Recuperating from Pneumonia--Emails Are Behind

Recently in Pune, India I became very ill with what seemed to be a heavy chest cold. After getting a chest x-ray it turned out that I have a mild case of pneumonia. I have a good facility for recuperating here in Australia with a long stop both in Sydney and in Melbourne. The weather here is also very pleasant, as the summer is just beginning. Due to so much traveling and preaching recently combined with the down time from this sickness my emails are now quite a bit behind. So if you have written me in the last couple of weeks and have not gotten an answer, kindly be patient. I can only answer one email at a time, and there is quite a long queue waiting for reply.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: How Can a Porous Heart Hold the Atomic Soul?

Srila Gurudeva, one of my relatives questioned me, "If the atma, the atomic soul, is so small, smaller than the tiniest point on the tip of a hair, how is it able stay in the heart when the heart is seen under the microscope to have so many holes joined by molecules? Just as a sieve cannot hold water, the atma, being so small, cannot be held by the porous heart." This is his question. How can I answer him?

Neel

Answer: The Atma, the Atomic Soul, Floats in Five Kinds of Air

Just as by the power of God so many planets are floating in outer space, in a similar way the atomic soul is floating within the heart on five different kinds of airs. This is described as follows in the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (3.1.9):

eṣo 'ṇur ātmā cetasā veditavyo
yasmin prāṇaḥ pañcadhā saṁviveśai
prāṇaiś cittaṁ sarvam otaṁ prajānāṁ
yasmin viśuddhe vibhavaty eṣa ātmā

"The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air (prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, samāna and udāna), is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited."

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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