What is the difference between mind, heart and soul?
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Transcription:
what is the difference between mind , heart, and soul ?
The soul is spiritual and eternal part and parcel of the Lord, the soul is the source of consciousness and life in the body. The mind is the part of the subtle body which is the seat of desires and emotions and the heart is, biologically speaking, a physical organ in the body , where the soul is especially located. Of course the work heart has two connotations, one is the biological connotation and the other is the emotional connotation. So, when people , who are in love draw a picture of an arrow piercing a heart, they are not referring to the biological heart but they are referring to the emotional heart, so that heart is the seat of emotions. And when we say from a scriptural point of view that the Lord is situated in the heart of the devotees, and the devotees are situated in the heart of the Lord, that is not referring to the biological heart primarily, that is referring to the emotional heart. So what is the emotional heart ? Is it an ontological entity that is actually existing ? Ultimately the source of the emotions is the soul. Earlier I said that the mind is the seat of the emotions. that means that actually the dormant emotions are situated in the mind and when the soul focuses on mind, then those emotions becomes activated, The mind is not the source of emotions. The soul is the source of emotions. To understand the difference between the mind and soul or consciousness, please refer to the earlier question on this topic ‘ what is the difference between mind and consciousness ?”. Here the heart in that sense refer more to a conceptual entity rather than an ontological entity. The you are for ever in my heart when we say in material sense, is the not that the other person is physically situated in some part of the hearty, it is that person has occupied our thoughts and emotions completely/. So in the physical perspective of course, the super soul is always accompanying the soul and in that sense the super soul is situated in the region of the heart that is biologically speaking, and of course the Lord being all pervading , can also be present in the soul. He can be present next to the soul, He can be present in every atom, So when talk about Lord’s present in the heart, then slightly different parameter comes in because He is present everywhere. However, without bringing that into the issue, from a practical point of view,the hear can refer to the biological heart, The heart can refer to the source of emotions, the emotional heart, which is the soul, or the heart can be referred to the conceptual entity, where we conceive of our beloveded to be present.