Body and soul

Where does the soul go when the body is dead? Or it is the other way round — the body is dead when the soul goes away. If body and soul are two different entities, I wonder when the soul decides that now it’s time to call it a day. And if the soul doesn’t have to depend on the body, why does it leave the body when the body no longer is what it has to be to stay alive — for instance after decapitation?

Bhishma in Mahabharata didn’t want to die before certain issues were resolved. He remained alive. He kept his soul from leaving the body even when the body had been damaged beyond repair. There was a general in Guru Gobind Singh’s army (I cannot recall his name) who kept fighting even when his head had separated from his body. He wanted to keep alive until he had reached Amritsar. In one hand he held his severed head and with the other he fought with his sword. Of course this is far-fetched because you need eyes to travel and fight and since there was no connection between the head and the body, there could have been no bodily coordination. Perhaps the soul led the body?

People come back from the dead sometimes, which means their souls decide to return to the host body. We often relate our relatives with their bodies, not with their souls and perhaps souls understand this. That’s why the come to finish the unfinished tasks through the bodies, and not straightaway. The souls that come straightaway are considered spirits. I’ll write more on this.