All souls cannot be seen. It has no gender and no form; our body is its outer physical appearance.
Soul is part of God but not God. God formed the man from the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (soul) and man became a living being. (Geneses: 2:7). He created us without touching our free will to choose the good and reject the bad.
The soul being a spark of the divine, it is a picture of purity, peace, love and truth. But when we use our liberty it gets stained with selfish desires, sensual pleasures, and our soul, becomes polluted like the pure water in the cloud when it falls as rain on the ground and turns dirty by mixing itself with mud
After death, the soul separates from the body leaving the corpse here in the dust. Therefore, some say that after death, the body goes to dust and the soul to air. Others believe that some spirits are left wandering on this earth and make their presence felt in many ways in lonely surrounding, in dilapidated country mansions or on a cool night under the shade of moonlight, dressed in black or white.
A few believe that there is no afterlife, for example, Stephen Hawking, the cosmologist, didn’t believe in the next world or heaven. He said, “We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe”.
Hindus believe in the theory of rebirth (reincarnation). When a person dies the soul goes to another new body; getting the form according to one’s accumulated deeds on this earth. So, the soul continues to purify itself by rebirth for all past sins and gradually, moves towards becoming one with the Supreme Being.
Christians believe in resurrection. The Bible says, “It is appointed for men once to die, and after this comes judgment.” (Heb. 9:27). Jesus on the Cross said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Elk. 23:43). These words of Jesus show that a thief without rebirth finally reaches heaven.
Christians believe in the body coming back to life at the Last Judgement. St. Paul says if Christ was resurrected, we will all be resurrected like Him. (1 Cor. 15); and we will not pass through different bodies when “the single course of our earthly life” is over; those “who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12: 2-3).
According to our Catholic belief, the soul of a person moves on to one of the three places. The first is heaven, if one follows the commandments of one’s faith, and dies in a state of perfect grace. The second is hell, where those who die in a state of mortal sin are naturally condemned by their behaviour. The middle area is purgatory, where people, free of mortal sin, but still in a state of lesser (venial) sin, go. It is understood that souls in purgatory cannot immediately attain Heaven; but they can be helped by people on earth, with prayer, fasting and sacrifices to help to clean them to go to heaven.
All Souls’ Day is observed on Nov 2 in remembrance of the dead souls who live as memory in the mind of the living. Therefore, they pray for these spirits in purgatory so that they soon will be with God in Heaven.
