If a person undergoes heart transplant then what happens to the soul?
Just as you get up from one chair and sit on another chair the soul leaves the previous heart and occupies the new heart. As by changing the chair the person is not changed, similarly by changing the heart the soul is not changed. A soul is not glued to the heart but a soul sits in region of heart or rather occupies it.
Please give some reference from the scriptures mentioning that the soul is always active.
Here is the shloka no. 3.5 from Bhagavad-Gita As it is with complete translation and purport by His Divine A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
na hi kascit ksanam api jatu tisthaty akarma-krt
karyate hy avasah karma sarvah prakrti-jair gunaih
TRANSLATION
Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.
PURPORT
It is not a question of embodied life, but it is the nature of the soul to be always active. Without the presence of the spirit soul, the material body cannot move. The body is only a dead vehicle to be worked by the spirit soul, which is always active and cannot stop even for a moment. As such, the spirit soul has to be engaged in the good work of Krishna consciousness, otherwise it will be engaged in occupations dictated by illusory energy. In contact with material energy, the spirit soul acquires material modes, and to purify the soul from such affinities it is necessary to engage in the prescribed duties enjoined in the sastras. But if the soul is engaged in his natural function of Krishna consciousness, whatever he is able to do is good for him.
What is the difference between jivatma and paramatma? What is the size, colour and shape of both?
The Jivatma is atomic. (One ten thousandth the tip of the hair) (Anu).
Paramatma is Infinite (Vibhu).
Example: A drop of sea water(Jiva). The Ocean(Paramatma). They are one in quality but different in quantity.
1. What is the difference between heart and soul?
1. It seems you wish to know the difference between heart and soul. Soul is the life or consciousness that we see in a living body. Soul is the real person, the individual, who animates the body. When we say “I” or “You,” we are actually referring to the soul in that body. The body is simply a dress that covers the soul.
Heart is the region of the body where the soul is located.
Q. Do you meditate?
A. Members of the Hare Krishna movement practice mantra meditation. In Sanskrit, manah means ‘mind’ and tra means ‘freeing’. So a mantra is a combination of words that is meant to relieve the mind of anxieties arising from worldly entanglement. Vedic literature compares the mind to a mirror, and our present state of spiritual forgetfulness to a mirror which has accumulated dust. Mantra meditation clears the dust from the mirror of the mind so that we can see our original self. When our spiritual nature is inwardly perceived, then the anxieties caused by illusion cease, and we experience spiritual happiness.
Why do you chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and why specifically 16 rounds?
There are four yugas i.e. Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kaliyuga and for every yuga a specific process has been recommended in the scriptures for self realization.
Satyayuga – Meditation
Tretayuga – Yajna (sacrifice)
Dwaparyuga – Deity worship
Kaliyuga – Harinaam sankirtan (congregational chanting)
The scripture Kali Santaran Upanishad mentions the specific Mahamantra (comprising of the Holy name of the Lord) i.e. “Hare Krishna Mahamantra” to be chanted as the only process required for self realization in Kaliyuga.
Moreover, this Mahamantra has been given by Lord Chaitanya who is none other than Lord Krishna himself. So as followers of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we chant this Mahamantra.
Srila Prabhupada, the founder Acharya of ISKCON always recommended that we should chant the whole day. But seeing the restless nature and hectic lifestyle of the present yuga he mercifully reduced it to 16 rounds.
Q. Do you believe in reincarnation?
A. Yes. The Bhagavad-gita, the principal scripture of the Hare Krishna movement, and the roots of understanding reincarnation, states “As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.”
The Vedas further explain that the soul in the material world transmigrates within a cycle of material birth and death through 8,400,000 forms of life. The human form, however, is the only birth which affords one, the chance for spiritual realization. Species lower than humans are not endowed with sufficient intelligence to understand the soul as different from the body.
Q. What is reincarnation?
A. The Bhagavad-Gita states that life does not begin at birth nor end with death. It is eternal. The soul is constantly transmigrating from one body to another according to its desires and quality of activities (karma). The Vedas further explain that the soul in the material world moves through a cycle of 8,400,000 forms of life. The human form, however, is the only birth which affords one the chance for self-realization. Lower-than-human species are not endowed with sufficient intelligence to understand the self as different from the body.
Q.It is said that spirit is very tiny, invisible to the gross material eye! but for any person willing to do bhakti, he should first understand distinction between body and spirit! For a neophyte how is it possible to know about something(spirit) which is not visible to gross material senses! For the gross materialists won’t this be an easy argument for atheism?
A.The spirit soul can be detected by inference, since there is no change in the material composition of a body at the time of death. So one may inquire from the gross materialist as to what is the cause of consciousness?
However this debate can and will go on forever. Our senses are far from perfect and even with all the material advancements we cannot even solve the mysteries of the material world – trying to reach or even understand Krishna, or even the spirit soul, with our imperfect senses is impossible. The basis of spiritual advancement is to have faith in the scriptures. The ultimate proof of the existence of the soul is that Krishna affirms it in the Bhagavad Gita.
Q. The soul is like God but it is not God. The soul is eternal – it has not birth and death. How does the soul come into being from God? What happens to the soul after ‘complete destruction’ i.e. after the death of Lord Brahma? What happens to the ‘unused’ karma?
A. The soul is co-eternal with God, just as a spark of a blazing fire exists with the fire, although not independent of it. At the time of total annihilation all the conditioned souls enter into the body of Maha Visnu and remain there in a dormant state for eons. ‘Unused karma’ is held in a dormant or suspended state, awaiting the next creation. Each soul gets another material body in one of the 8,400,000 species of life during the next creation, according to his residual karma. If he becomes a pure devotee, all his karma is finished and he can go back to Godhead.