[Interviewer] Acharya Shree, what is an old soul?
What a wise question. And what kind of question is that?
Soul is old. But let me tell you, same time soul is ageless.
Because there is no beginning of the soul, when did it begin, when it starts. So it is ageless.
Beginningless. When it is beginningless, how can we find that it is an old soul?
Or it is a new soul? All souls are old souls.
But people think that you are around here for a long time. They consider that is the old soul.
That you are wise, you have a lot of wisdom, and you are very kind of wise in a way what you are doing.
So, they think that is the old soul. And it has a lot of misconceptions about the soul.
First of all, let me tell you that there is no old soul at all.
And that's what we cannot put the word in front of soul, old or new.
Because soul is not new, soul is not old. Soul is just is.
That is, soul exists. And it exists, it has no time.
Because soul moves in...doesn't move in time, it is a timeless substance.
We still call it substance. Soul, jiva, is a substance.
And like our universe has particles, soul has particles, too.
But soul's particle is the subtlest. And the subtlest is it cannot be visible through the naked eyes.
The soul has to be awakened to see it. 'Til soul is awakened, 'til soul is not awakened, we cannot see the particle of the soul.
Even we cannot see through our naked eyes the particles of this universe.
How can we see? It is invisible particle.
So the soul, what people think it is old soul, that you are around for many lives.
But it is not the good definition. I will tell you the old soul is like suppose...
Just imagine that 100,000's of years ago, you came in contact with the wise person.
And the wise person was on the spiritual path.
It's not like wise what people think, "Oh, you are wise," in the society.
"You give good advice for the business," you give good advice for the family," or for the nation, or for this.
That is not considered wiseness at all.
Wiseness is like one person is on the path and they begin to search or discover what this substance is hidden inside my body.
Why I am alive? Why I feel?
Why I feel happy? Why I feel pain?
Why I feel something bliss, sometimes in ecstasy? Sometimes I am low and sometimes I am up and down, up and down.
They begin to question their own identity. And they begin to search and they begin to discover that something is hidden inside of me.
That person is considered wise person, is on the path.
Like somebody came in contact with that kind of person.
It can be a monk, it can be a spiritual practioner, it can be a Tirthankara or Arihanta.
Is already an enlightened one. So if you came in contact, you didn't listen really that speech yet, that you came in contact.
Maybe you just visited one time and your soul kind of got affected.
And then you begin to think just one word, if you have heard even. So the one word, "Who am I?"
Even you just begin to curious about it, and when you are questioning about your own identity and your own soul, that "Who am I?".
And, but you are not really on the path. So the next life automatically you will be born in another family which has this idea.
Your soul collects that kind of karma or that kind of particles. Those karmic particles will take you into that kind of family.
That they will question more about it.
So when this soul is being born in that kind of family, again and again and again, it goes on and on.
So you are not indulged into the lower qualities, not in violence, not in hurting others, killing others, harming others.
Or hunting. These all these lower qualities: always angry, always frustrated, always egoistic, always greedy, always like deceiving...
You are not born in that kind of family. And you get that kind of vision and that karmic particle makes you all the time to be born in that kind of family which has this kind of idea.
And they talk about the soul. They talk about how to improve themselves. That is considered old soul.
Because it means that soul started the path. When a soul, when a person begins to be on the path, in that sense we consider that person is old soul.
That this person is on the path for a long time.
And it is improving, it is slow improvement, but it is improving. That is considered the old soul.
The old soul is not that somebody gets old in this body. They say, "You are old soul."
No, old soul is you are, since many lives, on the path.
That is considered old soul has a chance to be liberated now.
But the person who didn't even take step yet, first step - that is not considered old soul.
So, but in the real sense, I mentioned to you already that soul is ageless, soul is not old, soul is not new.
But in that sense, who took that step is considered old soul.
Jai Siddhatma.