4

enter image description here

The picture you see is of - Abigail Hensel and Brittany Hensel, two conjoined twins. Wikipedia- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_and_Brittany_Hensel

Do conjoined twins have different souls? Both have different feelings, taste, sensations.

What happens to their Karma?

Tezz
  • 48,448
  • 9
  • 230
  • 344
  • 3
    They have different soul as they have different consciousness.... – Tezz May 15 '17 at 12:04
  • 3
    agreed. two jivas. the seat of the atman is in the buddhi (the intellect). See my answer here for more info - https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6758/where-does-a-soul-attach-to-the-body/6787#6787. You can have two lights in the same room, so you can have two souls. Remember also that every individual cell in the body has its own atman as well. – Swami Vishwananda May 15 '17 at 14:04
  • 1
    See also Brahma Sutras 2.3.29-30 – Swami Vishwananda May 15 '17 at 14:08
  • 2
    Good question, this exposes the flaws in Karma Theory which started with the Vedas then expanded in the Upanishads. One earlier comment said: "individual cell in the body has its own atman as well" - such speculation only complicates the Karma Theory. – Say No To Censorship May 17 '17 at 22:47
  • @sv. Very correct. How can each cell have its own atma –  May 18 '17 at 09:38
  • @SwamiVishwananda "Remember also that every individual cell in the body has its own atman as well." How is this possible. And if it is true, then who is getting the result of my karma, the cells, the organs or me? And why does my cells' karma effect me then? –  May 18 '17 at 09:41
  • 1
    @AnuragSingh every cell is an individual organism that lives and dies. I can take some blood out of you and keep it alive outside you; you do not die nor does the blood taken out. All the cells in your body die and are replaced every 4 years or so. You as an whole individual organism have an atman. The actions that you do as an whole organism only affects your atman. Karma is limited to the atman of you as a whole organism not to the individual cells. In a room you can have many torches lighting a room; you are not limited to one torch to a room. – Swami Vishwananda May 18 '17 at 11:22
  • @AnuragSingh New karma really only accrues at the human level, new karma does not accrue in other life forms, including individual cells. – Swami Vishwananda May 18 '17 at 11:24
  • 1
    The twins are two different individuals, two different persons, hence they are two different souls, ie two jivatmas. And yes, every cell in the body, every bacteria even, every living entity is a distinctive soul, and thus our body is made of many billions of souls (jivatmas) each living in it's own cell. And we as one human are also one such a jiva soul (jivatma) living in this body. But we are responsible for whole our human body, whereas every cell's soul is responsible just for that cell. Every jivatma got his body due to its merits or demerits, ie good or bad karma. ... – brahma jijnasa May 19 '17 at 00:45
  • 2
    ... That would mean that all those billions of souls (jivatmas) who are living as a cells in our body got their respective cell bodies due to their bad karma, ie they didn't deserve to be born as humans but were degraded to be born as a lower organisms, namely cells. Thus they became a cells in our body. On the other hand we as a single soul due to our good karma deserved to be born as a human, and thus we got this human body to live as a human. Thus everyone, ie every jivatma got his body due to its own karma. – brahma jijnasa May 19 '17 at 00:46
  • @brahmajijnasa if a human being attains Moksha, then who is liberated - the Human being or the cells? –  May 19 '17 at 06:02
  • 1
    Only the soul who realized the Supreme Lord will get Moksha, namely a human being. And those other souls living in the human body as a cells will not get moksha because they did not live pious life, did not dedicate their life to the Lord, did not meditate and serve the Lord with devotion, and finally did not realize the Lord. So, they will not get moksha. – brahma jijnasa May 19 '17 at 21:27
  • 1
    @SwamiVishwananda Remember also that every individual cell in the body has its own atman as well."" Science is off topic. ;) XD ;P –  May 20 '17 at 09:28
  • 1
    @brahmajijnasa "And yes, every cell in the body, every bacteria even, every living entity is a distinctive soul, and thus our body is made of many billions of souls (jivatmas) each living in it's own cell.""""" Science is off topic. ;) XD ;P –  May 20 '17 at 09:30
  • 1
    @AnuragSingh the existence of atmans is not within the realm of science. – Swami Vishwananda May 21 '17 at 01:53
  • @SwamiVishwananda Haha. I know. But still- Science is off topic. ;) –  May 23 '17 at 07:13

1 Answers1

8

No, they have different soul because they have different Consciousness. Here is passage from Aitreya Upanishad showing it:

III-i-3: This One is Brahman; this is Indra, this is Prajapati; this is all these gods; and this is these five elements, viz. earth, air, space, water, fire; and this is all these (big creatures), together with the small ones, that are the procreators of others and referable in pairs to wit, those that are born of eggs, of wombs, of moisture of the earth, viz. horses, cattle, men, elephants, and all the creatures that there are which move or fly and those which do not move. All these have Consciousness as the giver of their reality; all these are impelled by Consciousness; the universe has Consciousness as its eye and Consciousness is its end. Consciousness is Brahman.

III-i-4: Through this Self that is Consciousness, he ascended higher up from this world, and getting all desires fulfilled in that heavenly world, he became immortal, he became immortal.

First Sutra of Shiva Sutras also state 'Chaitanyam Atman' or 'Consciousness is the self.'

Sarvabhouma
  • 25,803
  • 11
  • 123
  • 202
Tezz
  • 48,448
  • 9
  • 230
  • 344
  • But there is no mention of joint bodies. And many a pair of twin have there head and brain joint, do these twins also have different consciousness. –  May 25 '17 at 09:30
  • 1
    @Anurag Singh if they have single head and two bodies then it should be regarded as single Jeeva... but if two types of thinking arises there then it means different consciousness ie. different Jeeva... – Tezz May 25 '17 at 10:49
  • 2
    I wonder how the Jiva dwelling in the cavity of the heart works when two people share the same heart. – Keshav Srinivasan May 25 '17 at 10:52
  • 2
    @Keshav Srinivasan Do you believe it's the physical heart that is discussed ?.. If so do you think one can change self by heart transplantation?.. also there are many Jeevas which do not have heart at all...where self dwells is not in the physical heart it's beyond Annamaya Sharira.. – Tezz May 25 '17 at 11:26
  • 1
    agree with Tezz , and nice answer – Friendy May 25 '17 at 11:43
  • 1
    @KeshavSrinivasan I think It works as it worked in case of mahabharata(for instance Yudhisthira was dharma's son and avatar of previous indra and some jiva involved with it). Or we can use BG chapter 18 which says body is just a yantra so two jivas can share a yantra. – Yogi May 25 '17 at 11:49
  • What do you think of people with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)? In the movie Split (2016) a person is shown to have 24 identities - so technically there can be 24 jeeva's inside that body? – Say No To Censorship Jun 05 '17 at 19:03