By: Neville Hodgkinson
Source: The Daily Guardian https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/view/2731/the-daily-guardian/15
Dated: July 19th, 2025

It might seem odd for an English science reporter to write about the soul, addressing a mainly Indian audience. My Indian teachers, however, have taught me secrets that are hidden not only from much of the rest of the world but also from many of those who live in Bharat.

I began practising Rajyoga meditation more than 40 years ago, and life immediately became better. Stress, worry, and restlessness were reduced. It was as if some inner battery was becoming charged, and the limited sense of self we call the ego became less demanding. Physical stamina as well as mental stability increased.

The teachings centre on the idea that our true identity is spirit, distinct from the body, and that all human souls come from one Supreme Soul. Mixing with people who practised this way of thinking proved uplifting, but my outlook was materialistic, and atheistic, and I did not want to believe in something just because it felt good. So the ideas created an internal conflict, and it took time for my intellect to accept them.

Today, however, I live easily and naturally with the knowledge that I really am an eternal soul, and that God is my Father. Here are some of the secrets, shared with me by Brahma Kumari sisters, which brought about this transformation:  

1.  My body will grow old and eventually prove uninhabitable. But when I leave it, that will not be the end of the inner being. I will reincarnate, entering another human body as it develops in a mother’s womb. 
2. It is the soul that moves on, not the personality. I will be a different person, with different parents, background, education, and role in the world. But the core of my being will be the same, carrying predispositions developed as a result of actions performed in my previous birth or births. 
3.  These incarnations take place within a cycle of time that has characteristics of the quantum realm. Through the interaction of mind and matter, possibilities – as described by the equations of quantum physics - manifest as reality. As my karma changes, so do the omens over me.
4. Souls originate in a dimension beyond space and time. We come from that home to play our parts, like actors on a stage, and as we do so, those parts become fixed for eternity. 
5. The play lasts for 5,000 years and at the end of it we all go off stage again, to the home. But we retain our individuality. Time itself repeats, and the play unfolds again identically. Our coming and going is itself eternal. This is the wonder of life!  
6. Heaven and hell are real, but they exist here on the stage of space-time, not in some other dimension. When we first incarnate, at the beginning of the play, we are in a state of perfection, loving and peaceful, completely free of any selfishness. Over time, we gradually lose that purity, and become gripped by vices such as lust and anger that lead to suffering and sorrow. 
7. At the end of the 5,000 years, this suffering becomes extreme and the Supreme Soul intervenes, shining the light of truth into the world, so that we can recover our own original purity of consciousness.

This is the beauty of creation – the wonder of life. The materialistic philosophy, which argues that we got here through billions of years of chance developments, is no longer credible for me. Not just because it drains life of meaning, but because it is unscientific. Post-materialist science has given rise to what is called the consciousness-based paradigm, which tells us that mind is the ground of being, not matter. 

Armed with such an understanding, and supported by the Supreme, we once more regain the power and glory of our human potential.

Neville Hodgkinson is a UK-based author 
and journalist, and a long-time student of Rajyoga.