Letter #111: Conscience, Soul and Spirit...

A few days ago, a spiritual devotee, named Taj, sent me an e-mail from England. He asked me some very challenging questions.
He wrote, “During my trip to Toronto with Mahraz Ji, in May 2009, I asked him a question. I asked, ‘Sometimes when I’m about to do something that is not right I get a voice or feeling telling me that I shouldn't be doing that. So who or what is that voice or feeling?’
Mahraz Ji replied, ‘It is your atma (soul).’
And recently, I was having lunch with one of my business suppliers, an Englishman. We began to discuss spirituality and Mahraz Ji.
Based on what I had learned from Mahraz Ji, I mentioned to my supplier that it’s your soul that tells you if you are doing something wrong. My supplier retorted, ‘No. That is your conscience.’ Dr. Bhopal, what is the conscience and how would we refer to it in Punjabi? Also, in a conversation that you were having with someone in Glasgow you said that in Christianity the soul and spirit have different meanings. When Christians refer to the soul and spirit what are they referring to? "

Taj, those are good but tough questions! I'll try to answer them to your satisfaction.

Firstly, we need words to communicate but words also cause much confusion.
Living languages are always evolving, whether they are Punjabi or English.
Old words occasionally acquire new meanings, and new words, usually imported from other languages, often lose their original meanings.
So before discussing conscience, soul and spirit, let's try to understand their proper meanings. If we don’t do so then we are at risk of sinking into a quagmire of unfruitful argument, especially when more than one person is involved in the discussion.
Such was the case with Alice in Lewis Carol’s delightful tale, Alice in Wonderland. Here’s an illustrative excerpt from that story:
`Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on. `I do,' Alice hastily replied; `at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know.' `Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. `You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!' `You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, `that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!' `You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, `that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!'

Now, let me get back to Taj’s questions. Taj asked for the Punjabi word for conscience. It is zamir. In Punjabi, conscience can also be described as “dil dee awaaz”, which means voice from the heart.

Now, let’s look at the English word conscience. The word entered the English language around 1225 AD, having been adapted from the Latin conscientia, which means "knowledge within oneself, a moral sense," from com- "with" + scire "to know." But in my view, the key word in the above definition is oneself. What is the self?

The word self comes from the Proto-Indian-European (Sanskrit) word *sel-bho-, meaning "separate, apart".

Vedic spiritual literature, which forms the basis of most Indian religions, and which influenced Plato’s (428-328 BC) philosophy, and in turn Origen’s (185-254 AD) mystical Christianity, speaks of the individual living entity (jivatma) as being eternal, being subject to re-incarnation, and being part of the Super Soul (paramatma).

The jivatma is the "I". Modern psychology has done away with the concept of the soul, even though the Greek word psyche, from which the word psychology has come, itself means soul.

Modern psychology speaks of the ego as the self. The concept of the ego has replaced earlier conceptions of the soul.

In Freud’s psychology, the conscience is part of the super ego. The super ego judges the ethics of a person’s thoughts and actions.

Psychopaths have “holes in the super ego” – they have little conscience. While modern psychology is grappling with the perennial problem of psychopathy, ancient spiritual texts are full of descriptions of such characters and how to deal with them e.g. Ravana, Hiranyakashipu, and Satan.

Now to Taj’s other question: “When Christians refer to the soul and spirit what are they referring to?”

I mentioned Origen above. He was an early father of the Christian church. He believed in the immortality of the soul and in its re-incarnation but Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) rejected that. view

Instead, Augustine postulated that animals and plants do not have souls like humans do. A nimals and plants are deemed to have life - nephesh, which is a Hebrew word for life. In Augustine's view, animals and plants did not have an immortal spirit and they didn’t go to heaven (see http://www.comereason.org/theo_issues/theo070.asp) In this view, man has ruah - Hebrew for soul . Ruah is the immaterial part of man, the spirit of man (Numbers 16:22). Doesn’t ruah sound very much like rhu, the Punjabi word for spirit.

In Christianity, much discussion, debate, religious politics, translation and mistranslation, and interpretation and misinterpretation of Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin words has led to inevitable confusion.

By contrast, Indian spiritual ideas, based as they are on the Vedas and the ancient Sanskrit texts have fortunately retained most of their precision in ideas and terms. But there is much debate here also. While Mahatma Buddha rejected the existence of the soul, calling it anatma (non-self), after the “neti-neti” (Letter-58) philosophy of Bhagat Prahlada you will notice that even in his own title, albeit imposed by others and not him, the word atma appears (maha – great; atma –soul).

In the Bhagavad Gita, the glittering jewel of the Vedas, Lord Krishna speaks of the soul: “Some look on the atma (jivatma) (soul) as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.” Bhagavad Gita 2.29.

Beyond the atma (jivatma) is the Supreme, the paramatma. The Supreme is all pervasive and eternal. The Supreme’s cosmic play is manifest through two types of energies - the all-blissfull spiritual (yogamaya) and the not so blissfull material (mahamaya).

The atma (jivatma) is a minute, eternal, living part of the paramatma. If the paramatma is the fire, then the atma (jivatma) is the spark of that fire. If the paramatma is the father, then the atma (jivatma) is the child of that father. Just as a father fulfills the desires of the child, so does the paramatma fulfill the desires of the atma (jivatma). If the atma (jivatma) wants to enjoy paramatma’s material energy, then paramatma will oblige the atma (jivatma) with suitable material machinery to do so, namely the mind and the body.

If the atma (jivatma) wants to merge into paramatma's spiritual energy, then the paramatma will by His Grace arrange that also. Bhakti (devotion) is the quickest path for the atma (jivatma) to merge with the all-blissfull spiritual energy of the Supreme.

In Vedic philosophy, the life form is comprised of three parts - atma (jivatma) (soul), man (mind) and the tan (body).

For most humans, consciousness of the the atma (jivatma) lies dormant. Humans think of it but generally dismiss it.

In most humans, the mind rules the roost, and is very active. Humans are continually submerged in a sea of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Sometimes, thoughts, feelings and actions touch the conscience (the inner self – the atma (jivatma)). Even so, we often proceed with the guilt producing act, thinking that no one is watching us, but the Koran reminds us otherwise: “There is no soul without a watcher.” (86:4).

The body is sometimes active and sometimes not (partly conscious and partly unconscious), and is ruled by the mind. The mind is very anxious about the body. Any sign of ill health, aging, or the prospect of death sends most of us into anxiety.

Most of us are hoplelessly lost in the material maze. The material life offers fleeting pleasure and frequent pain. Material gains are followed by losses, and vice versa. On this see-saw of gain and loss, we must lose eventually. Losses are inevitable. All these losses compound our grief.

Ultimately, we lose our bodies also. We think of death as the end of everything, and not as a door to the next life. Lord Krishna asks that even if we don't believe in re-incarnation, and even if we believe that life is only a product of certain temporary configurations of chemicals (the vaibhasika philosophy), why lament? "If however, you think that the soul (or the symptom of life) will always be born and die forever, you still have no reason to lament, Oh mighty-armed one." Bhagavad Gita 2:26.

The lesson in all this is that, in order to alleviate our suffering, we must learn to adopt a spiritual outlook. We must find ways to better connect with the spiritual.

Spiritual teachers appear on this material world in order to help us to make our lives better by connecting us to something higher – the spiritual.

Christ said, "I am come that ye might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Guru Nanak sings, “Kahai Nanak, gur prasadi jina liv lagi; tini wiché maya paya.” Translated this means: Kahai Nanak – says Nanak; gur - spiritual teacher; prasadi – grace of; jina - those persons; liv – meditative trance; lagi – achieve; tini – they; wiché - in; maya - the material world; paya - obtain.” In full, the stanza means: Nanak says, “Those who can achieve the transcendental state by the grace of the Spiritual Teacher, can reach God even while being immersed in this material world.”

My dear Taj, the topic is immense and I have only limited time and knowledge to explain it fully. In this letter, I have touched only the surface of this deep well of knowledgein but many thanks for asking about conscience, and concepts of the soul and the spirit .