soul: The real being of man, as distinguished from body, mind and emotions. The soul - known as atman or purusha - is the sum of its two aspects, the form or body of the soul and the essence of the soul (though many texts use the word soul to refer to the essence only). -

-       essence or nucleus of the soul: Man's innermost and unchanging being - Pure Consciousness (Parashakti or Satchidananda) and Absolute Reality (Parasiva). This essence was never created, does not change or evolve and is eternally identical with God Siva's perfections of Parashakti and Parasiva.

-       soul body: anandamaya kosha ("sheath of bliss"), also referred to as the "causal body" (karana sharira), "innermost sheath" and "body of light." Body of the soul, or soul body, names the soul's manifest nature as an individual being - an effulgent, human-like form composed of light (quantums).

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It is the emanational creation of God Siva, destined to one day merge back into Him. During its evolution, the soul functions through four types of outer sheaths that envelope the soul form - mental, instinctive-intellectual, vital and physical - and employs the mental faculties of manas, buddhi and ahamkara, as well as the five agents of perception (jnanendriyas), and five agents of action (karmendriyas).

 The "soul body" is not a body in sense of a case, a vessel, vehicle or enclosure for something else. The soul body is the soul itself - a radiant, self-effulgent, human-like, super-intelligent being. Its very composition is Satchidananda in various subtle levels of manifestation. It is the finest of subatomic forms, on the quantum level.

The soul form evolves as its consciousness evolves, becoming more and more refined until finally it is the same intensity or refinement as the Primal Soul, Parameshvara. The experiences of life, in all the various planes of consciousness, are "food for the soul," reaping lessons that actually raise the level of intelligence and divine love. Thus, very refined souls, whether embodied or in the disembodied, ajiva, state, are like walking intelligences with inventive creativeness and powers of preservation, beaming with love and luminosity in their self-effulgent bodies of quantum light particles.

See: atman, evolution of the soul, indriya, kosha, Parashakti, Parasiva, purusha, quantum, Satchidananda, spiritual unfoldment.

(See also: Soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Christian theological definition of Soul Sleep according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Soul Sleep

See also: Soul Sleep , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

evolution of the soul: Adhyatma prasara.

In Saiva Siddhanta, the soul's evolution is a progressive unfoldment, growth and maturing toward its inherent, divine destiny, which is complete merger with Siva. In its essence, each soul is ever perfect. But as an individual soul body emanated by God Siva, it is like a small seed yet to develop. As an acorn needs to be planted in the dark underground to grow into a mighty oak tree, so must the soul unfold out of the darkness of the malas to full maturity and realization of its innate oneness with God.

The soul is not created at the moment of conception of a physical body. Rather, it is created in the Sivaloka. It evolves by taking on denser and denser sheaths-cognitive, instinctive-intellectual and pranic-until finally it takes birth in physical form in the Bhuloka. Then it experiences many lives, maturing through the reincarnation process. Thus, from birth to birth, souls learn and mature. Evolution is the result of experience and the lessons derived from it. There are young souls just beginning to evolve, and old souls nearing the end of their earthly sojourn. In Saiva Siddhanta, evolution is understood as the removal of fetters which comes as a natural unfoldment, realization and expression of one's true, self-effulgent nature. This ripening or dropping away of the soul's bonds (mala) is called malaparipaka.

The realization of the soul nature is termed svanubhuti (experience of the Self). Self Realization leads to moksha, liberation from the three malas and the reincarnation cycles. Then evolution continues in the celestial worlds until the soul finally merges fully and indistinguishably into Supreme God Siva, the Primal Soul, Parameshvara. In his Tirumantiram, Rishi Tirumular calls this merger vishvagrasa, "total absorption. The evolution of the soul is not a linear progression, but an intricate, circular, many-faceted mystery. Nor is it at all encompassed in the Darwinian theory of evolution, which explains the origins of the human form as descended from earlier primates.

See: Darwin's theory, mala, moksha, reincarnation, samsara, vishvagrasa.

(See also: Evolution of the soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

young soul: A soul who has gone through only a few births, and is thus inexperienced or immature.

See: evolution of the soul, soul.

(See also: Young soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

old soul: One who has reincarnated many times, experienced much and is therefore further along the path. Old souls may be recognized by their qualities of compassion, self-effacement and wisdom.

See: evolution of the soul, soul.

(See also: Old soul:, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

nucleus of the soul:

See: atman, impersonal being, soul.

(See also: Nucleus of the soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

merger of the soul:

See: evolution of the soul, vishvagrasa.

(See also: Merger of the soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Primal Soul: The uncreated, original, perfect soul - Siva Parameshvara - who emanates from Himself the inner and outer universes and an infinite plurality of individual souls whose essence is identical with His essence. God in His personal aspect as Lord and Creator, depicted in many forms: Nataraja by Saivites, Vishnu by Vaishnavites, Devi by Shaktas.

See: Nataraja, Parameshvara.

(See also: Primal Soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Soul: The true identity of a human being, the immortal self that surpasses death and lives on into the other world.

(See also: Soul, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

immature soul:

See: atman, evolution of the soul, soul.

(See also: Immature soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

individual soul: A term used to describe the soul's nature as a unique entity, emanated by God Siva (the Primal Soul), as a being which is evolving and not yet one with God.

See: atman, essence, kosha, Parameshvara, soul.

(See also: Ndividual soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Cosmic Soul: Purusha or Parameshvara. Primal Soul. The Universal Being; Personal God. See: Parameshvara, Primal Soul, purusha, Siva.

(See also: Cosmic Soul, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Soul Sleeping

(Psychopannychy) The doctrine that human souls sleep or cease conscious existence between death and resurrection. Usually (but not always) a doctrine associated with Adventism.

(See also: Soul Sleeping, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

old soul

One who has reincarnated many times

(See also: Old soul, Body Mind and Soul)

Soul Travel

(Eckankar) Movement of the inner consciousness through the lower states through ascent into the ecstatic state

(See also: Soul Travel, Body Mind and Soul)

free soul

The human soul may advance toward a state of complete freedom. The advancement effort should begin during earth life. The essence of awareness, different from earth's realization, becomes evident following one's expansion of readiness for unfoldment of meaning at the next higher level

(See also: Free soul, Body Mind and Soul)

group soul

The collection of unique qualities a group creates as it comes together to form a group action through an agreed-upon purpose or direction abound a goal, a leader, or a central atom

(See also: Group soul, Body Mind and Soul)

transmigration of souls

(Hinduism) The soul-mind leaves the physical body upon death and enters another body according to past behavior and spiritual needs; new body can be human, animal, plant, reptile or anything alive

(See also: Transmigration of souls, Body Mind and Soul)

twin souls

Two soul-minds who experience a psychic affinity; when they incarnate together over many lifetimes, there is a union of closeness, whether it is on the etheric or earth plane. They are drawn together and react compatibly to each other; this does not imply they will always join together for eternity or that there is only one twin-soul for each individual

(See also: Twin souls, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Human Soul :

Human Soul

The human soul, speaking generally, is the intermediate nature of man's constitution, and being an imperfect thing it is drawn back into incarnation on earth where it learns needed lessons in this sphere of the universal life.

Another term for the human soul is the ego  - a usage more popular than accurate, because the human ego is the soul of the human soul so to speak, the human soul being its vehicle. The ego is that which says in each one of us, "I am I, not you!" It is the child of the immanent Self; and through its imprisonment in matter as a ray of the overruling immanent Self, it learns to reflect its consciousness back upon itself, thus obtaining cognition of itself as self-conscious and hetero-conscious, i.e., knowing itself, and knowing "non-self" or other selves.

Just as our higher and highest nature work through this human soul or intermediate nature of us, so does this last in its turn work and function through bodies or vehicles or sheaths of more or less etherealized matters which surround and enclose it, which are of course still lower than itself, and which therefore give it the means of contacting our own lower and lowest planes of matter; and these lower planes provide us with the vital-astral-physical parts of us. This human soul or intermediate nature manifests therefore as best it can through and by the astral-physical vehicle, the latter our body of human flesh.

In the theosophical classification, the human soul is divided into the higher human soul, composed of the lower buddhi and the higher manas  - and the self corresponding to it is the bhutatman, meaning the "self of that which has been" or the reincarnating ego  - and the lower human soul, the lower manas and kama, and the self corresponding to it is pranatman or astral personal ego, which is mortal.

See also: Human Soul , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Divine Soul :

Divine Soul

In occultism the divine soul is the garment of the divine ego, as the divine ego is the garment or child of the divine monad. The divine monad we may call the inner god, and this would mean that the divine ego, its offspring, is the inner Buddha, or the inner Christ; and hence the divine soul is the expression of the inner Buddha or of the inner Christ in manifestation on earth as the manushya-buddha or christ-man.

It should be stated here that of the several monads which in their combination form the entire septenary constitution of man each such monad has its own ego-child, and this latter has its own soul. It is this combination, mystic, wonderful, mysterious, which makes of man the complex entity he is, and which entitles him to the term which the occultism of the archaic ages has always given to him: the microcosm, a reflection or copy in the small of the macrocosm or kosmic entity.

See also: Divine Soul , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Spiritual Soul :

Spiritual Soul

The spiritual soul is the vehicle of the individual monad, the jivatman or spiritual ego; in the case of man's principles it is essentially of the nature of atma-buddhi. This spiritual ego is the center or seed or root of the reincarnating ego. It is that portion of our spiritual constitution which is deathless as an individualized entity  - deathless until the end of the maha-manvantara of the cosmic solar system.

The spiritual soul and the divine soul, or atman, combined, are the inner god  - the inner buddha, the inner christ.

See also: Spiritual Soul , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul