soul: opinion of Dr.Babu Ravindran

Dr, Babu Ravindran: A modern definition of the soul with a scientific approach may enable one to see what a ‘Soul’ might be and how it might work.
It may be a possible to compare parts of a Soul with corresponding parts of a computer system. I found an interesting scientific definition of ‘Soul’; according to that comparison, and further explanation, an elboration will be illuminating.
‘The Soul in every living thing is the informational parts of that thing that are purposefully engaged in the informational aspect of its ability to be conceived or germinate, grow with cells differentiating, grow further in size, move, make use of sensory information, react reflexively, learn, behave instinctually, think intelligently, communicate with other beings, teach, reproduce, evolve and in general carry out informational interactions starting with the combining of parallel DNA, informational interactions with itself, with things external to itself through senses, actions, constructions, creations, and communications, and with its progeny through contributed DNA. A soul can learn from experience, from reflection, or by being taught by other souls. In turn, a Soul can teach other Souls.
Thus the Soul is an immaterial substance and its primary operation of willing and thinking have not only no connection with the known properties of the element of the body, but, seems plainly inconsistent with some of the body’s more essential qualities. The Soul is an informational entity, which is constructed by one of the states and arrangements of material things. Yet it is immaterial, in the sense that particular choice of the material, whose states and arrangements represents the bits of digital information, is not of great consequence. If the entire informational structure of a soul was transferred intact into a suitable new host, it could continue in existence largely as a soul.
So there is dynamic soul and static soul.
A dynamic soul is just what we normally think of as a soul of a living, awake and active being. It is something that seems to inhabit a living body that is the essence of the ongoing intellectual and emotional activity of that person. It is the soul, with the help of the brain, and the body, that contemplates and reflects, feels, thinks, learns, communicates, decides and commands the body to do its bidding. It is the home of processes that implement our ethical, moral, religious, convictions. Thus the dynamic soul makes use of the brain in doing its thinking, and also makes use of the body to manipulate things in the real world, to receive information through the senses and to communicate with other souls.
A static soul is simply the digital information that is similar to a combination of computer programs and computer data. A static soul cannot be understood without understanding the exact processes that interpret and process the information that corresponds to computer programs, and understanding the nature and intent of the part that corresponds to computer data which is certainly complexly encoded in some kind of data base like a set of structures.
When the computer comes to life with Microsoft Windows and various programs doing various things, what is going on from the informational point of view, is similar to the concept of what is going on in a dynamic soul. When you buy a CD Rom that contains various programs and data you can use with your computer, from an informational point of view that CD is similar to the concept of part of the static soul.
The dynamic soul is the consequence of a set of computer like programs that are running in the brain body; the dynamic soul is in control of the body in the same general way that a computer might be in control of a robot. If one could extract a copy of a soul from its brain body, it would make no sense without also knowing the detailed structure and logic of brain-bodies in general and of its particular brain-body. Similarly if one is given a binary copy of a machine code computer program, it cannot be understood without also understanding the exact nature of machine and the operating system that is capable of running that code.
The more common example of a natural static soul is a seed. It has all the informational aspects of a plant that it can grow into. While static, a soul can remain viable for decades. Then, when put into an appropriate nurturing environment, it can start to grow into whatever it is destined to be. A seed is similar to a floppy disc that has a software virus on it. It is static until it is placed in a nurturing environment, that is moist, fertile earth, for the seed, a computer for the computer virus.
The age old concept of clear distinction between the physical part of the body and the evanescent part, the human soul turns out to be correct, the fact that the soul can be resident in a physical brain-body does not mean that the soul is physical in the physics sense of mass, length, and time. the soul is physical only in the sense that information is part of the world of physics. But physics has not yet finished putting information into the proper pigeonhole. Information is certainly subject to the laws of physics, but it is not physical in the sense that a machine is physical.
Mahathmas give the example of an earthen pot floating in an ocean with water inside and water outside. Once the pot is broken, the water inside the pot and the water outside becomes one. The shell of the pot is the barrier between the water inside and outside. This is a simile to the relationship between the all pervading cosmic conscience (Paramatma) and us. We are floating with Paramatma inside and outside, one body identified with Mano-buddhi-ahamkara) is the barrier separating these two parts of the same consciousness. We are Jeevatmans with bodies. Mind, Body, and Intellect collectively becomes the ego, and that is the sole identity of a person. The ego with all Vasanas latent in it can be called the Jeevathma, which is the subtle body or soul.
I was impressed by the example demonstrated by the language TV telecast. A TV serial is telecast from a TV station. Only when our TV set is switched on, we can receive the program on it. Even if the TV set is kept in a closed room or in a shelf, the movies, serials and the commercials can be clearly seen. But before the TV was tuned to the programmed frequency, what was the state of the telecast program?
We know that all the programs were present in the atmosphere in the form of waves. These electro-magnetic waves can again be converted to its original form when the TV set is tuned to that particular frequency.
Thus we can see that a visible form can also exist invisibly as waves which still contain the size, beauty and every quality latent in it. Similarly audible music can also exist as inaudible waves. It follows therefore that matter can exist as visible and invisible, that is, matter can have both a physical form as well as a subtle form. The difference is in the frequency level. Even if matter is destroyed physically, it is there in another form. That is, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It is there in the universe. This can be extended to a life-serial. To illustrate this, think of an architect designing a building. Even if the sketch drawn on a paper gets damaged, or lost, he can again draw the very same design. Thus we understand that the true existence of the design is not on the paper, but in the architect’s mind.