, death is certain and for those dead, birth is certain. For the sake of the inevitable, you should not lament. All beings are unmanifested in the beginning, manifested in the middle, and again unmanifested in the end. ...Where in this is cause for lamentation?
2:29: Some consider the Soul amazing. Some speak of the Soul as amazing, while others hear of it as amazing. And yet, no one truly knows the Soul.
2:30: The living entity dwelling within the material body is the eternal and indestructible Soul. It is only encased within a material form. This is the situation of all living entities, O descendent of Bharata, therefore you should not lament.

Question: Do you believe there is such as thing as a soul?

• Do you believe you are a physical person, a soulish person, a combination of these two?
• Do you agree with Sri Krishna that the soul (you) have always existed?
• After the soul is liberated from duality or achieves moksha, enlightened Self-realization, do you believe your Soul (you) will continue to exist saguna (with qualities/self-awareness) or nirguna (without qualified/awareness)?

We will discuss the three gunas and the Soul more in part 3 of this study.

Who Are You?
The Nature of the Soul, Part 3

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