Often in those moments of our introspection and deep thinking, havent we all wondered-What is a soul?

What is it, which everyone is somehow familiar with, but still, continues to be unknown?

Philosophy sees it as the aspect or essence of a human being which confers individuality and humanity often considered synonymous with the mind or the self

Science gives the following definition for the same: The soul is an informational entity, which is constructed out of the states and the arrangements of material things but is immaterial itself

Theology says that it is that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to survive the death of the body

The Bhagavad Gita divides Soul into two parts: Paramatma or the Super-soul and Jivatama or the minute Atomic-soul. And controlling them is the Bhagavana or the Supreme Lord. To understand them, we should first know that the aim of the soul is to achieve the Absolute truth.Consider, for an example, that the Sun is the Absolute truth. Now, the Jivatama is satisfied studying only the sunshine. The Paramatama studies the suns surface and the disc also. The Bhagavan or the Supreme Lord is who knows the interiors of the Sun as well, along with the rest. This vastness of knowledge, here, draws the line between the Human and the Absolute Being.

The soul can be seen as an influential factor all through-out our life. A childs honesty and innocence can be owed to the assumption that during childhood bodily and worldly influences are weak.Hence,the childs mind is governed by the truth and purity of the soul.As,we grow up, the bodily and worldly influences grow strong and they overpower the soul.So,we turn self-centric and are lost in what is called the maya(illusion).As old-age approaches, our body looses its vitality and our knot with the world starts loosening.Then,the soul again becomes the key governing element.Maybe,this is why old-age is called the second-childhood.

With awakening to the realization of the souls existence or non-existence, we also become conscious to another inevitable truth called Death. The Gita says that there should be no lamentation for the loss of the body, whether you are a believer in the presence of the soul or not. If you believe in the soul, you are aware that the soul, in itself, is an imperishable entity.Hence, loss of an outer-skin should not be a botheration. On the other hand, if you dont believe in the soul and consider living beings to be just electromagnetic energies vibrating in the universe, you know by the Law of conservation of energy (Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It is just transferred from one form to the other) that there should be no complaining about something that does not have a real existence.

As the mind of an agnostic still flutters about looking for corners of a circle, there are many things that can make us think and question. When we call someone our soul-mate or our soul-sister, do we actually mean that they were at one point a

part of our whole being before fission-ing into another part, different yet our own? People say that The Mirror never lies and they also say that Your soul is your only truth .So, while looking at the mirror, what stares back at us, is our soul? What walks along with us as our shadow when the sun shines, is our conscience with a figure? Or, when C.S Lewis said that You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body, he actually spilled out the truth?

Different questions, different answers and different angles. What to believe in? The choice is all ours.