What is the Soul?
Full credit has to
be given to Mr Sean Buranahiran for a video posted on the internet concerning
the story about a king with four wives, and showing the morale behind this
story, which gave me the impetus to write this article about the soul.
Permit
me to paraphrase the story before dealing with the subject of the soul. The
story goes this way, "One day a king with four wives was sick and on death
bed, afraid of facing the afterlife alone asked his fourth wife whom he loved
the most, and bought her diamonds, gold and expensive jewelry and clothing, he
asked her, "will you die with me, and go with me to the afterlife?"
She replied, "I can't do that, and walked away.
He
then asked his third wife, "Will you accompany me to the afterlife?"
She replied, "I love my life too much, and I'm sorry I can't go with you,
and when you die, I am going to remarry."
The
second wife has always been there for him in his time of need so he asked her,
"Will you accompany me to the afterlife?" She replied, "I'm
sorry, I can't help you out this time, but what I can do is arrange your
funeral and I will be there for your funeral.
Then
he heard a voice called out and said, "I will leave with you and accompany
you, even it is to the afterlife", and the king looked and it was his
first wife, but this was the wife that he took care of the least, he felt embarrassed
and ashamed and said, "I'm sorry, I should have taken better care of you,
and given you more attention when I was alive.
There
is morale to this story and it is that we all have four wives and they are as
follows:-
1. Our
fourth wife is our body, we like to decorate it with nice jewelry, nice
clothing but in the end it can't follow us to the afterlife.
2. Our
third wife represents our possessions. We spend so much time trying to gather
possessions but in the end, they can't follow us to the afterlife, it will be
given to other people and divided just like the third wife said, she is going
to remarry.
3. The
second wife represents our friends and family, we trust them, they are there
for us in times of need, but the furthest they can go with us is to our funeral
and send us off.
4. The
first wife represents our soul; we usually neglect taking care of it which is
the only thing that will follow us to the afterlife.
The
wisest thing that we all can do is to care of our body, keep it healthy, enjoy
our possessions and the comfort they provide, cherish our friends and family
for the love that they provide, but don't forget to take care of our soul,
nourish our soul, take time to be alone, take time to pray, take time to
meditate because it is the source of all our life, and our most faithful
friend.
What
is our Soul?
Before
one can give duly care and attention to the soul, it is imperative for one to
know what exactly the soul is and how it can be nourished. Unfortunately, there
are at least three different perceptions or beliefs as to what the soul is. One
set of belief is that the soul is synonymous to the body, another belief is
that it is synonymous to the spirit, and there is another belief that it is an
entity by itself, so what is the truth.
One
thing for sure, judging from the words of Jesus Christ, it is obvious that the
soul is the most valuable part of a human being, for thus says the Lord, "For what profit is it
to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a
man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
But
in order to get to the crux of the matter, I think that it is imperative to
begin from the beginning of creation, for it is evident that when the Lord on
the fifth day of creation week, created the creatures in the water, the birds
in the air, and the creatures in the sea, it was the breath of life that
animated them and they as man were regarded as souls.
Also,
on the sixth day when the Lord said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature
according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each
according to its kind"; And also created man in His own image, it was also
the breath of life that animated all of them, and were all regarded as souls.
Then the Lord gave authority to
the man saying, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;
have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over
every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "See, I
have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the
earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything
that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb
for food" (Genesis 1:28-30).
The fact that everything in whose
nostrils is the breath of life are considered souls can be proven by looking at
the example of Noah's flood, where it is clearly stated that, "And all
flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils
was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.'
"So He destroyed all living
things which were on the face of the ground: man and cattle, creeping things
and birds of the air. They were destroyed from the earth: Only Noah and those
who were with him in the ark remained alive." And, referring to the time
of the flood the apostle Peter wrote; "when once the Divine longsuffering
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few,
that is, eight souls, were saved through water (Genesis
6:7, 7:21-23, 1 Peter 3:20).
I therefore beg to ask a question
at this juncture, what do us personally reckoned and consider being the soul!
Is it the physical body, the breath of air that animated the creature, or the
life which emanated in the body by the breath of life/air?
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With brotherly love
Lucius Joseph
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