Very interesting picture - just look at these hunters! Since the soul is the only LIGHT in the body - being an original spiritual spark of God, when the soul leaves the body, it probably looks like on this picture... Maybe this was some special soul which was entrapped in the body of this animal. I wonder when will hunters, who hunt and kill for fun and out of hobby, and all other meat eaters, understand that animals have souls just as they (humans) do and that they are NOT allowed to kill!
According to Srimad-Bhagavatam, the soul is accompanied by the subtle body when she leaves the gross material body. Subtle body consists of: mind (mental & emotional aspect), intelligence and false ego. The same things happen to human beings as seen on the pictures below:
Upon leaving the gross material body, the individual spirit soul is accompanied by the subtle body: mind, intelligence and false ego. The soul and subtle material body continue to exist and the soul usually has to accept another gross body, according to the past karma. Sometimes, the soul lose the opportunity to incarnate into another gross body because of heavy karma, and then the soul remains accompanied with the subtle body only, as a ghost, for particular time span, and those are certainly not nice ghosts! They are searching for a a host to possess it!
This cycle of birth and death goes on always and until the subtle body is completely destroyed, i.e. until the soul again becomes fully God conscious, fully purified and fully enlightened by God's mercy.
Here are the references from Srimad-Bhagavatam, explaining everything about the importance of the subtle body...
"The great sage Nārada continued: The living entity acts in a gross body in this life. This body is forced to act by the subtle body, composed of mind, intelligence and ego. After the gross body is lost, the subtle body is still there to enjoy or suffer. Thus there is no change."
PURPORT
The living entity has two kinds of body — the subtle body and the gross body. Actually he enjoys through the subtle body, which is composed of mind, intelligence and ego. The gross body is the instrumental outer covering. When the gross body is lost, or when it dies, the root of the gross body — the mind, intelligence and ego — continues and brings about another gross body. Although the gross bodies apparently change, the real root of the gross body — the subtle body of mind, intelligence and ego — is always there. The subtle body's activities — be they pious or impious — create another situation for the living entity to enjoy or suffer in the next gross body. Thus the subtle body continues whereas the gross bodies change one after another.
Since modern scientists and philosophers are too materialistic, and since their knowledge is taken away by the illusory energy, they cannot explain how the gross body is changing. The materialistic philosopher Darwin has tried to study the changes of the gross body, but because he had no knowledge of either the subtle body or the soul, he could not clearly explain how the evolutionary process is going on. One may change the gross body, but he works in the subtle body. People cannot understand the activities of the subtle body, and consequently they are bewildered as to how the actions of one gross body affect another gross body. The activities of the subtle body are also guided by the Supersoul, as explained in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15):
"I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness."
Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Supersoul is always guiding the individual soul, the individual soul always knows how to act according to the reactions of his past karma. In other words, the Supersoul reminds him to act in such a way. Therefore although there is apparently a change in the gross body, there is a continuation between the lives of an individual soul. From: http://vedabase.net/sb/4/29/60/
[...]"The conclusion is that the subtle body — mind, intelligence and ego — creates an atmosphere with desires and ambitions that the living entity enjoys in the subtle body. Actually the living entity is in the subtle body, even though the gross body apparently changes and even though he inhabits the gross body on various planets. All the activities performed by the living entity in the subtle body are called illusory because they are not permanent. Liberation means getting out of the clutches of the subtle body"... Find out more here: http://vedabase.net/sb/4/29/61/en
The gross body is a product of the subtle body. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (8.6):
"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail." The atmosphere of the subtle body at the time of death is created by the activities of the gross body. Thus the gross body acts during one's lifetime, and the subtle body acts at the time of death. The subtle body, which is called lińga, the body of desire, is the background for the development of a particular type of gross body, which is either like that of one's mother or like that of one's father." More about it here: http://vedabase.net/sb/6/1/54/
Paramatma (Supersoul) in the heart.
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