This question has been on my mind for long and there are some conjectures I have come up with. But recently, finding my conjecture as a theory stated in Bhagavad Gita validated it as an acceptable one.
Let’s start with my conjecture. I used to wonder what’s the difference between a living person and a dead body. I mean what’s missing from the dead body that was keeping it alive before? Atma or soul. And does this soul has a physical existence? The answer is,Yes.
The thing which keeps the heart beating and organs running are the electrical impulses flowing in the neurons of the body, through the synaptic gap. And when a person dies, the physical body is intact but these impulses are absent. By basic logical reasoning, we can conclude that these electrical impulses were the force keeping the body alive. Even some scientific experiments were carried out in which they observed a dying person and they observed some interference around the body at the time of death, naming it as ‘SOUL’. It was nothing but EM waves leaving the body.
Then where these EM waves go and where they come from? Let’s see what Bhagavad Gita has to say about it.
The soul is described as imperishable. Of course! Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. If the soul is electrical impulses, it can’t be created (conversion of energy from matter, i.e, fusion reaction, in a body, is not possible) nor be destroyed. So the theory that organisms are eternal being is true because our body can be destroyed, but soul being energy, can’t be destroyed.
Also, here it is said that the soul is spread all over the body. This is justifying everything I stated above.
Now the physical size of the soul is given as 1/10,000th part of the upper portion of hair. If we measure it, this is 1/10,000th of 10^-3 meters, i.e, 10^-7 meters. If we now try to imagine the amount of current in the nervous system, which is in micro-amps, the amount of electrons flowing would be around 10^11 electrons per sec (see for yourself). And an electron is of the magnitude 10^-18 meters. So, if we multiply the number of electrons to a size of a single electron we get, 10^-7 meters. THIS IS AMAZINGLY ACCURATE!
The building block of a soul is referred to as a spiritual atom which is said to be smaller than the material atom. Duh! We all know the ratio of the size of electrons to a full atom!
Then the word spiritual SPARK is mentioned, another evidence supporting our theory.
Here, first, the soul is said to reside in our heart. And as we all know the most important function of the impulse is to make the heart beat. The SA & AV node. Which is the primary activity keeping us alive? So this statement is also relatable.
Second, the spiritual atoms are compared to the sunshine molecules,a.k.a, the photons. And we all know the size of photons depend on the wavelength of light. And wavelength of white light is around 10^-7 meters. AMAZING! Our Vedic science was soo accurate even before the metric system was developed or the microscopes came into play.
Here 2 kind of souls is described – The Supreme soul and the other is particle soul, which is a fragment of that supreme soul. Now imagine the Supreme Soul or Krsna as an infinitely big reservoir of cosmic energy. And our souls are derived from that huge pool. And as we all know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, that pool exists since forever and we being the fragment of it also exists since forever. And also we cannot die. Our body perish but our soul because energy can’t be destroyed.
The body is subjected to change, not the soul. The soul is unaffected by all this and remains the same for eternity. It has no beginning and no end.
The properties of the soul are written here. The soul is called all conscious and all knowledgeable. Let’s see why. If the supreme soul is a big(infinite) pool of energy then all kind of signals should be present there. So, an infinite pool of signals means and an infinite pool of data. In this infinite pool of data, all the information of this universe or any other universe is present. EVERYTHING is present in these signals. Just like the sequence of the number ‘pi’. That’s why it is a very sacred number.
Hence the soul is all conscious and knowledgeable.
So, in the womb, the fetus derive energy from this reservoir and gain consciousness. Lives and dies and the soul return to that pool and the process is repeated unless the soul is able to increase its energy (by means of yoga) to escape the energy barrier (same as electron transitions in an atom) to break from this cycle and attain position in GOKUL, the planet free from the material world.
Another thing I would like to add is that it is stated in Gita that “THE SUPREME TRUTH OR KRSNA”. If we consider our above logic, that we are a fragment of that infinite pool of energy , hence the characteristics we have, our whole should also have them. And the infinite source of energy has infinite possibilities of shapes and sizes and we can’t picture it, as it is in higher dimension but any visualization of that pool will be valid because the number possibilities of the arrangement of the atoms are infinite. Thus the picture which is described in our Vedas, ‘Visnu floating in the cosmic ocean’ is as true as any other imaginable scene.