Everything you wanted to know about the soul

The soul is the purest part of us that is unique in the universe. This soul is a part of the greater soul or God. It is his part in us. Every soul is the finest part of the self that cannot be cut by a knife or burnt by fire. Some say the soul lives within us. Well, that is not true. It’s not a physical thing. It’s pure energy that resides everywhere. Not just within the body, but the whole universe. The soul is not affected by our actions. Nor by our thoughts. It’s a silent witness of the time that we spend on this Earth.  The first or the primordial reason why this universe was created was the desire of God. He wished to experience himself and hence he created this universe and all the things in it. He experiences himself through the soul that he put into the beings. Everything that has been created, is a part and parcel of the supreme soul or God.

The soul is not born or does not die. It has been there since forever. This material universe might have been created 20 billion years ago, as scientists say. But the soul was existing before that also. In Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna says that 1% of his energy sustains the material universe. Can you imagine the rest 99% ? That’s how powerful God is. Beyond our wildest guesses. The only reason why the soul witnesses is because of God’s wish. He wishes to experience all his creations. Hence the soul is like that bird which sits on a tree, while we (our emotions, thoughts, actions) are like that bird that eats the fruit of the tree. The other bird just watches whatever it is that we do, and enjoys. There is a term for what God is doing, it’s called ‘Lila’ or simply Play. Why do kids play ? Because it is fun. That’s God’s idea of fun, just watching us.

Our only mission on this Earth is to realize the soul. Because it’s infinite in nature, we may only get a glimpse of it. But that’s good enough. All our experiences are being felt by the soul or God. It simply watches and passes no judgements. Some people ask me ‘what about rebirth ?’. The soul takes up a new body. Well that is the general term to make it understandable for us. Actually, the soul is simply watching the progression from one creation to another. What is reborn is a body with our past karma’s which have not got nullified. Let me elaborate that. You see when we die, what’s left of us, is the thoughts, emotions that we experienced and our actions. These are all recorded in the universe. But karma is the one that has a reaction (not within our control). The reaction is God’s reply to our action. This is a scientific universe. Every karma generates a particular kind of reaction. When our karma’s are all exhausted and we don’t have any baggage, we are born as a person with no past karma’s. That means our slate board is empty. Or we can choose to be a part of the super soul permanently. No rebirth.

But God goes on creating new and new things beyond our wildest imagination. And every creation has a soul. Including the stone. You may think it is non living. Well, that’s not completely true. The stone is just vibrating at a different frequency than us. It has a life of it’s own. And it is not as grand as what we (a higher order of life) experience. But the soul is present everywhere. Like muddied water, what is left behind after physical death, is the mud (our unaccounted karma’s) and this is carried forward to the new being that we are born as. Maybe we have realized the soul and the mud is no more existent. That exactly is the purpose of life. Realize the soul and leave no mud behind. We have no control over the soul. But we can try to be evolved soul’s in this Earth. Only evolved souls (those who have realized the soul) can make this planet into a beautiful world. Because time doesn’t come and go, we do …

To your liberation,

Guru30

Brothers in arms–Machines and Us

Machines bear a striking resemblance to humans. Both have a body which obfuscates what is lying beneath it. The human brain is like the CPU of the machine. The heart is the power supply. The support functions like lungs, liver. kidney etc are the peripheral devices all connected to support the brain (CPU) and the heart (Power Supply). The five senses of the body viz. seeing, tasting, hearing, touching and smelling are replaced in a machine by I/O devices. By this I mean disk drives connected, the USB ports, the Ethernet/Wi-Fi, the microphone and the keyboard/mouse.There is an output also of speech which in a machine is the speaker.

We cannot see the thoughts within the brain. Akin to this, is software within the machines. These are nothing but electrical pulses or chemical reactions. The software that is stored within the CPU is referred to as microcode. These are tiny little instructions that tell the CPU what to do. There is a finite amount of microcode that a CPU possesses. These are the only instructions that a CPU can execute. Similarly our brain is wired to experience various emotions like love, envy, hate etc. The number of emotions also can be counted and thus is finite. If you look at all of these from a macro view, you will see a sea of data. But there is more to it.

When data is given a meaning it becomes information. In the same way, neurons within our brain bunch together for certain information sets. For eg: This is how a person feels when he/she hears a particular song. Thus within a machine, the instructions for say the BIOS may be clubbed in a particular location. Further to this, the information when grouped to make action possible, is also found in our brains. For example, when we touch fire, we immediately retract. In a similar way, inside machines, the action may be displaying an image on the screen, related to the input. Now, this is knowledge. A machine has lots of data, information and knowledge. Likewise, the brain too.

Now knowledge by itself is of no use. It has to be internalised or accepted. This is how a person learns. In machines too, this is called machine learning. For eg: Every time a person starts a machine, these are the programs that he opens. After a while, the machine learns this information and any change to it is also recorded. When knowledge becomes internalised, what comes out is wisdom. Sometimes our actions are through knowledge and at other times through wisdom. In the same way, in machines this wisdom comes through analytics. You must surely have come across this term. A more fancy term now in use is Big Data Analytics, This is nothing but spotting co-relations within a swarm of data. It deals with co-relation not causation.

Such wisdom can be internalised and can give birth to lots of ‘Eureka-s’. By that I mean clever insights, Well this is what the world is moving towards. Machines helping us to generate insights. Patterns and co-relations. There are programs which can generate the profile of a person by looking at all of his/her social media interactions. This is scaring-ly close to the actual profile. Note that all analytics are probabilistic. There is no such thing as 100%. Similarly if you look at the way we operate, we do so through the insights of the limited amount of knowledge we have, A thought which in turn triggers some action, is based on the inputs that we get. The more the knowledge the better the action. In Big Data this is called n = all (which means it’s operating on the full set of data).

Sometimes  we apply filters in analytics to narrow down the search, We do so in our lives too. These filters are nothing but our attitudes and perceptions. And very often, our beliefs too. We see the world through this coloured glass. However hard it may be, we can change these value systems. There are many ways like NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and Meditation. These help us to become better people. A wise person is an asset to everybody. To him/herself , to the society and to the nation. The ultimate goal of life is to have enough wisdom to realize that we are all spiritual souls and our goal in life should be such. Machines are coming to our aid – in replacement and augmentation,. I see this as a positive change and we share similarities with these silicon cousins. With this synergy, the world will definitely become a better place to live and yes die for.

To your emancipation ,

Guru30

What is my purpose in life ?

Some people are not aware of the fact that we are spiritual beings trapped in a human body. The moment we realize this our actions change from normal to super. Like a leaf whose only purpose is to keep the tree alive, our only reason to be here is to do good for ourselves and others. Everything that is born of this material nature will die and be reborn again. The body withers away, but the atman (soul) just passes on to newer bodies. From a physical aspect, we can say that the atman (soul) lives within the physical body. But atman (soul) is weightless and formless. Hence what we mean by the fact that atman (soul) lives within the body is that, we are part an parcel of the supreme being. The atman (soul) may not physically be within the body, but that is our inner truth.

The purpose of life is to realize this atman (soul) and then there is nothing more to be found. Some people have figured out the truth but only a handful of people have digested the fact. The people who have really realized the atman (soul) can be distinguished by their actions. Although all actions lead to work, all work is not because of actions. Those actions where  the work is done for work’s sake and not for the fruits of the action, the karma (action) is called nishkama yoga. Such a person who follows this dictum, does not worry about the results.   You have to realize one thing clearly – the result is not within your hands. It’s a giving from God. The results are not a fluke of luck, but based on scientific principles. All of the universe follows science. (discovered and to be discovered)

Some people mistakenly think that desire is bad and causes all problems. This is partially true for those desires where the attachment to the results is there. Desire is a primal force and everyone moves ahead like the donkey with the carrot in front of it. No problem. But don’t get attached to it. Do work for work’s sake. If you desire success, so be it, but the moment you make it your to agenda or you can’t live without it, then it becomes dangerous. Once more let me repeat : Desire is good as long as we do our karma with a sense of detachment. Don’t get affected by something that did not go well, although you put in a lot of effort. Well, God has different plans for you.

Very often, the results of an action may not be in the form that you were envisaging it. Whatever it may be, thank God an move on. Knowledge by itself is not useful. When we accept the knowledge and align ourselves in our efforts, then knowledge becomes powerful. One word for the same would be Wisdom. Everything in this universe is subject to the laws of birth and death. Our Sun also will burn out after 5 billion years. Knowing this great truth is not enough. Accept it. This life on Earth is a short detour. We came from God’s kingdom and we will return there upon liquidation. So relax and enjoy the show of your life. You are the director, actor, producer and cameraman. Become a nishkama yogi and sever all your attachments and move on with the wisdom of the atman (soul)

Three cheers,

Guru30

What will you do before and after you die ?

Life is a snap. One moment you are awake and then you depart. To where ? We don’t know. This collective 80 years (average life span) passes on like a breeze leaving everything behind. The trail is visible for some days and then the world moves on. You are a forgotten person. Does the world really need you ? No. Make way for the new that is emerging and pass on your legacy to them. They will improve upon whatever it is that you have left behind or discard it and start anew. Death is not tragic it’s just a means of giving the budding souls a chance to perform better. As time ticks by, progress is achieved. New avenues. New things. New souls.

Death should be a reason for celebration as it’s exiting this world and entering newer places. Also this body really can’t keep fighting forever. You have to discard it and be free. As pure energy without mass. Floating in the ne-therlands of yore. No more running errands and wake up in the morning to catch the tube. No more meetings. No more cleaning up the house. No more watching TV. Cool, uh? All time for ourselves only. We can do what we please. Because we are in a world where you don’t have rules. Have I been to this world ? No. But the way I imagine it is, an energy particle freely wandering in the universe. That’s what happens after death.

So in the meanwhile what happens on Earth? Well, whatever it is that we have left behind will become somebody else’s. Typically a kin’s. So give it a good thought. What legacy are you going to leave behind ? Is it going to be a house with million dollars ? Is it a book that you have authored ? Is it a bunch of friends that care for you ? Whatever it is that you leave behind will be your signature. So what signature are you going to be leave behind ? What would you like to be written on your grave ? Did you live the life that you wanted to leave ? Were some of your wishes unfulfilled ? Did you have a grudge or two before you died ?

Lots of things to think upon. So if you want to live with all your heart, live every day as if it is your last day. What goals to accomplish ? Plan of the day. Encounters. Deliverables. And finally before you sleep, check of things that you did. And thank God that you are not already dead. Greet every morning as a gift from God to do all those things that you had wished that you would do or achieve. Perfect a signature talk. That will be your style. Yours and yours only. Flash it across all people you come across. You will be magnetic. Once again, remind yourself that any time we may be liquidated from this world. So do your best and leave the rest to God. Amen !

Guru30