Question: When we sleep, does our soul leave us?
Answer: I would like to correct one thing. This is important. We have been indoctrinated to believe that we have a soul. I was taught this and almost everyone that was taught anything is taught like this, ‘I have a soul’, ‘my soul’.
In your question “…my soul leaves me”, see, this is just incorrect understanding. We do not have a soul. We have a body. We have two bodies, physical and mental. We are the soul.
It has also been interesting to me over the years. Here there is a person and the idea is, “Ok, so, he dies, he was a good person so his soul went to heaven…” Or, “He was a bad person. His soul went to hell, his body went in the ground or in the fire, whatever.” But where did he go? Soul is here, body is here but who is the person?
It is not correct. It does not make sense because of this not understanding correctly, it is an illusion. I am the soul.
So if I have lived my life in one way, the body goes in the ground and I go to hellish conditions to suffer because of my sinful life or I go to the heavenly condition where I will experience increased material pleasure because of my pious life or I will go to the spiritual world directly to be with the Supreme Lord because I live a life of loving devotion and developed that relationship with Him. It is about me, where do I go? This is how we must understand.