The Soul vs The Spirit

You know how one day you’re just fiddling about, doing something else and this random thought hits your mind? Yeah, it happened to me too.

I’ve never given this context much thought, to be honest, but one day; boom my mind was curious as to what is the difference between a soul and a spirit. Are they the same thing? Are they different? If they are different; how are they different? Are they used interchangeably? Yeah, they are definitely changed interchangeably. You can see I can be quite of a curious cat, and you might also have figured out that I’ve spent quite some time on this.

Let’s get one thing straight, both the soul and the spirit are referred to what is intangible, beyond our bodies and seeking good and feeling good. When it is something makes us feel healed, something makes us feel immaculate; we say that it has touched our soul. And when we want to connect to something that is greater than all we know, we seek something spiritual.

The soul and the spirit are used interchangeably. And yes, they are very similar to each other. However, they are separated by this thin strand. The soul is believed to cover our will, our affections and our thoughts. The soul is in fact, that part of us that connects to or comes in close connection to our fellow human being or simple ‘being’. On the other hand, the spirit is that part of us that connects to something higher, to God and covers matter like having trust and faith. The spirit is the innermost part of being.

So, I do not really want to be all showboaty about it, but I looked it up and here’s the jist. Human beings have a spirit, but a human being, in itself is a soul. In its most basic sense, the word soul means life. The soul, as life of the body, is removed at the time of physical death (Genesis 35:18; Jeremiah 15:2). The soul, as with the spirit, is the center of many spiritual and emotional experiences (Job 30:25; Psalm 43:5; Jeremiah 13:17). And here is how the confusion can somehow come to an end: the word soul can refer to the whole person, whether alive on earth or in the afterlife.

But is it all that we should limit the concept of soul to? No. According to Vedic philosophy, soul is the core or our being - experiencer. And true words have never been spoken. Ultimately, it’s not just a wave, I its part of the infinite ocean which we call God. From this infinity, we emerge and into this infinity we dissolve. Sadly, we often identify ourselves as a wave and are afraid that we will crash and we forget that we are not just a wave but we are part of the ocean.

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