1) What are the nature and characteristics of soul?
2) How did soul appear in the material world?
3) Where is its true home?
4) How can one return there?
To be fair, it should be noted that no other religious or philosophical concept in the world than the Aryans’ has got a more complete system of answers on the given questions. It is likely the reason why it has got a close attention of great minds of all times ever.
Now, according to the Aryan concept, if a living being is a spiritual parcel which is striving within us to eternity (as it is eternal), happiness (as it is blissed) and knowledge (as the knowledge is its integral part), consequently there should be the world where it possessed all these. Otherwise, where do all its strivings come from? And why did the nature endowed us with qualities which are absolutely unused in this world? A living being cannot strive for anything which is not known by it. Everything we are striving for is the proof that we are aware of it.
On the other hand, if a living being is of spiritual nature, why did it happen to be here? The answer on this question is in those intentions which a living being is trying to realize here. As have been already said, by its characteristics a spiritual parcel is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. At first sight, this statement sounds contradictory. If soul is eternal, why did it come to this temporary world where it has to obey the inviolable law of birth and death? Here one is suggested to carefully examine what soul strives to realize in the material world. This striving explains the reason of our appearance in this world which has become for us more important than eternity.
If we are attentive, we can notice that in the material world all living beings have the thirst for domination and enjoyment. To enjoy means for us to use all encountered objects (both animate and inanimate) for our pleasure. In fact, there is no one single moment when we stop striving for enjoyment. The term “dominate” means that we are able to obligate everybody (both animate and inanimate) to fulfill our will. In this situation, our attitude is rather interesting. Each of us thinks that his/her mentality is so perfect that by obeying it everyone can be happy (Freud called it “the sense of worth”).