The view of materialists that there is no self or soul different
from the body has to be rejected, because the consciousness itself is the soul,
which pervades all the three states. Materialists
do not accept the existence of a soul different from the body but how can they
find the soul within the body when it pervades in everything and everywhere in
all the three states.
All the confusion is because some thinkers’ people
hold the physical body itself is the self, another
that the sense organs are the self, yet another that the mind is the self. All
these are rejected when one becomes aware of the fact that, the soul, which is
in the form of consciousness as true self.
Many people hold on to the concept that there is no such
thing as soul because their teacher said so or some teaching said so or some scriptures say so. Thus they get stuck
with the idea of no soul and remain as stagnant water dropping all the further
investigation and trying to find answers for their shortcomings in their
worldly life.
Deeper investigation reveals the fact that, the individual
self is limited to the waking entity , is not the self, because
the waking experience is also falsehood. Therefore, the self is the formless knower or witness of the coming and going of the three states. And also it is the formless substance of the
three states. Thus, the soul is in the form of consciousness, is the true
self.
Consciousness is devoid of all qualities and is neither a
doer nor an experiencer. In ignorance it appears as waking experience or dream.
And in deep sleep it remains in its formless non-dual true nature. Thus the one that appears as waking or dream
and disappears as deep sleep is consciousness. Thus all the three states are
consciousness because there is no second thing exists, other than
consciousness.
