Dear Friend,

    The jiva, or embodied soul, is trapped in the Great Illusion (Maya) and thinks of various things as ‘mine’, such as, my body, my family, my mind, and my intellect. Even animals like cats and dogs have the feeling of ‘my body’.

    When one starts doing spiritual practice, one goes a step further and starts getting some spiritual experiences. Spiritual experiences means experiences that are beyond the comprehension of the five senses, mind, and intellect. When the embodied soul starts getting spiritual experiences, it becomes an embodied soul doing spiritual practice, i.e., jivatama. At this stage, the embodied soul is attracted to The Soul Principle, or God Principle. The qualities of the Soul Principle are Absolute Truth, Absolute Consciousness, and Bliss. An embodied soul doing spiritual practice is one who is able to experience Bliss for a few moments.

    The God-realized Soul (Shivatma) is the one who gets higher spiritual experiences (like Bliss) for a longer duration. The Soul (Shiva) is one with The Supreme God (Brahman). By contrast, the embodied soul has yet to merge with the Soul (Shiva).

    As a seeker starts chanting the Lord’s Name, the embodied soul starts losing its body awareness (Dehabuddhi). The mind, intellect, and ego start merging with the Soul (Shiva). The embodied soul (Jiva) is transformed into the embodied soul doing spiritual practice (Jivatma) and later, into the God-realized soul (Shivatma). That is why it is said that chanting the Lord’s Name has the power to unite the embodied soul with the Soul (Brahman/Shiva).