What is talent? The definition in the Cambridge Dictionary is as follows: a natural skill or ability to be good at something, especially without being taught.          

If you think about it, each human being has some talent or other. Some are good at singing, some are good at woodwork, some at painting or sports, mathematics or cooking or languages. This list can go on. Everyone has some or even multiple abilities which come naturally. Then again, everyone does not have the same level of talent. The level of talent is usually not the same. The ultimate level of talent is child prodigies. At a very young age, they show tremendous talent in specific areas. Some notable examples:

Shakuntala Devi— “Mathematical Wizardess”: Shakuntala Devi started her relationship with numbers at the age of three.

Kim Ung-Yong—physics student at age three: Kim Ung-Yong, at the tender age of three, began taking university-level courses in South Korea. By the age of eight, he was invited by NASA to study in the United States.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—genius composer: at the age of three, Mozart played the harpsichord; by six, he had written his first musical composition.

Pandit Ajay Pohankar – Classical Hindustani Singer – At the age of eight, Panditji was performing in well known music festivals.

Pablo Picasso—artist extraordinaire: Picasso was 15 when his first large oil painting, First Communion, was displayed in Barcelona.

Tiger Woods—golf legend: one of the best golfers ever, Woods played in a golf tournament at the tender age of three. He had a golf handicap of under ten at the age of eight.  

This list of child prodigies can go on. Isn’t it amazing that child prodigies have so much talent at such a young age? You wonder how this can even be possible. But it happens. Where does the talent come from? Also, why does it happen to only a few people and not to everyone? Child prodigies may be an exception, but every living being has some talent. It may not be of the level of child prodigies, but everyone does have talent; they are good at something or other. What that is usually differs for every living being.

The question which needs to be answered is how and why a talent is present within the human being. From where does this talent come? Why is the talent different for different people? These are interesting questions which need a better understanding. The focus of this essay is to investigate and try and answer these questions.

Where Does Talent Come From?

So, from where does the talent come? The answer may not be obvious. However, if you analyze and investigate, you will conclude that there are two distinct sources of talent.

1. Your soul—which contains your ego
2. Your body

Yes, soul and body are two distinct units; they are not the same. It does not seem like that. Right from our birth we have a body, and we all think we are this body. We are so sure about this. We have no doubt about this. This is a major error we make. Vedanta is very clear that the soul is separate from the body. The soul acquires a body at the time of birth and gives up the body at the time of death. The soul uses the body to the fullest during this lifetime. A good comparison is that like we change our clothes every day, in the same way the soul changes the body on a regular basis. 

The soul has its own list of talents. These talents are acquired over all the past lifetimes. These talents are stored within the soul, and they belong to the ego. In the same way, the body also comes with its own list of talents. These are hereditary talents acquired by the body. At the time of birth, the ego takes over the ownership of the body. When this is done, it also takes over the ownership of all the talents of the body. The ego starts to think that the talents of the body are also its own. In this way, it is the owner of two sets of talents—its own talents and the talents of the body. In the coming sections, we will show the difference between the soul and the body. Once this is understood, it will become clear that the talent provided by the soul and body are quite different. They have their own independent list of talents. 

So, we see that there are two talent sources within us: soul talents and body talents. How does one understand all this? The best way is to give an example of a jockey and a racehorse. A jockey is a person who rides a racehorse. The jockey and the horse are two separate entities, but while riding, the jockey and the horse must function as one unit. If they don’t, it is not possible to win any race. When a jockey rides a horse, the following possibilities can happen:

1. Untrained Jockey and Untrained Horse: this is the worst scenario. Both the jockey and the horse have no talent.
2. Untrained Jockey and Trained Horse: if the jockey is untrained and the horse is trained, there is no way the untrained jockey can ride a well-trained horse effectively. The talent of the horse is wasted.
3. Trained Jockey and Untrained Horse: in this combination, there could be some hope—the jockey can attempt to train the horse. He may have success or maybe not.  
4. Trained Jockey and Trained Horse: this is the perfect combination for success. Both have talent, so the chances of success are very good.

Just like the jockey and the racehorse must work as one unit, in the same way the soul and the body must work together. Both the soul and the body have their own list of talents. If the soul and body have any common talents, those talents will reinforce each other, and the outcome will be positive. If a particular talent is within either the soul or the body and not in both, then the chances of that talent blossoming are low. Before we discuss this further, let us understand how the different talents show up in the soul and body.

Understanding the Soul Talents

What do we mean by soul? All of us have some vague understanding of what we mean by soul. The most common understanding is that it is something within us and it is not considered part of the body. When we die, this soul travels to some unknown place. What is this soul and how it functions in our day-to-day life remains a mystery.

The best way to demystify our understanding of the soul is to look at it from a different angle. To properly understand our soul, we should understand our seed body. Understanding the seed body is much easier than trying to understand the soul. Soul and seed body are synonymous. They are the same.  So, let us try and understand our seed body.

Soul = Seed Body

The next question is, what is a seed body? We are all familiar with seeds of plants and trees. Put a seed in soil and water it; shoots for the plant come out from this seed. It is quite amazing how a full-blown plant grows out of such a tiny seed. It does seem that the full-potential plant is already present within the seed. If it is a rose seed, only a rose plant will come out—nothing else. So, the source of all the trees and plants is their respective seeds. If seeds are the source for trees and plants, do living beings also have a seed within them? Logically, they must.  

Yes, Vedanta us teaches that each living being has a seed body. You have a seed body, I have a seed body, and every living being has a seed body. The seed body is the starting point of our existence; everything blossoms from the seed body. Your seed body or your soul is like your résumé; it contains your history, your talents, your skill set, your personality profile. This seed body travels with you, and, in every birth, it attaches to a new body. Everyone’s seed body has a blueprint which is based on its history. Some of the information contained in each seed body is as follows:  

• Ego—the feeling of “I-ness”
• Past history
• Personality traits or vasanas
• Pending karmas, which still need to fructify

The seed body is your essential nature, and it belongs to you. The personality traits contain your talents and skill sets. These talents are present within the seed body.

All experiences which happen in the mind are recorded in the seed body as grooves. If the same experience is repeated often, the grooves become deeper. For example, if a person practices music, tennis, or meditation with great intensity and dedication, that experience will make a deep groove on the soul. Logically, the seed body will have multiple grooves, some grooves deeper than others. These grooves are the storage of the talents which are acquired over multiple births. The deeper the groove, the stronger the talent which is available in current and future births. Since these grooves are formed over many lifetimes, I am positive every human being has some grooves which are deep. This would mean everyone has some talent, everyone has some special skill. What it is will vary from person to person.

Understanding the Body Talents

As we have just discussed, the soul belongs to you; it is the source of your own talents. In that respect, your body takes a very different path, and it is quite independent from the soul. A simple question: what is the source of your physical body? The answer is simple—it is your parents. A tiny cell is formed by combining the chromosomes from the parents in the mother’s womb. This tiny cell contains your DNA. Scientists describe deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as the building block of any living being. The DNA in your body is a mix of your parents’ DNA. Then again, your parents’ DNA comes from their parents. This process can move backward till the start of civilization. So, the current state of the DNA is the cumulative history of all the past generations. Every generation updates it and passes it to the next generation. What amazing history and information is stored within DNA!

Every cell in the body has DNA. They say there are three trillion cells in a human being. Every cell contains DNA. Going a step deeper, DNA is made up of genes. These genes contain all the information about the body. Its composition, characteristics, skill set, everything about the body is present within these genes. If you think logically, 50% of your genes will come from your mother’s side and 50% from your father’s side. Which 50%, no one knows. It could be the good genes, mediocre genes, or the bad genes, or a mix of them. There must be some logic about which genes are transmitted, but that is beyond our understanding. To us, it does seem to be a play of luck as to which genes are transmitted from the parents.

The skills and talents are already present in the genes because of parents and past generations. It is important to understand that genes come from the parents, and they do not really belong to you. Let us give a few examples to understand this.

1. If your parents or any ancestors were good singers, then their vocal cords would be finely tuned. To sing well, your vocal cords should be tuned well. The better the tuning of the vocal cords, the higher the quality of the singer. The best singers will have the best tuning of the vocal cords. Practicing singing improves the tuning of the vocal cords. It must be understood that genes are not static; they are dynamic and are continuously being updated within the body. As the tuning of the vocal cords improves with the practice of singing, the genes will reflect these changes. Genes are the repository of the skill set and talents contained within the body. If a talent is present within the parent’s body, there is a 50% chance that those genes will be given to the next generation.

2.  If a parent is a good tennis player, then their eye-hand coordination, reflexes, and muscle mobility are well-tuned. This fine-tuning would be reflected in the genes of the body complex. Then, there is a 50% chance that these genes will be passed on to the next generation.

In this way, talents from the parents and ancestors are passed on from one generation to the next. The talents acquired by the body in its lifetime will pass on to the next generation. Since genes have a very long history of updating, it is quite safe to say that every living body is the storage of some talents and skill sets. What this talent is will vary for every person. 

Comparing Soul Talent and Body Talent

1. The major difference is that the soul talent belongs to you, while the body talent does not belong to the soul but to the genes of the body. However, when we are born, we do combine the body–mind complex. Therefore, both talent sources are available to the person during this lifetime.

2. As we have discussed earlier, the soul gains talents due to the experience happening in the mind. In contrast, the body gains talent because of the genes which come from the parents.

3. If you practice any activity regularly, both the soul and the genes will be updated at the same time. For example, if someone practices singing regularly, the experience of this practice will register in the soul. Also, this practice will help fine-tune the vocal cords, and the genes in the body will reflect these changes. So, the practice of singing will affect both the talent sources. This logic will apply to all the activities we undertake.

4. There is always a possibility of no match of talents between the soul and the genes. For example, the soul has the talent for singing. However, the genes acquired from the parents have no talent for singing. This means that the vocal cords have no tuning for singing. This will make it difficult for this talent to blossom.

5. The perfect combination will be if both the soul and the genes have the same talents. This will ensure that the talent blossoms to the fullest. For example, the soul and the genes both have a talent for singing. If this is the case, there is a good chance that this talent of singing will blossom during this lifetime. So, if any talent is available in both the soul and the genes, it has the best chance to blossom during this lifetime.

6. A child prodigy will have the highest quality of talent in both the soul and the genes. This will allow the talent to blossom at a very young age.

The conclusion is that everyone has some talent or the other. This talent either belongs to you or it comes from your genes.