You are not this body but a soul covered in a material body. The body is just a machine that you use as a tool to do things– Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita
Many times we say that there is a soul within us or within our bodies but in fact we ourselves are the individual souls occupying our respective bodies. I am occupying my body and you are occupying your body, just as you are residing in your house and I am residing in my house. This does not mean that I am the house. I am different than my house. Similarly I am not the body but I am the soul, who is residing within the body. In fact, every living being is a soul (including plants and animals) covered in a material body.
How a Soul enters the Womb?
SB 3.31.1 – The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.
Based on the actions taken by Souls in their previous lives (Karma), Lord arranges for each soul to enter the womb of a mother in a particular universe, on a particular planet, in a particular country, in a particular City, in a particular Street, in a particular house, to a particular mother. Exactly based on what the soul deserves.
Day 1 to 30
SB 3.31.2 – On the first night the sperm and ovum mix, and on the fifth night the mixture ferments into a bubble. On the tenth night it develops into a form like a plum, and after that, it gradually turns into a lump of flesh or an egg, as the case may be.
SB 3.31.3 –In the course of a month, a head is formed, and at the end of two months the hands, feet and other limbs take shape. By the end of three months, the nails, fingers, toes, body hair, bones and skin appear, as do the organ of generation and the other apertures in the body, namely the eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth and anus.
Month 4 to 6
SB 3.31.4 – Within four months from the date of conception, the seven essential ingredients of the body, namely chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow and semen, come into existence. At the end of five months, hunger and thirst make themselves felt, and at the end of six months, the child, if he is male, begins to move on the right side, and if female, she tries to move on the left side.
Month 6 and onwards
SB 3.31.5 – Deriving its nutrition from the food and drink taken by the mother, the fetus grows and remains in that abominable residence of stools and urine, which is the breeding place of all kinds of worms.
SB 3.31.6 – Bitten again and again all over the body by the hungry worms in the abdomen itself, the child suffers terrible agony because of his tenderness. He thus becomes unconscious moment after moment because of the terrible condition.
The Food taken by mother affects the fetus
he food eaten by the mother makes a big difference to the sufferings of the fetus. She should not eat salty, bitter (citric), and pungent (meat) foods. Nor drink alcohol, smoke, and need to be very careful with any medicines because the child’s body is too delicate and new for him to tolerate such pungent food.
SB 3.31.7 – Owing to the mother’s eating bitter, pungent foodstuffs, or food which is too salty or too sour, the body of the child incessantly suffers pains which are almost intolerable.
SB 3.31.8 – Placed within the amnion and covered outside by the intestines, the child remains lying on one side of the abdomen, his head turned towards his belly and his back and neck arched like a bow.
SB 3.31.9 – The child thus remains just like a bird in a cage, without freedom of movement. At that time, if the child is fortunate, he can remember all the troubles of his past one hundred births, and he grieves wretchedly. What is the possibility of peace of mind in that condition?
SB 3.31.10 – Thus endowed with the development of consciousness from the seventh month after his conception, the child is tossed downward by the airs that press the embryo during the weeks preceding delivery. Like the worms born of the same filthy abdominal cavity, he cannot remain in one place.
SB 3.31.11 – The living entity in this frightful condition of life, bound by seven layers of material ingredients, prays with folded hands, appealing to the Lord, who has put him in that condition.
The Soul Prays
SB 3.31.12 –The human soul says: I take shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears in His various eternal forms and walks on the surface of the world. I take shelter of Him only, because He can give me relief from all fear and from Him I have received this condition of life, which is just befitting my impious activities.
SB 3.31.13 –I, the pure soul, appearing now bound by my activities, am lying in the womb of my mother by the arrangement of maya. I offer my respectful obeisance unto Him who is also here with me but who is unaffected and changeless. He is unlimited, but He is perceived in the repentant heart. To Him I offer my respectful obeisance.
SB 3.31.14 –I am separated from the Supreme Lord because of my being in this material body, which is made of five elements, and therefore my qualities and senses are being misused, although I am essentially spiritual. Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to material nature and the living entities, because He is devoid of such a material body, and because He is always glorious in His spiritual qualities, I offer my obeisance unto Him.
SB 3.31.15 –The human soul further prays: The living entity is put under the influence of material nature and continues a hard struggle for existence on the path of repeated birth and death. This conditional life is due to his forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, without the Lord’s mercy, how can he again engage in the transcendental loving service of the Lord?
SB 3.31.16 –No one other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the localized Paramatma, the partial representation of the Lord, is directing all inanimate and animate objects. He is present in the three phases of time-past, present and future. Therefore, the conditioned soul is engaged in different activities by His direction, and in order to get free from the threefold miseries of this conditional life, we have to surrender unto Him only.
SB 3.31.17 –Fallen into a pool of blood, stool and urine within the abdomen of his mother, his own body scorched by the mother’s gastric fire, the embodied soul, anxious to get out, counts his months and prays, “O my Lord, when shall I, a wretched soul, be released from this confinement?”
SB 3.31.18 –My dear Lord, by Your causeless mercy I am awakened to consciousness, although I am only ten months old. For this causeless mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the friend of all fallen souls, there is no way to express my gratitude but to pray with folded hands.
SB 3.31.19 –The living entity in another type of body sees only by instinct; he knows only the agreeable and disagreeable sense perceptions of that particular body. But I have a body in which I can control my senses and can understand my destination; therefore, I offer my respectful obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whom I have been blessed with this body and by whose grace I can see Him within and without.
SB 3.31.20 –Therefore, my Lord, although I am living in a terrible condition, I do not wish to depart from my mother’s abdomen to fall again into the blind well of materialistic life. Your external energy, called deva-maya, at once captures the newly born child, and immediately false identification, which is the beginning of the cycle of continual birth and death, begins.
SB 3.31.21 –Therefore, without being agitated any more, I shall deliver myself from the darkness of nescience with the help of my friend, clear consciousness. Simply by keeping the lotus feet of Lord Visnu in my mind, I shall be saved from entering into the wombs of many mothers for repeated birth and death.
Month 9 and onwards
SB 3.31.22 – Lord Kapila continued: The ten-month-old living entity has these desires even while in the womb. But while he thus extols the Lord, the wind that helps parturition propels him forth with his face turned downward so that he may be born.
SB 3.31.23 – Pushed downward all of a sudden by the wind, the child comes out with great trouble, head downward, breathless and deprived of memory due to severe agony.
SB 3.31.24 – The child thus falls on the ground, smeared with stool and blood, and plays just like a worm germinated from the stool. He loses his superior knowledge and cries under the spell of maya.
Childhood
SB 3.31.25 –After coming out of the abdomen, the child is given to the care of persons who are unable to understand what he wants, and thus he is nursed by such persons. Unable to refuse whatever is given to him, he falls into undesirable circumstances.
SB 3.31.26 –Laid down on a foul bed infested with sweat and germs, the poor child is incapable of scratching his body to get relief from his itching sensation to say nothing of sitting up, standing or even moving.
SB 3.31.27 –In his helpless condition, gnats, mosquitoes, bugs and other germs bite the baby, whose skin is tender, just as smaller worms bite a big worm. The child, deprived of his wisdom, cries bitterly.
Boyhood
SB 3.31.28 –In this way, the child passes through his childhood, suffering different kinds of distress, and attains boyhood. In boyhood also he suffers pain over desires to get things he can never achieve. And thus, due to ignorance, he becomes angry and sorry.
SB 3.31.29 –In this way, the child passes through his childhood, suffering different kinds of distress, and attains boyhood. In boyhood also he suffers pain over desires to get things he can never achieve. And thus, due to ignorance, he becomes angry and sorry.
SB 3.31.30 –By such ignorance the living entity accepts the material body, which is made of five elements, as himself. With this misunderstanding, he accepts nonpermanent things as his own and increases his ignorance in the darkest region.
Adulthood
SB 3.31.31 –For the sake of the body, which is a source of constant trouble to him and which follows him because he is bound by ties of ignorance and fruitive activities, he performs various actions which cause him to be subjected to repeated birth and death.
What Causes Repeated Birth and Death?
Sinful activities like illicit relationship, meat eating, alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling, lying, hatred, ego, attachments, atheism, bad association, and so on ensures the soul will once again be placed in the hell known as the womb.
SB 3.31.32 –If, therefore, the living entity again associates with the path of unrighteousness, influenced by sensually minded people engaged in the pursuit of sexual enjoyment and the gratification of the palate, he again goes to hell as before.
SB 3.31.33 –Sinful activities like illicit relationship, meat eating, alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling, lying, hatred, ego, attachments, atheism, bad association, and so on ensures the soul will once again be placed in the hell known as the womb.
SB 3.31.34 – One should not associate with a coarse fool who is bereft of the knowledge of self-realization and who is no more than a dancing dog in the hands of a woman.
What is the Size & Location of the Soul?
“बालाग्रशतभागस्य शतधा कल्पितस्य च।
भागो जीवः स विज्ञेयः स चानन्त्याय कल्पते॥ 5.9 ॥
“When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.” (Svetasvatara Upanisad 5.9)
“According to the Mundaka Upanishad, this atomic soul is situated in the heart of every living entity.”
Soul FAQs
1. In which month of pregnancy does a soul enter the fetus?
Chandogya Upanishad says that through the grains (food), the soul enters into the particular man’s body even before he has physical interaction with woman. Then, it gets added to his semen. Then, a suitable sperm cell is chosen to enter into the body of woman. The sperm cell getting entered into the body of woman is decided based on his sanskars (collection of his thoughts and acts in his previous bodies). Every sperm cell is a living cell. So, the soul is present inside the sperm cell to make it a living cell. So, just when the sperm succeeds in mixing with the egg of woman, the soul is present there. So, the soul enters into the uterus of woman even when the fetus is formed i.e. on the very first day of conception.
2. What are the 84 Lakh Yonis (8.4 Million Species of Life)?
According to the Vedas & Puranas, there are 8.4 million species of life. The conditioned souls keep circulating in different species of life according to their karma, under divine supervision. In this life one may be a king, and in the next life one may be a dog, depending upon ones karma.
These 8,400,000 Species of life are divided in six main divisions:
Humans (Including Demigods) – 400,000 Species
Beasts – 3,000,000 Species
Birds – 1,000,000 Species
Insects – 1,100,000 Species
Aquatics – 900,000 Species
Plants – 2,000,000 Species
Progression to the Human Body
If we are fallen at the lowest level of the species, we first have to pass through the very simplest, one-celled organisms (which may barely be seen through the telescope) before reaching those species with the sense perception.
Finally, we evolve through all the mammals up to the human being stage. The human body is the highest and most elevated of all bodies. Once we attain the human form, if we misuse it by indulging solely in basic animalistic pursuits such as eating, sleeping, mating, and pursuing material pleasure, we risk regressing to an animal form in our next life. This is because human consciousness differs from that of animals; humans possess the capacity for introspection and the exploration of their true spiritual identity, while animals do not engage in such inquiry. They simply eat, sleep, mate, and enjoy their material existence. Therefore, if we lower our consciousness to that of animals and neglect to utilize our higher faculties, then we are better off in the animal kingdom. God is very fair and merciful, he satisfies all our desires. If we behave like an animal then we will be one in our next life, at our own request.
Therefore a human being must be responsible. He must take advantage of the rare opportunity of human life by understanding his relationship with God and act accordingly.
3. Why Soul (we) come to this world?
Originally the living beings exist in the spiritual world as eternal family members of the Lord. We come to this world because of our desire to enjoy ourselves separately from the Lord, and due to His kindness, he arranged us the material body on this planet.
We enter the material universe, comprised of the three modes of nature — goodness, passion, and ignorance. The Yamadutas explain that the living beings who desire to enjoy this material world come under the control of the modes and, according to their specific relationship with these modes, acquire suitable material bodies. A being in the mode of goodness obtains the body of a demigod, one in the mode of passion takes birth as a human, and one in the mode of ignorance enters the lower species.
All of these bodies are like the bodies we experience in dreams. When a man goes to sleep, he forgets his real identity and may dream that he has become a king. He cannot remember what he was doing before he went to sleep, nor can he imagine what he will do upon waking. In the same way, when a soul identifies with a temporary, material body, he forgets his real, spiritual identity, as well as any previous lives in the material world.
Driven by our material desires, we wander from one body to another exactly like a person lost in madness forgetting their family ties and loiters in the street. However, when he is again in his normal mental condition, he remembers his family members and returns to them.
4. Why Soul (we) come to this world?
As the soul is spiritual being, we are by constitution eternally blissful and full-of-knowledge. It is not the original function of the soul to experience sadness, ignorance, death and material distress. But due to material contamination soul is not able to exhibit its spiritual nature hence suffers in material world.