What happens when the Soul disembarks?

In the previous episode we were talking about the “Chariot allegory” that is used by the Upanishadic story that we have been discussing. The allegory says that our body is the chariot and our soul is the rider who uses this chariot. It also says that death is the event of this soul disembarking the chariot.

Now the question is “what happens when this rider disembarks?”. Obviously, the body gradually disintegrates. But what happens to the rider who has stepped down? Does he also perish?

Ancient Indians believed that the Soul is eternal – it never perishes. In that case what happens to it when it leaves a body?

The Upanishad says that

“In normal circumstances, the soul takes on another body. That means that the soul takes rebirth. This new birth can be another human birth, a divine birth, or even a birth as an animal or plant!”

What decides which birth the soul takes on?

The Upanishads believe that past actions and the experiences (Karma and associations) gained in a previous birth actually decide the new birth. Good Karma would result in birth in either similar human body or even a divine body. Where as a bad Karma could result in a birth in inferior forms of life such as an animal or plant or even an insect.

So rebirth totally depends on how you conduct in the present birth and the past births.

In this context I would like to mention about two divergent views about rebirth.

The ancient Indian Upanishads took the view that I described above, namely the soul entering into another body as decided by the Karma and the associations.

But ancient India also had Buddhists who did not believe in the concept of soul. They believed only in body and Mind, though they accepted both Karma and rebirth driven by that. How then do they explain rebirth?

They say that it is not the soul that migrates from a dying body to a newly formed body. But it is only the contents of the dying mind that gets transferred to the newly formed Mind in a new body.

You can see more details on these interesting theories in my book “Missing dimensions in our current understanding of the Mind”, chapter “Concept of rebirth in ancient philosophies”.

Let us get back to the Upanishadic story.

In the Upanishad, Lord of death Yama says that

“In the normal course of things, the soul of a dying person takes on another body depending on the Karma and the associations he had accumulated in the previous birth/births.”

So it is a sort of a cycle – possibly eternal since the soul never dies but the body has a limited life. The soul takes birth, lives in the body for sometime till it is time to discard that body, leaves that body, and enters a new body waiting for it. This goes on for ever.

To quote the analogy that we saw earlier from another ancient Indian scripture namely the Bhagavadgeetha, it is like a person discarding a worn out dress and taking on a new garment. Changing the garment does not change the person, but only changes his appearance.

If it is all that simple, why are all ancient Indian philosophers, Buddhists including, keen on ultimate emancipation from this cycle of births and deaths? After all, the body does provide the soul an opportunity to enjoy the world! In fact, that is one of the main purposes of the body which is admitted by all these philosophers.

So, why is there so much interest in freedom from births? We will see that in the next episode.

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A story of Nachiketa from Katha Upanishad, which is part of Yajur Veda. Upanishads are concluding parts of ancient Indian Vedic scriptures believed to be at least 5000 years old. The interpretation is by Dr.King (Copyright © 2019 Dr. King).