In Many Religions Around the World
In many religions around the world, the human body – one of nature’s the most complicated creations, a marvel beyond description – is considered a temple of God, an abode where God resides. But is man the body alone.
Even the most esoterically and philosophically unsophisticated people recurrently use expressions that show a hidden knowledge far beyond their conscious understanding. For example, the universal habit of referring to our bodies as “mine” (as reflected by expressions such as “My body is hurting” or “I do not like to get my body pierced” or tattooed) just goes to show that we are not just the body. Thus, the one thing that seems to be inherently ingrained in man, irrespective of his level of education or age, is the underlying hidden awareness – on a subconscious level – of our being the owner of the body and not the body itself. However, on the conscious level we tend to identify others and ourselves with the temporary and the perishable body, like Arjuna did before Lord Krishna’s discourse and end up being fearful, confused and miserable.
He started having an anxiety state neurosis .A body make over and mind and soul balancing is a great urgency in this state of indecisions and artificial worldly attachments. The Almighty Lord helped Arjuna get out of this situation and emerge as the victorious Prince in the mahabharat battle for the protection of DHARMA .People may offer today six week body make over or other body solutions but the fact is that the Lord Krishna and Arjuna are within the human Mind and only the dialogue within the mind with the Lord is the only key to get rid of depression and do your duty as desired by the Lord and be co creators with him . In the recent years the notion of the body has undergone some radical transformation on both scientific and philosophical levels. The horizon of scientific and medical advancements has expanded so vastly that the possibility of disassembling and restructuring the body is no longer a figment of imagination. Even philosophy has questioned the traditional view of superiority of the mind over the body by emphasizing that corporeality is central to our experience and knowledge of the world.
The implication of all this is a state of chaos in the understanding of the concept of mind, body and soul. The truth is that though the physical material body is central to our experiencing and knowing the world, man is not just body but also spirit or soul. It is the soul that has the capacity to know the universal spirit, the Brahman or God, using the instrument of mind – just as senses are an instrument to know the outside material world – and to establish and relish a personal relationship with Him. It is only when man experiences this relationship with God that he begins to understand the body and soul connection. And only when man surrenders himself completely in this relationship, Brahman reveals Himself and self-realization dawns that the soul is a pure manifestation of the same universal consciousness that is called Brahman. It is in this sense we say that the body of an enlightened person becomes the temple of God.
Thus, body is the vehicle of the separated-from-its-source Universal soul when it lands on the Earth on its journey and travels to gain experiences through the senses to understand the illusions and merger with its origin, its parent – the universal soul. Through body it experiences the material world using the five senses and the power of brain (intellect). This knowledge combined with that gained by the mind through introspection leads to man’s quest to know more and more about his own self and about the universe and its creator. In this quest, sooner or later God’s grace will be bestowed on him when he is fully prepared to receive it, just as the soil needs preparation before sowing the seed. And then he will come across an enlightened soul, a spiritual teacher, a guru, who can guide him along and take him on the path to self-realization – the ultimate and the only purpose of human life. When that happens – though it may take countless cycles of birth and death for that to happen – the soul merges with the universal spirit and gets liberated from the cycle of birth and death. The individual soul will go through as many incarnations as required to reach the final destination of its journey. Once that is attained, the vehicle of body is no longer required by that soul.
However the Vedas say that you can achieve this in this very life with meditation and yoga of mind body soul union. Patanjali Yoga defines it very beautifully .
Thus, body is the most hard-earned and most precious reward of Nature to the soul. Knowing the sacrosanct purpose of this achievement, this instrument of body should be used for the fulfillment of that very purpose alone, the purpose of spiritual ascent. Any other usage, whatever that may be, is sheer frittering away of this hard-earned and valuable gift. The importance of having a physical body must never be underestimated. It is the very soil that holds the seed of consciousness and allows it to germinate and grow. All the subtle bodies extend from this gross physical body.
