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 But the Atmic energy cannot be destroyed, unless it is withdrawn by God Himself as per His Will or Command.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.