What is Soul ?

What is Soul ? Spiritualists and philosophers have evolved various definitions for this word. Some modern dictionaries explains the word like this: 'the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life'.

While living as an young man in the regions of the present day Israel some 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ used an equivalent of this word in his native Hebrew language and also in the ancient Greek language which he knew while he used to interact with those who listened to him. 

He used this word many times that one progressive thinking man of that day in the city of Ephesus (the then capital of the Asian region of the Roman empire of those days) asked him the meaning of this word ' soul'.

Jesus explained it in the following* manner:

“The soul is the self-reflective, truth-discerning, and spirit-perceiving part of man which forever elevates the human being above the level of the animal world. 

"Self-consciousness, in and of itself, is not the soul. 

"Moral self-consciousness is true human self-realization and constitutes the foundation of the human soul, and the soul is that part of man which represents the potential survival value of human experience. 

"Moral choice and spiritual attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him, are the characteristics of the soul. The soul of man cannot exist apart from moral thinking and spiritual activity. 

"A stagnant soul is a dying soul. But the soul of man is distinct from the divine spirit which dwells within the mind. The divine spirit arrives simultaneously with the first moral activity of the human mind, and that is the occasion of the birth of the soul.

“The saving or losing of a soul has to do with whether or not the moral consciousness attains survival status through eternal alliance with its associated immortal spirit endowment. 

"Salvation is the spiritualization of the self-realization of the moral consciousness, which thereby becomes possessed of survival value. 

"All forms of soul conflict consist in the lack of harmony between the moral, or spiritual, self-consciousness and the purely intellectual self-consciousness.

“The human soul, when matured, ennobled, and spiritualized, approaches the heavenly status in that it comes near to being an entity intervening between the material and the spiritual, the material self and the divine spirit. 

"The evolving soul of a human being is difficult of description and more difficult of demonstration because it is not discoverable by the methods of either material investigation or spiritual proving. 

"Material science cannot demonstrate the existence of a soul, neither can pure spirit-testing. 

"Notwithstanding the failure of both material science and spiritual standards to discover the existence of the human soul, every morally conscious mortal knows of the existence of his soul as a real and actual personal experience.”

Could you get it ?

* From Paper-133 of the Urantia Book

Jesus' Discourse on Science in Athens- the Capital of Greece!

The gospels of new testament bible gives only some limited and partial information about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ when he lived in this world, as a perfect human being for a short while of just over three decades, some 2000 years ago. 

The narratives in the gospels are written by human beings of limited abilities, even though they might have been strengthened in their abilities by some divine blessings. The Bible gives only very little information about Jesus Christ, especially about those 28 odd years before he actually began to preach and teach in and around the land of the Israelite people.

At the same time there are many non-biblical books and the so-called apocrypha books telling the stories about Jesus that are available to mankind. But these books have many things which could be well judged as human imaginations or exaggerations by a closer study by any unbiased and logical probe.

But in the latter half of the twentieth century AD, something miraculous happened in this context. This was the publication of the Urantia Book in 1955. The last part of this great volume of information in English language depicts the life and teachings of Jesus Christ- a much treasured historical information that was hitherto unrecorded or lost from being recorded.

My purpose is not to discuss about how this detailed history got prepared and published. My purpose in this blog is to provide my readers an exposure to what Jesus taught those with him, as given in the book that I mentioned above.

Please read carefully the following passages, directly quoted from the Urantia Book, Paper-133:

They [Jesus and his Indian merchant friend Gonod and his son Ganid) shortly arrived at the olden center of Greek science and learning, and Ganid was thrilled with the thought of being in Athens, of being in Greece, the cultural center of the onetime Alexandrian empire, which had extended its borders even to his own land of India. There was little business to transact; so Gonod spent most of his time with Jesus and Ganid, visiting the many points of interest and listening to the interesting discussions of the lad and his versatile teacher.

A great university still thrived in Athens, and the trio made frequent visits to its halls of learning. Jesus and Ganid had thoroughly discussed the teachings of Plato when they attended the lectures in the museum at Alexandria. They all enjoyed the art of Greece, examples of which were still to be found here and there about the city.

Both the father and the son greatly enjoyed the discussion on science which Jesus had at their inn one evening with a Greek philosopher. After this pedant had talked for almost three hours, and when he had finished his discourse, Jesus, in terms of modern thought [the concepts of the discourse when translated to English language as understood in the 20th Century AD], said:

Scientists may some day measure the energy, or force manifestations, of gravitation, light, and electricity, but these same scientists can never (scientifically) tell you what these universe phenomena are. Science deals with physical-energy activities; religion deals with eternal values. True philosophy grows out of the wisdom which does its best to correlate these quantitative and qualitative observations. There always exists the danger that the purely physical scientist may become afflicted with mathematical pride and statistical egotism, not to mention spiritual blindness.

Logic is valid in the material world, and mathematics is reliable when limited in its application to physical things; but neither is to be regarded as wholly dependable or infallible when applied to life problems. Life embraces phenomena which are not wholly material. Arithmetic says that, if one man could shear a sheep in ten minutes, ten men could shear it in one minute. That is sound mathematics, but it is not true, for the ten men could not so do it; they would get in one another’s way so badly that the work would be greatly delayed.

Mathematics asserts that, if one person stands for a certain unit of intellectual and moral value, ten persons would stand for ten times this value. But in dealing with human personality it would be nearer the truth to say that such a personality association is a sum equal to the square of the number of personalities concerned in the equation rather than the simple arithmetical sum. A social group of human beings in co-ordinated working harmony stands for a force far greater than the simple sum of its parts.

Quantity may be identified as a fact, thus becoming a scientific uniformity. Quality, being a matter of mind interpretation, represents an estimate of values, and must, therefore, remain an experience of the individual. When both science and religion become less dogmatic and more tolerant of criticism, philosophy will then begin to achieve unity in the intelligent comprehension of the universe.

There is unity in the cosmic universe if you could only discern its workings in actuality. The real universe is friendly to every child of the eternal God. The real problem is: How can the finite mind of man achieve a logical, true, and corresponding unity of thought? This universe-knowing state of mind can be had only by conceiving that the quantitative fact and the qualitative value have a common causation in the Paradise Father [God]. Such a conception of reality yields a broader insight into the purposeful unity of universe phenomena; it even reveals a spiritual goal of progressive personality achievement. And this is a concept of unity which can sense the unchanging background of a living universe of continually changing impersonal relations and evolving personal relationships.

Matter and spirit and the state intervening between them are three interrelated and interassociated levels of the true unity of the real universe. Regardless of how divergent the universe phenomena of fact and value may appear to be, they are, after all, unified in the Supreme [manifestation of God].

Reality of material existence attaches to unrecognized energy as well as to visible matter. When the energies of the universe are so slowed down that they acquire the requisite degree of motion, then, under favorable conditions, these same energies become mass. And forget not, the mind which can alone perceive the presence of apparent realities is itself also real. And the fundamental cause of this universe of energy-mass, mind, and spirit, is eternal—it exists and consists in the nature and reactions of the Universal Father and his absolute co-ordinates.

They were all more than astounded at the words of Jesus, and when the Greek [Philosopher]  took leave of them, he said: “At last my eyes have beheld a Jew who thinks something besides racial superiority and talks something besides religion.” And they retired for the night.

My dear reader! After reading this much, could you get a feeling deep in your mind for exploring more about what is written in this book?

If so, it would perhaps be a good idea to nurture that feeling and proceed accordingly.

Best Wishes!

The Story of Jesus Healing the Daughter of the Syrian Woman: What Really Happened ?

In the New Testament (NT) Bible there is a small incident described in the Gospel (of Jesus Christ) according to Mark, Chapter-7, verses 24-30. This is a passage, where Jesus is apparently equating a woman from a non-Jewish community (commonly referred to as the gentiles) to that of dogs.

Did Jesus actually make such a differentiation? What was his intention? The Bible passage is not very clear. 

First let us examine what Mark wrote as translated to modern English:

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.  

In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.  The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Now, I had been thinking about this for some time. I wanted to know more about what possibly could have happened. But there was no other source other than the Bible. The same story is narrated in a similar way in the Gospel according to Matthew too in the NT Bible. It is in Matthew Chapter 15 verses 21 to 28. Let me reproduce it too below:

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Essentially both these Biblical narrations are the same, only with some minor changes. Here too Jesus is apparently equating this woman who was belonging to an inferior community by the community to which Jesus belonged, as dogs. Of course such caste differentiation existed in the olden times and we are aware of it. 

Yet I was curious to know more. I now have my favorite book of divine revelation and life guidance, the Urantia Book, which tells exactly what had happened in this case. This is narrated in Paper-156 of this Book. Let me quote below the relevant narration from this wonderful book of celestial authorship:

On Friday afternoon of June 29th AD 29, [Put this date in the Julian Calendar conversion slot to see whether it was really a Friday! See my blog here for more details!] Jesus and his associates arrived in the environs of Sidon, where they stopped at the home of a well-to-do woman [ named Karuska ] who had been a patient in the Bethsaida hospital during the times when Jesus was at the height of his popular favor.

There lived near the home of Karuska, where the Master [Jesus] lodged, a Syrian woman [named Norona ] who had heard much of Jesus as a great healer and teacher, and on this Sabbath afternoon she came over, bringing her little daughter. The child, about twelve years old, was afflicted with a grievous nervous disorder characterized by convulsions and other distressing manifestations.

Jesus had charged his associates to tell no one of his presence at the home of Karuska, explaining that he desired to have a rest. While they had obeyed their Master’s instructions, the servant of Karuska had gone over to the house of this Syrian woman, Norana, to inform her that Jesus lodged at the home of her mistress and had urged this anxious mother to bring her afflicted daughter for healing. This mother, of course, believed that her child was possessed by a demon, an unclean spirit.

When Norana arrived with her daughter, the Alpheus twins [disciples of Jesus] explained through an interpreter that the Master was resting and could not be disturbed; whereupon Norana replied that she and the child would remain right there until the Master had finished his rest. Peter [disciple of Jesus] also endeavored to reason with her and to persuade her to go home. He explained that Jesus was weary with much teaching and healing, and that he had come to Phoenicia for a period of quiet and rest. But it was futile; Norana would not leave. To Peter’s entreaties she replied only: “I will not depart until I have seen your Master. I know he can cast the demon out of my child, and I will not go until the healer has looked upon my daughter.”

Then Thomas [disciple of Jesus] sought to send the woman away but met only with failure. To him she said: “I have faith that your Master can cast out this demon which torments my child. I have heard of his mighty works in Galilee, and I believe in him. What has happened to you, his disciples, that you would send away those who come seeking your Master’s help?” And when she had thus spoken, Thomas withdrew.

Then came forward Simon Zelotes [disciple of Jesus] to remonstrate with Norana. 

Said Simon: “Woman, you are a Greek-speaking gentile. It is not right that you should expect the Master to take the bread intended for the children of the favored household and cast it to the dogs.”

But Norana refused to take offense at Simon’s thrust. She replied only: “Yes, teacher, I understand your words. I am only a dog in the eyes of the Jews, but as concerns your Master, I am a believing dog. I am determined that he shall see my daughter, for I am persuaded that, if he shall but look upon her, he will heal her. And even you, my good man, would not dare to deprive the dogs of the privilege of obtaining the crumbs which chance to fall from the children’s table.”

At just this time the little girl was seized with a violent convulsion before them all, and the mother cried out: “There, you can see that my child is possessed by an evil spirit. If our need does not impress you, it would appeal to your Master, who I have been told loves all men and dares even to heal the gentiles when they believe. You are not worthy to be his disciples. I will not go until my child has been cured.”

Jesus, who had heard all of this conversation through an open window, now came outside, much to their surprise, and said: “O woman, great is your faith, so great that I cannot withhold that which you desire; go your way in peace. Your daughter already has been made whole.” 

And the little girl was well from that hour. As Norana and the child took leave, Jesus entreated them to tell no one of this occurrence; and while his associates did comply with this request, the mother and the child ceased not to proclaim the fact of the little girl’s healing throughout all the countryside and even in Sidon, so much so that Jesus found it advisable to change his lodgings within a few days.

The next day, as Jesus taught his apostles, commenting on the cure of the daughter of the Syrian woman, he said: “And so it has been all the way along; you see for yourselves how the gentiles are able to exercise saving faith in the teachings of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.Verily, verily, I tell you that the Father’s kingdom shall be taken by the gentiles if the children of Abraham are not minded to show faith enough to enter therein.”

My dear readers! Could you see any difference in the story as retold by the celestial (non-human) authors of the revealed book of knowledge to modern mankind? 

If you could discern that difference, you should consider reading this revelation to know what God wants us to know and do.

And if that desire burns even faintly inside you, you are in search of God. But nurture that desire.

May the Great God, the Universal Father of all, bless you in your endeavor!