What is soul? In its essence, the Soul in each person is a reflection of the immortal Spirit. Just as a man does not die when his house crumbles away, the Soul does not die when the body dies. The Soul simply leaves the body where it was encased and moves on.
The s essence never undergoes the emotional pain of loss or the physical pain associated with birth and death. It exists eternally, untouched by change. It is ever the same.
The Difference Between Soul and Spirit
The Spirit is ever-existing, fully-conscious, ever-new omnipresent joy. The Soul is an individualized reflection of Spirit. Soul and Spirit coexist as they are of the same essence, just as the ray of the sun is one with the sun.
The outer surface of the Soul’s consciousness is cloaked with the instruments we call the ego, mind and senses. They encase the essence of the Soul. These encasements have limitations. They also undergo change, like sickness and death, as they are part of nature and the world of phenomenon. However, the Soul’s essence never changes.
Let’s remember that the outer surface of the Soul retains qualities of the individual mind, such as desires, thoughts, memories, feelings, intelligence, energy and ideas. The Soul “wears” these envelopes which undergo changes as the Soul repeatedly reincarnates in new bodies. Why does it reincarnate? In order to work out its desires and the fruits of its past karma (both good and bad).