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<P LANG="en-US" CLASS="western" ALIGN=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<b><FONT size="4">Bypaths
of Soul's Journey</FONT></b></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>A POPULAR conundrum. Are the souls finite or infinite in
number? Supposing they are finite, then a time is sure to come when
there will be no more souls upon earth; for, as it is said, all souls
are evolving and in the end will pass out of earthly life and get
merged in their source, the Brahman, the absolute Reality. On the
other hand, if they are infinite, then, since all of them cannot
appear on earth at the same time, the number of human bodies that
house the souls being limited (at the most, a few thousand millions,
according to statisticians), what happens to those that are not
embodied, where do they wait or what do they do in that period? Do
all come down or embody in course of time? Will all have the chance,
will it be needed for all to take a body and sojourn on earth? No
doubt, there is a continual increase of population upon earth, does
that mean that new souls are slowly coming away from the waiting
list? Even then, the list cannot be exhausted, since it is infinite;
so there is bound to be a very large number who would not get the
chance of visiting the earth. For, however much the population
increases, it cannot increase to infinity. It can do so only if the
world continues to exist eternally and humanity too. But both science
and religion say that the world will come to an end sometime. There
is a <I>pralaya – an </I>extinction – although it may be followed
by a new creation and a new cycle of growth and evolution, but of a
different kind and constituting quite other elements.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>I have put the popular case in figures of popular
mentality; – almost foolish and childish on the face of it, as it
would appear; but if one &quot;tries to answer, one finds it is not
easy, children's questions are always so. Let us then try to be wise
and face the problem squarely. The whole difficulty comes from the
popular, </FONT>
<BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 287</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>perhaps normal human conception of the soul; it is
considered almost something like the physical body (even as Virochana
of old did in the Upanishadic days), namely, it has a definite form
and figure, even perhaps a definite mass: each is an isolated entity
shut out from everyone else by a fixed contour within which each one
is housed. In fact, however, it is not so. The soul is an individual,
no doubt, it has even a kind of recognisable form, but nothing of the
kind by which matter or a material body is characterised. It is an
essential form, form of the form, <I>swar<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ū</FONT>pa;
</I>it is a basic or typal individuality, the individual seated
within the 'individual. The characteristic of material individuality
is, as I have said, exclusiveness, where -as the soul individuality
is characterised by a comprehensiveness which does not diminish but
gives a special mode and movement to that individuality. In the
growth of life-forms, we know how a single unit, a cell, divides and
subdivides itself</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>and each division grows into a whole, a complete
life-form. But the process is not reversible. Developed forms, coming
out of a single parent cannot be resolved back into the original
unit. Organisms do not combine to form a single unitary organism,
although one or more may be taken up and assimilated into another:
for this is not combination, but practically the annihilation of one
into another. The second law of thermodynamics seems to hold good
even in the biological field. On a still higher or deeper level, in
the psychological and spiritual realm, such combinations or
resolutions are however possible and form a characteristic movement
of the occult world.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Let us repeat here what we have often said elsewhere.
The creation and development of souls is a twofold process. First,
there is the process of growth from below, and secondly there is the
process of manifestation or expression from above, the movements of
ascent and descent, as spoken of by Sri Aurobindo. The souls start on
their evolutionary journey on the material plane as infinitesimal
specks of consciousness imbedded in the vast expanse of the
Inconscient; but they are parts and parcels of a homogeneous mass: in
fact they are not distinguishable from each other at that level.
There is as it were a secret vibration of consciousness with which
the material infinity all around is shot through. With evolution,
that is to</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 288</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>say, with the growth and coming forward of the
consciousness, there arise sparks, glowing centres here and there,
forms shape and isolate themselves in the bosom of the original
formless mass; they rise and they subside, others rise, coalesce,
separate – some grow, others disappear. These sparks or centres, as
they develop or evolve, slowly assume definiteness, – of form and
function, – attain an individuality and finally a personality.
Looked at from below there is no counting of these sparks or
rudimentary souls; they are innumerable and infinitely variable. It
is something like the nebula out of which the galaxies are supposed
to be formed. The line of descent, however, presents a different
aspect. Looked from above, at the summit there is the infinite
supreme Being and Consciousness and Bliss (Sachchidananda) and in it
too there cannot be a limit to the number of Jivatmas that are its
formulations, like the waves in the bosom of the sea, according to
the familiar figure. This is the counterpart of the infinity at the
other end, where also the rudimentary souls or potential
individualities are infinite. Moving down along the line of descent
at a certain stage, under a certain modality of the creative process,
certain types or fundamental formations are put forward that give the
ground-plan, embody the matrix of the subsequent creation or
manifestation. The Four Great Personalities <I>(Chaturvyuha), </I>the
Seven Seers, the Fourteen Manus or Human Ancestors point to the truth
of a fixed number of archetypes that are the source and origin of
emanations forming in the end the texture of earthly lives and
existences. The number and scheme depends upon a given purpose in
view and is not an eternal constant. The types and archetypes with
which we, human beings, are concerned in the present cycle of
evolution belong to the supramental and overmental planes of
consciousness; they are the beings known familiarly as gods and
presiding deities. They too have emanations, each one of them, and
these emanations multiply as they come down the scale of
manifestation to lower and lower levels, the mental, the vital and
the physical, for example. And they enter into human embodiments, the
souls evolving and ascending from the lower end; they may even take
upon themselves human character and shape.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>There are thus chains linking the typal beings in the
world</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 289</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>above with their human embodiments in the physical
world; an archetype in the series of emanations branches out, as it
were, into its commensurables and cognates in human bodies. Hence it
is quite natural that many persons, human embodi&shy;ments, may have
so to say one common ancestor in the typal being (that gives their
spiritual <I>gotra); </I>they all belong to the same geneological
tree. Souls aspiring and ascending to the higher and fuller
consciousness, because of their affinity, because together they have
to fulfil a special role, serve a particular purpose in the cosmic
plan, because of their spiritual consanguinity, call on the same
godhead as their Master-soul or Over-soul, the Soul of their souls.
Their growth and develop&shy;ment are along similar or parallel
lines, they are moulded and shaped in the pattern set by the original
being. This must not be understood to mean that a soul is bound
exclusively to its own family and cannot step out of its geneological
system. As I have said in the beginning, souls are not material
particles hard and rigid and shut out from each other, they are not
obliged to obey the law of impenetrability that two bodies cannot
occupy the same place at the same time. They meet, touch,
interchange, interpenetrate, even coalesce, although they may not
belong to the same family but follow different lines of, evolution.
Apart from the fact that in the ultimate reality each is in all and
all is in each, not only so, each is all and all is each-thus beings
on no account can be kept in water-tight compartments-apart from this
spiritual truth, there is also a more normal and apparent give and
take between souls. The phenomenon known as &quot;possession&quot;,
for example, is a case in point. &quot;Possession&quot;, however,
need not be always a ghostly possession in the modern sense of the
possession by evil spirits, it may be also in a good sense, the sense
that the word carried among mediaeval mystics, <I>viz., </I>spiritual.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>We say commonly souls are immortal. But in an occult
sense souls are or may be mortal too. When the Vedantin speaks of
<I>laya </I>or the Buddhist of <I><FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Śūnya</FONT>,
</I>what else is it? It is nothing but the annihilation of the soul,
even if it is in the Brahman or some Absolute. But we are not
referring to that here. There is a merger of souls, and a dissolution
of souls in a somewhat different manner, not on the highest
metaphysical heights, but even here below among the growing
developing</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 290</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>souls embodied upon earth. That is to say, one soul may
unite with another and both form one single entity and em&shy;bodiment.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>This perhaps is not the general rule, especially on the
higher levels, where the beings possess well developed and well
organised individual personalities. It is more common in the earlier
stages when the souls are just developing and are pliant and supple
and can easily intermingle. But even on the higher reaches a merger
is possible and does happen, when some special work has to be done. A
god sometimes literally descends into a man, takes up the human soul
within himself and becomes the man, transformed and transfigured,
even as an Asura also may do the same thing. And human beings too on
high altitudes of spiritual growth, major souls, can combine and fuse
together to form a single soul-such may be the demand of their
individual lines of growth or the demand of a Higher Will and
Purpose.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Reverting to the original question with which we
started, we can say now that the birth of a soul is not like the
birth of a living being or organism, that is to say, it does not
happen at a given point of time. A soul is truly aja, unborn; it was
always there imbedded as the element of secret consciousness in the
bosom of the inconscient material Nature. Only it grew out,
manifested itself, attaining gradually an individuality and an
integrated personality. Neither can it be said that all souls
originally, that is to say, at the very beginning of their
evolutionary course, were of the same magnitude, equal in all
respects. As we know the ultimate material particles – the atoms of
the different elements or their constituents, protons, etc. - have
not all the same mass or charge, even so the spiritual elements too
have not the same potency or vibration: they are of varying sizes and
strengths. The stress of the evolutionary urge in life expressed
itself in multiple and varied figures and dispositions, variation
being an inherent virtue of the stress. And the development too
follows a chequered line: the direction, the tempo, the degree, the
manner of the march all differ according to the case, each spark is
or tends to be unique and <I>sui generis-and </I>even erratic perhaps
– in its behaviour, like its physical counterpart, the
indeterminate and indeterminable material particle. And yet all</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>page – 291</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>move towards a heightening, enlarging, deepening of the
consciousness – rivers flowing and broadening out in their
meandering course to the sea: what was unformed, rudimentary,
scarcely distinguishable from out of a homogeneous mass, detaches
itself gradually, shapes itself into an organised individual entity
and finally the fully conscious personality. But, as I have said, the
growth does not follow a single one-track straight line: there can be
a fusion of souls, the descent and integration of a being or soul
from another level of consciousness into a developing soul or psychic
element from out of Nature. In this sense then there can be a birth
of souls too. The astronomers speak of <I>novae, </I>new stars that
suddenly flare out in the sky, as if from nowhere – even though
they or their elements were existent before the phenomenon happened.
Souls too can come to birth in an analogous way. That is to say, it
is due to a special descent of a formed being or consciousness into
the human vehicle. The conception of the &quot;twice-born caste&quot;
may be remembered in this connection. There is a physical birth and
there is a spiritual birth: the latter takes place when the being on
the physical plane, yet wholly belonging to evolving Nature, suddenly
(it usually happens suddenly) opens and receives into itself a higher
principle and becomes a conscious personality.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The soul in Nature grows along a definite line and the
descent also of higher principles overarching that soul happens also
in the same line connecting it with its archetype in the supreme
status. This we may call the major line of development through
various avataras one after another: but apart from this there may
also be subsidiary formations that are its emanations or are added to
it from elsewhere either temporarily or even permanently. The soul
can put out derivative or ancillary emanations, parts of its being
and consciousness, a mental or vital or even a subtle physical
movement or formation which can take a body creating a temporary, a
transient personality or enter into another's body and another
personality in order to go through a necessary experience and gather
an element needed for the growth of its being and consciousness. One
can recall here the famous story of Shankaracharya ! Who entered into
the body of a king (just dead, made him alive and lead the life of
the king) in order</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 292</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>to experience love and enjoyment, things of which, being
a Sannyasi, he was innocent. Similarly one can take into one-self
such parts and elements from others which he wishes to utilise for
his growth and evolution. It is said that a man with low carnal
instincts and impulses becomes an animal of that type in his next
life. But perhaps it is truer to say that a part only-the vital part
of animal appetite-enters into or takes shape in an animal: the soul
itself, the true or the whole being of the person, once become human,
does not revert to animalhood. The animal portion in man that refuses
to be taken up and integrated, sublimated into the higher human
consciousness has to be satisfied and exhausted, as much as possible,
in the animal way.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>There is also the other question asked very often
whether men and women always follow different lines of growth or
whether there may be intermixture of the lines. Although the soul is
sexless, still it may be said that on the whole there are these two
lines, masculine and feminine; and generally a soul follows the same
line in its incarnations. The soul difference is not in the sex as we
know it; but there is a disposition and character that mark the
difference and each type, masculine or feminine, is that because of
some special role to fulfil, a particular kind of work to be done in
a particular way. The difference is difficult to define exactly; but
one may say, in the language of the mystics, that it &quot;is the
difference between the left hand and the right hand. The mystics
refer to the two sides of consciousness, that of light and that of
force <I>(chit-tapas), </I>that is to say, knowledge and power. It is
not that the two are quite separate entities, they are together and
grow together; but in actuality one aspect is more in front than the
other. The masculine aspect is often termed as the right hand and the
feminine as the left hand of the conscious being. And in a general
way man represents the knowledge aspect – the conceptual dynamism –
and woman represents the executive dynamism. This definition however
should not be taken absolutely or rigidly. So it can be said that a
woman generally remains a woman in all her births. and man like-wise
remains a man. Here too, although there may not be a central
metamorphosis, there may be a partial change: that is to say a part
of a man – too womanish, so to say – may</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 293</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>enter a woman and live and fulfil itself or exhaust
there; and the masculine part of a woman also can identify itself
with its type and pattern in a man. The difference, however, between
Purusha and Prakriti, philosophically, seems to be very definite and
clear; but in actuality, when they take form and embodiment, it is
not easy to define the principles or qualities that mark out the two.
At the source when the difference starts, it is a matter of stress
and temper and not any so-called division of labour as human mind
ordinarily understands it.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The soul in its inner consciousness knows all its
evolutionary formations, remembers those of the past and foresees
those of the future, when needed, and even determines them
essentially. The mind ruling one incarnation cannot recall other
incarnations, for it is a product of that incarnation and is meant to
guide and control it; physical memory is a function of the brain in
the particular body that the soul inhabits for the time. The soul
carries a deeper reminiscence which is part and parcel of the
self-consciousness inherent in its nature. The physical memory too
can partake of this inner reminiscence if it is purified, illumined
and organised around the soul as its instrument of expression.
Indeed, although the journey of the soul essentially and originally
is the flight of</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>the spirit to the Spirit, yet the final consummation is
towards an increasing integration of all the external instruments
from the highest to the lowest, from the subtlest to the grossest
into a harmonised organised whole, reflecting and embodying the
Spirit in its purity and totality. The mind, the life and the body
too attain a perfectly unified individuality that is the expression
of the soul's truth-consciousness and escaping disruption and
dissolution partake ultimately of the inherent immortality of the
spiritual being.</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 294</FONT></P>
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