The truth, ‘SAT’ (swai tatwa) i.e. self-essence outlives death.
Now, query may arise as to whether this ‘truth/essence of the self’ is the soul or is it consciousness, or are they synonymous - each the other? And like you, one may legitimately ask as to whether it is one or both of these ‘things’ that a human being takes with him/her after death.
Cutting the talk short - for, I’ve given many interconnected answers to, if not to identical then at least to very similar queries as this one, before this time. So, let us go straight to the end of all matters. In fact, to the end of all ‘matter’ as such. To the Beginning and the End.
So, what is ‘There’, as self-realized by the enlightened beings?
At the very end, it is self-discovered that the ‘formless point of reference’ that had been witnessing its separation from the body, and thereafter, had been ‘seeing’ itself going unto a ‘surreal astral travelling’, into wondrous comic realms beyond imagination - all of a sudden, in an astonishing moment, in a zillion of a second as though - this self-witnessing ‘it-ness’ ceases to be a this or a that.
It’s ‘i-ness’, of being a witness consciousness, ends magically, and majestically.
Suddenly, as would a ray of sunlight find its ‘self’ to be the fathering principle - as the sun itself; similarly so, the witnessing ‘is-ness’ finds itself to be the Self of the Whole of What Is.
Speaking more simply, the conscious alive-ness that had been till then ‘seeing’ the astral and the cosmic wonders as separate from itself, stops being this dual-conscious witness of the ‘happening’.
It finds itself losing weight - literally! - of this duality conscious ‘is-ness’.
And in less than the tiniest blink of the eye, the witnessing soul-ness loses its self-consciousness of being the observer of the enfolding Cosmic Reality.
An all-ness of oneness - with no reference point of being the witness - finds its Self to be the Whole thereof - inseparable from all existence!
No souls, messiahs, or gods stand herein. Just the Self of Allness.
Having witnessed its Self to be the ‘I’ of the Universe, in an equally surreal moment,this Cosmic Self ‘returns’ to its now ‘reborn’ enlightened self and being ‘here’. And thus, finds its Oneness, and its Infinite, Indivisible Cosmic Consciousness ‘becoming’ the being-ness of the duality-conscious ‘is-ness’ of the mediating being.
The freemystics narrate, that the moment this dual-consciousness ‘returns’ to its earth-born original physicality, the ‘shakti’ or the power of life reverberates into existence. And as the breath of life, it enters the ‘is-ness’ of the meditating being-ness. This is how life comes into existence!
So, to answer your query specifically, all that is ‘taken’ from ‘here’ and ‘left alive’ out ‘There’ - in the Alpha and the Omega, in God as if - is nothing but ‘That’ from which it was birthed - the Immanent Self of Infinity.
But then, this is the ‘knowing’, the Self-Realization of a Buddha.
The metaphysical ‘happening’ which is observed in the case of the non-realized, normal ‘souls’ so to say, is dissimilar from that of the enlightened being.
Those of us who die in dual-consciousness, unaware that they too are verily the Whole of the All, these sad sacks take away their karmic ‘is-ness’ with them ‘out there’, after death.
This is-ness of dual-conscious being-ness of the Cosmic Self keeps birthing - taking this or that form, in the false belief that it is separate from the Universal Self. Until Divine Grace ends this vicious cycle of coming and going, once and for all.
Therefore, what is found ‘There’, at the End, is an aliveness of all-ness. It is conscious of being the ‘Am-ness’ of the Cosmic Absolute - of God, if one so prefers to address the Divine Reality.
‘IT’ - this Infinite Oneness of the Whole - is in us at this present moment too, within this bodily name-form. As our life, breath, soul-ness, and consciousness.
We just are not necessarily ‘awake’ to’It’
If we live, breath, and die in this self-realization of the Unity of All, then - if be the Will and Grace of That Which Is - this self-knowledge of our own Eternal Abode, we take away with us ‘There’.
Of course, it is all subject to karmic dues. The same, if unpaid, then, this ‘chip’ on the shoulder we carry with us to a dual-conscious ‘is-ness’ up there too.
This duality-torn soul-ness is born again unto a this or that-ness. Until all is set right, by its own self-realization, or by the Mercy of the Cosmic Divine Whole-ness.
So, there is no soul separate from anything ‘out there’, as differing from Cosmic Consciousness. But then, neither is this divine consciousness devoid of a soul-fullness of the ‘life’ of That Which Is.
Hence, out ‘There’, only the Cosmic Self, aware of it being the ‘I’ of the Whole, stands alone as the ‘am-ness’ and ‘is-ness’ of the ‘life’ of existence.
Unable to reach the Gnosis that we too are ‘It’, the human beings keep coming and going endlessly, unto a dual-consciousness of separateness from the Original Primordial Source: GOD.
The choice is simple.
Get the Absolute of the Truth and the Final Reality of All That Is by own effort, through self-realization. Or keep seeking, and praying. Doing good deeds, Harming no one intentionally. Nor taking away the life of another living being for our culinary tastes. And by staying in utter humility at the lotus feet of the Divine Truth. Either way gets us ‘There’.
Choose wisely.
Get ‘It’ out ‘here’. Take away the same out ‘There’. Unto foreverness.
