Unfortunately, there is no single answer to the definition or, for that matter, the role of a soul. However, in simple terms, it is the essence of a being beyond the body and the thinking mind. It is a component of the divine within us. Allow me to delve logically into the subject of the soul to gain a rational understanding of its essence, role, and how we experience it in our daily lives.

Firstly, we must understand that we are beyond the body and the cognitive mind. Cognition is the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, senses, and experience. We are beyond because we consider these two as ours – my body and mind. Furthermore, quantum physics suggests that all that exists is energy in matter and consciousness, with the remainder comprising dark energy. It possesses multiple interchangeable abilities that appear and disappear in space and time, such as physical, mental, electrical, and nuclear.

Now, what is consciousness? It is the source of experience, making the mind awake and alive. When the mind is alert, it becomes aware of what it focuses on. After that, if the mind is attentive, it centres on becoming conscious of what it perceives through its senses. It means that awareness is primary and consciousness secondary. The mind cannot become conscious unless it is aware of itself. Awareness is the subject, and consciousness is its objective.

On the other hand, awareness is considered divine within, the highest energy ability from which all that we know, from the micro to the macrocosm, emerges. Spiritualists consider awareness and the soul to be on par with each other, as both are non-dual in their functioning, observing and witnessing the play of dualities through the cognitive mind.

Philosophically, if we go step by step, we first have Absolute universal awareness. Second, the mind telepathically transmits and receives this divine-aware energy through quantum entanglement. The moment the universal aware energy enters the mind, it becomes a grade lower, depending upon the intensity of any individual from the suffix of -ness of its totality, which we now refer to as spiritual awareness in individuality. Then, the third step is a further notch-less when the individual soul becomes conscious after becoming individually aware.

The above steps indicate that aware energy does not depend on becoming conscious, but the soul, even in pure consciousness, though it is at par with awareness, does depend. For this reason, many wrongly presume awareness and consciousness to be synonymous. Hence, from awareness emerges consciousness. Furthermore, awareness is non-dual, whereas consciousness within cognition engages in duality, allowing the mind to choose between opposites.

For clarity, spiritual awareness is the supreme ability of energy to act as a witness. In contrast, the role of the soul is that of a witness within the mind, representing the superconscious section that silently witnesses the mind, non-judgementally and unquestioningly. Besides the above, the soul, through intuition and instincts, spontaneously provides fresh, pristine psychic energy from which all inventions arise. For instance, when any scientist exclaims, “Eureka, Bingo, I’ve got it.”

We all know but may not fully understand that as individuals, we comprise a physical, mental and spiritual composite unit of body, mind and soul. Most of us are aware of and conscious of the body and mind, but are often ignorant of the soul. Yoga is the complete study of all three selves—physical methods for the body, mental for the mind, and Sakshi or Witness Yoga for the Soul, to check and guide the cognitive mind.

It means we are a living identity of this and that in body, mind, and soul, maturing in transcendental reality from its I-ness state into the “I-lessness” condition of non-being in its spiritual awareness. I repeat the soul is that individual witness-er in pure consciousness, and all three are what we are in body, mind, and soul quantitatively. But the witness is that supreme ability of the wave of non-dual aware energy comprising ‘who we are’ qualitatively, crowned as “I Am That.”

Today, philosophy and science agree that all that exists in the nothingness of our universe is a formless wave of infinite potential, absolute energy that is indivisible, which we can neither create nor destroy. This energy flows in unity and continuity, as it is not two. Absoluteness gives rise to the emergence of interchangeable transient subset kinetic energies, which manifest in the forms of mass and energy and are interchangeable, appearing and disappearing to eventually return to the absoluteness of their nothingness, possibly into their dark matter and dark energy.

Of all the various abilities of kinetic energy, we have gross energy in the form of the body, subtle as in the mind, and core in the soul, which we refer to as the composite human self. Going deeper into the energetic field of this force, beyond the individual soul, we encounter multiple immaterial layers of our existence: breath, mind, intellect, memory, and ego. The core is the soul – the superconscious life energy in the non-dual section of the human mind through which we become a conscious living entity.

The conscious section is the basis of all perception and understanding, requiring awareness and wakefulness to experience life. It goes into duality if the mind attentively wishes to be conscious of relative factors like truth/lie, good/evil, hot/cold, etc. It is not dependent on memory and focuses on one single thought pattern. In short, if the mind is alert, it becomes aware of its superconscious state, and after being aware, if the mind is attentive, it becomes conscious.

In contrast, the lower subconscious mind governs over 95% of the mind and depends on memory and intellect. It flows in auto-mode from past knowledge, not requiring either the superconscious or the conscious mind. It relies entirely on memory and intellect, thinking from the past and transferring intellectual insights through emotional desires into the future to feel and act upon in a non-spiritual or material way.

To understand the superconscious section of the mind or the soul’s presence, we must first comprehend the meaning behind non-duality and duality. Over 98% of the mind functions in duality, operating in relativity with opposites in the conscious and subconscious sections – the essential feature that enables the mind to choose, discern, and determine between one factor and another to survive, understand, and experience life.

Non-duality points to the interconnectedness of all energy as the substrate of one ultimate, transcendental reality, from which all temporal dualities arise and the spirit or awareness that underlies them. In contrast, the dual aspect of the mind interacts with opposing forces, such as happiness and sadness, which are complementary, indicating that if one is present, the other is likely to follow. They do not cancel each other out but are somewhat separate from their non-dual aspect, allowing the mind to choose and discern.

Experiencing the soul is watching, impartially uninvolved in thoughtless witnessing of its thoughts, which is beyond the purview of the other two states – conscious and the subconscious. Spiritually, you can awaken this state of mind, the soul, by constantly watching and witnessing your thoughts as they dance in duality through your subconscious, randomly and recklessly multitasking in emotional desires, moving from one thing to another, and experiencing what life is all about. To be in mindfulness, meditatively aware existentially, moment to moment, in the now.

The body and the brain comprise the conscious and subconscious sections, maturing quantitatively of what we are as individuals. In contrast, the superconscious area, the soul aspect, reveals the qualitative part of our identity. This section, under the command of the spirit, is the life force of the mind from which a field of fresh creative energy emerges in the now to discover all that we know today and understand the universe, which we refer to as instinct, intuition, and intelligence. On the other hand, the intellect utilises information from memory and borrowed knowledge from the past, from books to the internet, to recollect, discern, choose, and determine what the mind desires in subconsciousness.

As mentioned earlier, please allow me to recuperate. The soul functions spontaneously in the now in thoughtless thoughts, non-judgemental, impartial and uninvolved in any activity of the mind. It simply observes itself as the witness to oversee what its mind is brewing in terms of thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs and actions. The soul provides us with that individuality, which is unique in every human being, and the body and mind give us the personality aspect to exuberate.

Consciousness is the objective of the subjective spirit. Subsequently, consciousness enters into duality with relativity, becoming conscious of this and that, here and there, and thus delving into the realm of its mental functioning. After that, in auto-mode, it functions subconsciously on its own, drawing on memory and intellect. In this subconscious section, enmeshed in uncontrolled thoughts, the mind enters a state of entropy (disorder), multitasking recklessly and randomly, as prescribed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, losing its quality in favour of its quantitative factor.

Quantum Physics asserts that all that exists is nothing but energy, a concept akin to Brahman in Indic philosophy, which is indivisible and can neither create nor destroy, remaining in unity and continuity. From this, we understand that energy is an eternal concept, where the spirit represents the supreme ability and the soul is its smaller partner, both remaining non-dual in their characteristics. The spirit of awareness is that eternal substrata within which all subset energies superimpose while they appear to disappear or dissolve as waves disappear into their ocean.

In conclusion, the journey of self-discovery encompasses the body, mind, and soul. Because, in the grand scheme of existence, everything, from the stars to the subatomic, is a construct of the mind shaped by perception and illusions. Ultimately, all that exists in the eternal universe is the unchanging substrate of non-dual energy, temporarily interchanging in waves and particles, which appear and disappear into the universe’s dark energy as nothing. If we seek, understand, and experience beyond our body and mind, how to balance the material with the spiritual, nurturing our spiritual soul becomes vital for the well-being of all individuals and our world.

NAMASTE