In spiritual philosophy, It is said the evolution of life on Earth was the result of the same causative property of energy which first created matter.
The atoms of each element have different properties depending on their mass, or the amount of finite energy taken to create them. For example, a relatively small amount of energy being used to create a simple and small atom has varying properties than that of a larger atom made up of a larger amount of energy.
This is relatable in science, since the net energy that makes up a hydrogen atom (the energy of quarks of protons and neutrons and electrons combined) is lesser in comparison than that of a uranium atom. With different atoms created out of energy, each with their own unique properties, a particular set of atoms were capable of creating and sustaining life. Such atoms whose energy level was stabler than other atoms’ are the very ones making up the RNA and DNA, the fundamental units of life, that is, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen.
It is generally understood that initially a single-cellular organism was born from the collection of these atoms. When attracted by gravity, the atoms formed a set of molecules (DNA) capable of adding similar atoms for their own growth. These molecules started absorbing matter to gain a robust form (a body). Such molecular growth happened by the bonding of atoms (amino acids) forming long chains. But, atoms weren’t the only things absorbed by the amino acid molecules. They absorbed the energy around them too! Not heat energy or light energy, but plain, pure energy.
The amino acids were capable of trapping the energy around them and form a field while they grew. Also, this field of energy wasn’t just a passive response to the molecule building process. It influenced the process by making the molecules bond with more (similar) atoms and form even longer chains (amino acids). When the chains grew long enough, they were cut off to form a new chain with a new energy field around it. The amino acids with the energy field around them grew into RNA and DNA, which in turn grew up to form a single-cellular organism. The energy field grew around them too, getting bigger and bigger until it reached the single-cellular organism’s size.
On the other hand, the energy field isn’t just formed by our amino acid molecules, but all the organic compounds we see around us today. Organic compounds, basically made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen are the fundamental atoms making up life. It seems, these atoms whichever way they arranged themselves, were capable of shaping the energy around them into a field.
It is this field around all organic substances that differentiates them from inorganic substances like rocks, sand, air and water. Though life evolved from inorganic substances (and also use them regularly) like oxygen and water, the organic molecules and their well-defined energy fields make them stand out from their surroundings. We can even say, energy evolved into matter, and matter and energy together evolved to form life, in a step-by-step manner.
For the single-cellular organism, the energy field was symmetrically aligned to its physical body (molecular structure) and assumed its shape and size, since it is the atoms and molecules that gave rise to the field. The range of this energy field lay between each of its individual atoms and the overall structure of the molecules (the body). It is this field of energy, which we have understood as the potential energy of an organism (in our case the single-cellular one).
When the organism executes a work, be it, absorption of nutrients, digestion of molecules or assimilating them, there occur fluctuations in this energy field. The amount of work done by the organism every minute being numerous (in quantity), to our eyes, the field appears to be in constant oscillation.
Matter surrounded by energy absorbed in one form and expended in another form and it appears like the potential energy of the body getting converted into kinetic energy for executing a work. And when the physical body absorbs the nutrients and the energy field restored, the potential of the physical body seems balanced again. But actually, the net energy held by the physical body changes every second (due to the continuous work done by the physical body), and the field never kept idle and saturated. It is this oscillating energy field that has been named to be the ‘soul’.
The most obvious question coming to our mind now is “how far can this view be true?” The answer lies not in the words of the philosophers, but the practices they developed to feel the soul, that is, the energy field. The meditative techniques help us to feel the presence of energy field in and around our bodies, just as the way we feel heat, pressure and light. But unfortunately, science being confined to the matter involved in the process will take a long time to see the soul in and around the physical bodies.
There are a few other definitions for the soul propounded by some other schools of Yogic and Siddha philosophies. Some explain the soul to be a small part of the Divinity or the God, embodied within a physical body and upon the death of the organism, the soul unites with the God. Some others say the soul is an eternal entity that traverses through time by assuming shape in several physical bodies of organisms before integrating itself with the God.
How far the above definitions are true and in which perspective they must be understood, lies with our understanding of the term itself.
