God enters human body known as human incarnation
The human incarnation is God entering the human body as said by Gita (Manusheem tanumashritam….). The human body consists of three sub-bodies.  The first is external gross body made of five elements.  The second is internal subtle body (Jeeva), which is a bundle of qualities.  The innermost is the causal body (Atman), which is the pure awareness or soul.  Atman is like standstill water and qualities (Jeeva) are like the waves in the water.  Jeeva and Atman are inseparable.  Atman can exist without Jeeva, which is the steady soul in the meditation without thoughts. By effort, the thoughts (Qualities) can be completely destroyed so that pure soul remains.  This is the Nirguna-Atman (attribute less soul) of Advaita Philosophers. But Jeeva can’t exist without Atman.  When God enters the human body, the Jeevatman, a jointly associated system of qualities and soul together, which is the liberated soul exists there as the personal assistant.  The Jeevatman is only a slave to God and can be considered as almost living doll.

Veda refers this to the two birds living together on a common tree.  The two birds are God and Jeevatman and the tree is the gross body of Jeevatman.  God is visiting guest in the house of the liberated soul.  God doesn’t come into mere inert gross body.  God lives with the liberated soul selected by Him from His family of liberated souls, so that the liberated soul becomes happy due to visit of God.  God and the liberated soul are homogeneously united like two metallic components in a single phase of alloy.  God pervades even the gross body whenever it is required as in the situation of uplifting the hill.  The human being consisting of gross, subtle and causal bodies acts as a wire charged by current.  The live wire is treated as current for all the practical purposes and can be treated as current.  Hence, the human being is treated as God and this is the monism of Shankara limited to the human incarnation and not to be extended to every human being.  In human being the soul and Jeeva are the two birds as per Shankara and in such case, you can call the Jeeva as soul, but not as God.  According to Ramanuja the interpretation is God and soul only referring to the human incarnation.

dattaswami, Is there not a hell (purging) prior to the bliss of such a blessed soul?

stan;

The earth, hell and heaven come under the plane of materialism (Pravrutti) only. The punishment on the earth and the punishment in the hell differ just by the areas present in the same realm of Pravrutti. It is just the difference between a jail in India and a jail in Andaman Islands in the olden days. Therefore, the postponed sin along with the interest can be met with punishment in the hell or in the next birth. It is one and the same. The serious deeds good or bad will yield results in this birth it self (Atyutkataih Papa Punyaiah Ihaiva Phalamashnute..).

The place and time have no significance. Only the quality and quantity of the nature (good or bad) of a deed and its subsequent fruit destined by the constitution of God are important. As the postponement increases, the interest also increases. You will receive the principle along with the interest in any online branch of the divine bank existing on this earth or in the upper world. Actually the deeds are inert actions and do not follow the soul. Only the essence of the deed which is alive in the form of quality (Guna or Samskara) follows the soul and from the color and intensity of the quality, results are decided by the divine computer called Yama for bad deeds and Indra for good deeds.

Kalabhairava is the over all in-charge of super vision in implementing the results (Karanam Guna Samgosya…Gita). Sattvam is white, Rajas is red and Tamas is black. Therefore, the internal intention (Sankalpa) of the mind which is made of these three qualities decides good and bad of a deed and not the inert subsequent action. The cycle of deeds and its administration is simplified based on the specific quality and its quantity. This is the simplified picture of the system of deeds, which is followed by the judge in the final enquiry. Of course, the total network of deeds with all the minute details also exists inside the system, which can be referred if necessary (Gahana Karmanogatih…).