Debbie Krauszer, age 9, of Edison, N.J., 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 they always have for one of their first problems the nature of existence and of living.
One of the most widely accepted concepts in the world of religion and philosophy is immortality. With this is the acceptance of the existence of a soul to 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 those who believe in Islam and Zoroastrianism believe that man will be judged for his actions on this earth and that his soul will be sent to heaven or hell.
Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism believe that the soul is reincarnated or reborn into many bodies before it finally becomes good enough to be united with the infinite.
Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto are less definite in their teachings about life after death. But they generally believe that something in man does indeed endure beyond death, even though the living cannot understand how.
The term soul is also used for various concepts meaning inwardness of fundamental character.
Transmigration of the soul is the believe that after death the soul goes into the body of an animal or another human being. This belief prevailed among many primitive peoples and in ancient Greece and Egypt. The Greeks believed in re embodiment of the soul after a period of retribution in Hades. Hades was the underworld inhabited by departed souls.
The idea of transmigration of the soul says the soul passes from one body to another until it is purified. It then returns to the dwelling place of its god.
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 Brahman, the Universal Power.
The return of the soul to Brahman 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.