Interweaving Spiritual Wisdom: Brahma Kumaris, Newton, Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Hawkins, Buddhism, and Taoism

The Nature of the Soul and the Divine Self

At the heart of each tradition lies a view of the soul or ultimate self. The Brahma Kumaris (BK) teach that our true identity is the immortal soul – an infinitesimal point of spiritual light residing in the forehead, distinct from the body. All souls are originally pure and existed with God in a dimension of light and silence (the Soul World). God, termed the Supreme Soul, is also understood as an incorporeal point of light – an eternal source of wisdom, love, and purity who never takes birth in a body. In BK understanding, God is the Father/Mother of all souls, and knowing Him as an incorporeal being of light helps souls remember their own divine essence. The innate qualities of the soul are said to be purity, peace, love, bliss, and power; it is only when identified with the body and its vices that the soul’s light is obscured. Thus, “soul awareness” – the practice of knowing I am a soul, not a body – is fundamental to BK spirituality, reconnecting one with one’s original goodness and with God as the Ocean of Light.

Other traditions echo the idea of an inner divine essence, though in diverse terms. Sri Aurobindo refers to the psychic being, a divine spark or evolving soul within each person that carries the continuity of identity through lifetimes. This psychic being is the “innermost being” – the true self that is imperishable and stands behind the surface personality. It is inherently one with the One Self or Spirit that pervades all, but in most people it is hidden by ignorance. Aurobindo’s integral philosophy holds that realizing this inner divine principle – the psychic soul or ātman – is key to transformation. In a similar vein, Meher Baba teaches a nondual view: each soul is actually God wandering in illusion until it realizes its identity as God. He stated that God alone exists and that the individual soul is “God passing through imagination in order to realise its own divinity”. In other words, from Meher Baba’s perspective the soul (often called the drop-soul) is one with the infinite Ocean of God; it only imagines itself separate during its journey, and the end goal is to awaken from this dream of separateness. This view underpins Meher Baba’s emphasis on the fundamental divine love between the soul and God – since the soul is God, the spiritual path is about the lover (soul) merging back into the Beloved (God).

Not every tradition frames the soul as eternal or individual. Buddhism, in particular, made a radical departure with its doctrine of anatman (no permanent self). The Buddha taught that what we call a “self” is only a temporary aggregation of phenomena (body, feelings,

…