Secrets of the Soul 13

dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.13]

The living entity, or soul, is an energy of the Supreme Lord, just like the sunshine is the energy of the sun globe. The sunshine appears homogeneous, but is actually composed of tiny shining subatomic particles. Similarly, we jiva souls are also miniscule particles of the Supreme Lord.

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts.” [Bhagavad-gita 15.7]

We are a small particle of conscious living energy. How small? The size of the spirit soul is also described in the confidential scriptures of the Esoteric Teaching:

keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya
śatāṁśa-sadṛśātmakaḥ
jivaḥ sūkṣma-svarūpo ’yaṁ
saṅkhyātīto hi cit-kaṇaḥ

“If we divide the tip of a hair into a hundred parts, and then divide one of these parts again into a hundred parts, that very fine division is the size of the numberless living entities. They are all cit-kana, particles of spirit, not matter.” [Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 19.140]

The dimension of the living entity is given as one ten-thousandth of the tip of a hair. The human hair is about 100 microns in diameter, and the tip of an uncut hair tapers to about 10 microns, or 10 millionths of a meter. Therefore according to the Vedic scriptures, the size of the particle of the jiva or spirit soul is about .0001 microns, or .1 nanometers.

Western science is very proud of creating sensitive measuring instruments. But here is information from the Esoteric Teaching of the measurement of the living soul. Now, you cannot perceive such a tiny particle with your eyes, or measure it even with the most powerful microscope, even if it were visible to material vision. So the spirit soul is an invisible particle of transcendental energy smaller than a material atom and beyond the resolution of any material instrument.

Because the materialistic scientists cannot observe or measure the spirit soul, they say he is nirakara, or formless and impersonal. Nevertheless, we all experience ourselves subjectively as conscious, personal entities. So this is really an ontological problem; the materialists cannot understand themselves because they are looking for the soul in the wrong way. (The transcendental ontology of the soul is discussed in detail on our site Transontology.org.) So-called objective material empirical investigation can never reveal the real form or nature of the spirit soul. How then can we ascertain the existence and transcendental form of the Lord?

anor aniyan mahato mahiyan
atmasya jantor nihito guhayam
tam akratuh pasyati vita-soko
dhatuh prasadan mahimanam atmanah

“Both the Supersoul [Paramatma] and the atomic soul [jivatma] are situated on the same tree of the body within the heart of the living being. Only one who has become free from all material desire and lamentation can understand the glories of the soul by the grace of the Supreme.” [Katha Upanisad 1.2.20]

Spiritual realization or enlightenment means, first of all, to understand the jiva or spirit soul. Because jiva is a small particle of the Lord, we can understand the quality of the Lord by understanding the jiva. Just like if you test a small particle of gold, then you can understand the composition of the gold bar from which it came. Similarly, if you test a little drop of water from the ocean, you can analyze the chemical composition of the entire sea. If you analyze the characteristics of the living entity, then you can at least begin to understand the qualities and characteristics of God. Therefore the beginning of spiritual education is to understand one’s own self and the ontological position of the soul. This self-realization is the perfection of all yoga practice.

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