Our Ancient Soul Is!

We stay buried. Once the silver cord snaps, our soul, always of pure, divine energy is free to soar till picked for yet another vehicle of flesh, bones and fluids.

An explanation of the theory of reincarnation that best works for me goes along these lines: we, the persons/personas, don’t go anywhere beyond the soil of the grave once we’re dead.

Our astral shell, the energetic double of our persona, may or may not linger for an indefinite period of time.

Once the ‘silver cord’ is snapped, our soul – always pure, divine energy - is free to soar upwards to whichever realm it is where souls kickback, free at last.

That’s until she gets her orders for yet another karmic tour-of-duty, prisoner of yet another vehicle of flesh, bones and fluids that, in the fullness of time will be equipped with a tailor-made karmic mesh to amend one opportunity at a time.

Then, knowing that all is neutral, this new child/teen carries within their energy field, all the elements needed to grow into a confident, AWARE, gentle being who favors togetherness instead of personal separation, who strives for peaceful resolutions instead of dissent and who does their very best to love unconditionally ----- or not.

Sadly, I suspect, most of us, most of the billion people alive fall in the 'or not category.

Thus, a soul’s only prospect, really, is more of the same in the endless cycle of incarnations through which all subsequent incarnations since the Dawn of Time have been intended to put their karmic balance sheet in the black – instead of keeping it in the red and accruing more and more *interest* on their ever-growing debt.

One thing for sure: NOTHING we can ever bounce around and argue about and be defensive about [definitely un-evolved knee-jerks] on the topics of spirituality and religions amounts to anything more than mere ... theories.

What’s important, I think, is to eventually adopt a theory, preferably one that does place the entire onus of responsibility for personal interpretations/perceptions = actions/reactions squarely on each person/persona’s shoulders.

Reason: nothing done as a part of rituals, any rituals, can generate within us a deep, true lasting shift in interpretations/perceptions = actions/reactions with – unless – perhaps – in the case of genuine epiphanies, which I believe are a lot less common than people choose to think.

No one is ever responsible for what we do, say or think -- not even a karmic/divine plan.

I, who never ever used to spare a thought for my soul, have come to accept that we do not merely 'get' a soul in a random way. Instead, it can be said that our soul has volunteered to accept us as the new vehicle through which she hopes to process - through our spiritual responses to life - some of the karmic baggage accumulated by her previous incarnations.

Souls pick us to be their upgraded vehicle to karmic enlightenment - go figure! Which is why it is tacitly accepted that we ARE able to overcome all and any of the karmic challenges that come our way - if and only if we can tackle them in a spiritual manner which, of course, is not the way our western culture has ever taught anyone to overcome anything.

I recently watched, 'Invictus', the 2010 film based on Nelson Mandela's bid, soon after his election in 1994, to unify South Africa.

'Invictus' is also the title original title of a poem written by William Ernest Henley - the unwitting poet whose words have briefly shaped a new chapter in the history of South Africa.

'Invictus'

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

According to the movie script, it is from these lines that Mandela found the strength to not let his spirit be broken as well as the strength to resist a hatred of the race that had created apartheid.

Instead, it appears that this poem has helped Mandela develop a deep-seated sense of compassion and forgiveness - from inside a cell that was but a couple of meters wide - the cell in which he was kept during a 27 year of incarceration.

I think 'Invictus' is a great poem. It's short and yet it's powerful. Its message is clear: Let no one break us to the point where we hate them.

So that's all about ACTIVELY accepting What Is and about being present in the moment. It's about coming out on the other side of an ordeal with a heart that is mostly heart filled with compassion and forgiveness.

BUT the line "I am the captain of my soul" - the leitmotiv on the movie script - isn't quite right for me. Not if it suggests that we somehow need to take charge of our soul and tame her into submission.

However, if 'Captain' does refer to the one who takes orders from his/her King or Queen and obeys these orders then, yes, that would work for me - for we are at the service of Soul from Above Below.

We are Soul's Captain.

Any other thoughts?

Here another one: It can be said that, like a net, our energy field hardens around us, a little bit more with each passing incarnation, making it each time more difficult for us to amend 'the way we are'.

Which is probably why, by now, unless we get a very strong wake-up call - a sometimes metaphoric, a sometime literal, blow to the head - it is that much easier to go with the flow and keep on *being ourselves*.

Mahabharata on Soul Survival- Total Soulful Insight

Here is an 'extract of sorts' form Mahabharata, which is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India.

It is of immense importance to culture in the Indian subcontinent and is a major text of Hinduism. Its discussion of human goals (dharma or duty, artha or purpose, karma, pleasure or desire and moksha or liberation) takes place in a long-standing tradition, attempting to explain the relationship of the individual to society and the world (the nature of the 'Self') and the workings of karma."

What follows is a very cool dialogue between Arjun and Krishna about the death of the body and the survival of the soul, as well as soul's intention to remove all doubt and fear - What-Ifs - to cleanse her channel to the persona.

Arjun said he cannot fight because on the other side there are brothers and relatives and he cannot kill them. Keep in mind that this is the inner struggle when soul wants to remove all the negative thoughts/emotions and cleanse the channel:

Krishna: O Arjun! Those who are dead are dead. The wise do not grieve for those who die or live. They grieve for neither birth nor death. You talk like a wise man but your words are foolish. Before you grieve find out if they are worthy of your grief.

Arjun: Are not Grandsire and the Sages worthy of grief?

Krishna: Would I deny it if they were? Remember simple truth. It is the Soul which is of essence, not the body. Death is not its end because it is eternal. Death is a momentary respite. The wind does not end with the breath.

Man is first a child, a youth and then an old man. Then Death. This is the journey of the body. The Soul goes beyond that. It moves from one body to another. The journey which ends with death is that of the body.

The Soul's journey is eternal. The body is left behind and the Soul moves on assuming a new body just like we discard old clothes for new.

Why grieve when the Soul cannot be destroyed?

Why grieve the destruction of the body? The body is not eternal. It is to be discarded. It is the Soul which is eternal.

Arjun: Will those before us be there after the war?

Krishna: What is Being and Not Being? There never was a Time when all of us did not exist. Nor a Time when all of us will not exist.

Why do you feel that this life is a complete life? This life is not a complete life. We were, we are and we will be.

As for happiness and sorrow, what of it?

Like seasons, they come and go. Those who are unmoved by happiness and sorrow, those who remain uninfluenced by them… are worthy of salvation.

Be free from the doubts of killing and being killed. Only those who are born can die.

The Soul is beyond Time. The body is born, not the Soul.

If the Soul is not born how can it die?

The Soul exists. That's all.

It spans Time from end to end. It is unborn, eternal and holy. It is indestructible and without flow. So, do not worry about killing and being killed.

Only the body dies and even after its death, the Soul does not die.

Weapons cannot kill it.

Fire cannot burn it.

Water cannot dissolve it.

Neither can the wind dry it.