If we are all one spirit channeled into many different bodies how do we remain as individual spirit in the afterlife after we lose our physical body?

Palvinder Dhami

We have five bodies one in each of five planes or regions of existence - Pind (Physical body), Und (Astral body), Brahmand (Causal body), Parbraham (Super Causal Body), Sach Khand (Pure Consciousness).

When the soul is in the region of Sach Khand (Pure Consciousness) it does not have any covering on it and is in its purest form.

When the soul is in the Parbraham (Super Causal region), it has a one covering surrounding it and the degree and quality of consciousness is altered to a lower level.

When the soul is is in the region of Brahmand (Casual rgion), it gets another layer of covering in addition to one in the Parbraham, therefore, the degree and quality of consciousness is further lowered.

When the soul is in the region of Und (Astral region), it gets one more veil in addition to two already coverings on the pure soul making total three coverings which further lowers the brightness of soul.

When the soul is in the Pind (Physical Plane) it requires another covering of physical matter to exist in the physical plane making a total of four coverings or layers surrounding the pure soul, therefore, further diluting the degree or quality of consciousness to know the realty and enabling the soul to experience physical illusion called Maya.

These layers in four regions are necessary to survive in those regions. For instance, soul cannot survive in the physical plane without the physical body. So is the case in other planes of existence.

In meditation our physical layer remains, but we remove and transcend our other three bodies in Astral, Causal and Super Causal regions. On getting enlightened, we are left with only two bodies - a physical body for the soul to experience the physical world and pure consciousness to experience the ultimate Truth or realty.

But, when an unenlightened person dies, his or her physical body is destroyed and not the Astral, Causal and Super Causal bodies. So, our mind goes with the soul as coverings on it. When we say soul, it means soul may be in the Astral, Causal, Super Causal and Pure Consciousness forms.

So, if soul exist in four regions with different number of layers or covering surrounding it then every soul will stay different after death.

At the time of enlightenment, drop of soul can merge with ocean of pure consciousness called God and can never be separated from God. But, most of souls prefer to remain just on the edge before being one with the ocean simply to help fellow souls. Such a soul that stops just one tiny step before merging with God is called Guru or Perfect Master.
 
I hope this will be helpful. But, experiencing it ourselves is the key and knowing the spirituality by intellect is not the right thing as it gives us false belief that we know and this false belief stops our effort to experience the truth ourselves.