time immortal, seeks a body for the performance of its functions, and, as it were, enters into a matrimonial alliance with it for the completion and perfection of both. As the same thread will penetrate a gold bead, a pearl, or an earthen ball, so the soul, bearing its burden of acts, will enter any body with which it comes in contact. This the soul is enabled to do by its possession of a covering of finer or grosser texture, which it takes with it from the last body it has inhabited. The soul thus passes from body to body in a revolving wheel, until it is purged of its impurities and deemed fit to blend with the Absolute, from which it originally emanated.
Paramātama, the primal spirit, is the Supreme Being considered as the pervading soul of the universe. It is represented as light. Jīvātama, the soul of each living being, is also light, an emanation from the Paramātama and not material.
The lines of Milton may be accepted as a definition of the deity according to the Sikh conception :—
. . . . Since God is light
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity—
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
And of Thomas Campbell nearly to the same effect :—
This spirit will return to Him
Who gave its heavenly spark.
The Paramātama is likened to an illimitable ocean, the Jīvātama to a glass of water immersed in it. The glass is the subtile body or covering of the soul. If the glass itself be broken or taken away, the water in it, which corresponds to the jīvātama, blends with the water of the ocean. This is an exemplification of Nirvan.
According to Sikh ontology all animals have two bodies, one a solid material body and the other a subtile intangible body.[1] The jīvātama is separated from the former at the
- ↑ St. Paul speaks of a spiritual body (i Cor. xv. 44).
