What is the Difference Between the Human Body and the Soul?

The Soul is the most precious thing on this planet!
Many people also call it Aatma, Rooh, the Holy Spirit, consciousness or super-consciousness, depending on the language one speaks or the religion one follows. The Soul is also referred to as the real self.

A Soul is present in every Body that is alive
Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan , the Enlightened being, defines: The Soul means life energy (chetan).
When a person dies, who is it that leaves? The Soul leaves. it is such that it cannot be seen. But it is there for sure. It is light; it is in the form of light. All this (the body that we can see alive) is its light! If it is not there, then everything would end. Have you seen the body once the Soul has gone out of it? Have you seen a dead body? Does the body have light in it, then? No. It means the Soul has left the body. The Soul is in the form of light.

Soul is Knowledge
The Soul is an element made up of knowledge and bliss. It knows what all is happening. It understands the experience of pain and happiness. How does one know that, “This leg is aching and this one is not.” One may argue it is the nerve or that the brain knows. But who reads the brain? Brain present in the body is only an organ and it exists in a dead body too; but a dead body is not able to know anything.
So there is something else due to which we know and understand things. And that something is Soul:
- which when present in the body, a person is said to be living; and when it leaves the body, the same body is called a dead body;
- which when present in the body, a person is able to know things, and when it leaves the body, the same person is not able to know anything.

Feelings arise in Body and the Soul ‘Knows’ that Feeling
Feelings and sensations arise in the body, and not in Soul. However, the body cannot know the feeling, only the Soul can know. The following conversation of Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan with one of the seekers helps us understand the difference between the body and the Soul much more clearly…
Dadashri : Now, what is Soul? It has no feelings or anything like that. The Soul is only in the form of light (light of knowledge)! But wherever there are feelings (in the body), we can find the Soul there.
Questioner: So does it mean that Soul is the basis of feeling, or where the feelings arise, in that place the Soul is there?
Dadashri: If we say that the basis of feelings is Soul, it creates another problem. The feelings arise because of the presence of the Soul! So wherever there is feeling, there is Soul.
Questioner: That which is expressed when the feeling arises, it’s not the Soul that has expressed, isn’t it?
Dadashri: It is the body complex that gets expressed, but because there is the presence of the Soul there, these feelings arise, the pain arises.

Soul means Atma, Atma means Self
Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being, says,
“The true meaning of Atma is the Self, one’s real form. Eternal happiness, bliss, is within you. Your real Self, i.e. the Soul, is an abode of infinite bliss and yet you are looking for happiness in temporary things!”
The Atma means the Self. One may say, “I am John (please insert your own name here)” But John is the name of the body. Should we not know ‘who am I’ in this body? It is that Self which we need to recognize...
Gnani is the Enlightened One, whose own Soul is awakened and who has the power to awaken other’s Soul too. Only such Living Gnani is able to give us the taste of experience of the Soul (Self-Realization)!!! Gnani does this out of sheer compassion; hence there is no cost associated with this.
So, with the best wishes that ‘May we all soon find the path to the Eternal’, here’s the link to the Living Gnani! Visit

Authored by: Dada Bhagwan