Atma

[Gregory Goode]

>Coming to the final point about where soul resides, I have a different
>view which I tend to believe, may be be wrong too. Instead of body
>possesing the soul, it is the soul which possess the body. By its
>idenfication with the body (sthuula), the soul tend to think that it
>is the body and even assumes a subordinate position that I am in the
>body. By soul I dont mean atman, I mean the suukshma shariram.

This is the way I see it.  Ramana pointed to a bodily location only for
those aspirants who needed somewhere to direct their attention/meditations.
 Actually, the body is in the Self, not vice versa.  The soul, sukshma
sharira, the causal body, the three states (waking, dreaming, sleeping),
the 5 sheaths, and the rest of the physical, subtle and causal worlds and
heavens -- all these are in the Self as well.

>For instance, one of my friends asked me one day whether plants have
>soul. He even intensified it with additional questions whether stones
>have soul.

If your friend cannot grasp the answer that all is an appearance in
impersonal consciousness, you might tell him that plants and rocks are
identified with the tamoguna and the physical body.  When the
identification rises, identification to the vital air sheath, then the
stone becomes a plant, and when the identification lifts to the subtle
body, the plant becomes an animal.  This happens between lifetimes.  I have
no scriptural authority for this explanation however!!

--Greg