The Hindu Business Line : Soul for sale

So, then, what is a soul? Is it part of one's body or apart from it? And does it survive death when the body perishes? Questions that have engaged thinkers and philosophers over the eons.

Again, is the soul a saleable commodity? Is it tangible? Even a physicist may not be able to be specific or categorical. (For a physicist, the dividing line between the visible and the invisible entity has never been clear-cut and certain.)

Granting that a deal is agreed upon between the seller and the buyer of the soul, what would be transacted, and what would be the price?

What are the factors determining the price of the soul? How is the transfer of the commodity to be affected? Will everything be only notional? Far too many imponderables.

Speculating further, is not a faith in the immortality of the soul a prerequisite for the deal? That, in turn, would underpin belief in cycle of births, and effects of actions in one birth being carried forward to the future births.

This being so, how can the buyer ever have an idea of what is in store for him — happiness or sorrow — after he starts owning the commodity?

Also, one is tempted to know whether some sort of `royalty' or `patenting' also would be possible for souls offered for sale.

After all, there are `soul-stirring' episodes, `soulful' music, and `soul-less' sermons being referred to.

In this background, an economist will discern elements of `reverse outsourcing' — the buyer getting the fruits of the seller's actions if they had been good, and if it were the opposite, there is the `risk' element, which is quite the part and parcel of economics and commerce.

K. Gopalan