Question 1: I have heard the concept that the body changes, but what makes us eternal and who we really are, the soul, never does. I accept this as fact, of course. However, I am uncertain about the soul never changing. I am 38 years of age now and I am not the same person I was spiritually, mentally, emotionally, as I was when I was 28 or 18.
Question 2: I understand that a lot of that has to do with life’s experience and conditioning; but if that is the case, then how do we determine who we are as a soul as opposed to who we are based on maya’s influence?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
According to Vedic teachings, the embodied soul in the material world is engaged in two layers of coverings – gross and subtle – much like a man wearing a coat and a shirt. The gross covering, which is compared to the coat, is the physical body that we perceive. The subtle covering is comprised of the mind, intelligence and false-ego (the false sense of identity of who we think we are). This means that one’s mental or emotional states are not one’s real self. (See also Digest 00261A and 00261B where we discuss in greater detail about the subtle body.)
Just as the material body is constantly transforming, so the subtle body (which is also material) is affected / conditioned by these changes and undergoes transformation. Consider a person in a man’s body with certain characteristic traits: if the same person were to receive the body of a woman, an animal or a demigod in the next life, then their thoughts, desires and emotions will all be corresponding to that particular body! This shows how the subtle body also is always changing, corresponding to the changes of gross body. [Cf. BG 13.22 both verse and purport.] But the spirit soul remains the same, unaffected by all these transformations of the gross and subtle bodies.
If there seem to be changes or transformations in a person’s spiritual outlook or spiritual life, it pertains only to the uncovering of the conditioned consciousness and returning to the original, normal state of spiritual identity.
Re. your question as to how to determine one’s real nature / identity, that is made possible by practicing the scientific process of self- realization or Yoga, particularly bhakti yoga for the present age. By one’s own empirical effort or mental speculation it is NOT possible to understand the nature of one’s self, or that of God.
Rather, by submissive aural reception of this transcendental knowledge from a realized soul (sravanam), and by practicing the chanting of Hare Krishna without offenses (kirtanam) — these two being the primary limbs of bhakti yoga — one’s real spiritual nature gradually awakens, free from all the influences of maya.
