They seem quite different. Here’s the rub. The soul is by nature pure, blissful, unchangeable, and eternal, or so the Bhagavad-gita (2.20) would have it. So how can the pure soul be affected by impure material nature? If the soul is essentially untainted, how can worldly atmospheres recast it? As soon as a soul is ‘embodied,’ it becomes attached to its surroundings, particularly the body it inhabits. For this reason, dogs bark, cats meow, and cows moo. Human beings crave loving, eating, fighting, the arts, eating, sex, drugs, children, wealth, and intellectual prowess. But mostly, we work
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