Louise Goldstein, age 15, of Dover, Del., for her question:
WHAT IS A SOUL?
A person's soul is the spiritual part of him as distinct from the physical part. The soul can also be described as the emotional part of a person's nature or the seat of his feelings and sentiments.
The religions and philosophies of all time have been occupied with the soul because one of their key inquiries is the nature of existence.
One of the most widely accepted concepts in the world of religion and philosophy is immortality. To believe in immortality requires acceptance of the existence of a soul that will live apart from the body after death.
In Christianity, the soul is all important. However, because the Bible does not give a formal definition of the concept, Christian definitions vary greatly.
Christians as well as Muslims and Zoroastrians believe that man will be judged for his actions on this earth and that his soul will be sent to heaven or hell.
Hindus, Jainists and Sikhs believe that the soul is reincarnated or reborn into many bodies before it finally becomes good enough to be united with the infinite.
Jews, Confucianists, Taoists and Shintoists are less definite in their teachings about life after death. But they generally believe that something in man endures beyond death, even though the living cannot understand how.
Transmigration of the soul is the belief that after death the soul enters the body of an animal or another human being. This belief prevailed among many peoples in ancient Greece and Egypt.
The Greeks believed in re embodiment of the soul after a period of retribution in Hades, the underworld inhabited by departed souls.
Believers in transmigration say the soul passes from one body to another until it is purified. It then returns to the dwelling place of its god.
The term "soul" is also used for various concepts relating to fundamental character.
The philosopher Plato set forth a well developed doctrine of immortality and rebirth of the soul.
Buddhists call the dwelling place of the gods nirvana, or eternal peace. Brahmanic Hindus say the souls join Brahma, the Universal Power.
The return of the soul to Brahma comes from the idea of karma. This is the belief that what a person does decides his destiny. If he lives like an animal, he will return to earth in the body of an animal. If he has lived a good life, he will be reincarnated, or reborn, as a human being rich or poor, beautiful, ugly, high or low in the social scale. His character in his last life will determine what he will be in his next.