Body

Viswamitra · Jul 11, 2015

In the scriptures, the body is considered as “Kshetra” (the field) and the one who resides in that body i.e. divine consciousness is called “Kshetrajna” (the knower of the field). The place of worship is also called “Kshetra”. In fact, the whole of world we perceive is Shetra. The Kshetrajna is the one who pervades the whole of what we perceive and animates it. Without the Kshetrajna (the knower), the kshetra ceases to exist. Without the Kshetra, the Kshetrajna can’t be perceived. Therefore, the body and mind plays a prominent role in the effort of experiencing the Kshetrajna. There is a proverb in Tamil, “Suvarai vaithuthan Chithiram” meaning “The art of painting can only be expressed in a canvass”.

Adi Sankara said, “[FONT=&amp]Knowing that I am different from the body, I need not neglect the body. It is a vehicle that I use to transact with the world. It is the temple which houses the Pure Self within”. Swami Vivekananda said, “[/FONT]The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free”. Ramana Maharishi said, “Once the false notion ‘I am the body’ or ‘I am not realized’ has been removed, Supreme Consciousness or the Self alone remains and in people’s present state of knowledge they call this ‘Realization.’ But the truth is that Realization is eternal and already exists, here and now. Consciousness is pure knowledge. The mind arises out of it and is made up of thoughts. The essence of the mind is only awareness or consciousness. However, when the ego overclouds it, it functions as reasoning, thinking or perceiving. The universal mind, not being limited by the ego, has nothing outside itself and is therefore only aware. This is what the Bible means by ‘I am that I am.’ Therefore, the divine consciousness and the manifestation are both interwoven and important in life as divinity can’t be realized without the presence of the body and the mind.

Therefore, the form is a gift given for realizing the formless and therefore, even the form should be revered with respect and preserved with care. The form is to perform the duties in life, experience the wonders of manifestation and reach the Truth. Thinking that external purity is the only aspect that is important is insanity. The mind has to be purified constantly until it develops a flawless character. Inner cleanliness is as important as outer cleanliness. Particularly, one doesn’t have the right to abuse the body and mind through use of impure and junk food, smoking of nicotine or weed and any other intoxicating substance including alcohol. If the journey is inwards, the cleanliness of the path is essential.

If the field is created only for the purpose of realization of the Knower, littering the planet, destroying the forest, abuse of the animals, abuse of the fellow beings, filling the atmosphere with emissions that are not conducive for the life to exist, creating holes in the ozone layer, contamination of any kind to earth, water, air, and ether prevent us from realizing the Knower. Thirunavukkarasar, worshiped the devotees of Shiva to reach Lord Shiva and similarly, unless the humanity understand the value of the form, it is difficult to realize the formless. The form minus attachments, desires and ego is a holy place of worship. The thoughts, words and actions should be like flowers that are used to garland the Kshetrajna. The act of helping the fellow beings is like lighting the lamp to have dharshan of the divinity. When one sees the oneness of all beings, one gets closer to the Kshetrajna.

In simple terms, the body and mind in their purest form becomes a holy place in which Kshetrajna can reside with its full light and shine with added luster. Let the five senses be the five horses that pulls the chariot, mind be the reins that holds them under control and the chariot be the body in which the Lord resides. It is the temple which houses the Pure Self within as said by Adi Sankara.

jskls · Jul 11, 2015

Very well written on body and mind and the essence to keep inside out clean. Thanks for explaining beautifully. I remembered this verse from Lalitha Sahasranama- 'kshetraswarupa kshetresi kshetra kshetragnya palini kshaya Vriddhi vinirmukta kshetra paala samarchita' meaning she who is the body of all beings who is also the ruler of all bodies, who protects both the soul and the body who is without growth and decay who is worshipped by the keeper of the body. You explained it clearly why it's important to keep this body clean resulting in pure mind and ultimately pure soul too. Thankyou Viswa sir

Akanksha1982 · Jul 11, 2015

Swami Vivekananda : “The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free”. Great quote from Vivekananda, echoing what Krishna said in Gita. sarvasya cāhaḿ hṛdi sanniviṣṭomattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaḿ caI am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.unless the humanity understand the value of the form, it is difficult to realize the formless. So true, unless we realize the other human being or another life with equality and respect, how can we realize the formless. Great snippet Viswa Sir.

PushpavalliSrinivasan · Jul 11, 2015

Dear Viswa,
A soul without body or a body without soul is incomplete.
The soul has the choice of travelling through two paths, one is outward and one is inward. The outward path will lead to sensory pleasures whereas the inward path will lead to everlasting bliss. To attain this purity of soul is important.

Good for the body is to work and to keep it clean. Good for the soul is to keep it pure by shedding ego and to work for the betterment of all with love.

PS

jayasala42 · Jul 11, 2015

Dear Viswa,
You have given a simple 4 lettered word'body' to the snippet which according to dictionary means a frame of a human being or animal or a corpse.But the snippet is full of life shining in every sentence,nay in every word.
Common appreciation about thirukkural is " kadugai thulaiththu ezhu kadalaip puguththik kurugath thariththa kural-( Thiruvalluvar has pierced a small mustard seed and injected all the seven seas into it.) I think that it definitely applies to Viswa.
I don't know how to respond to this wonderful snippet.

All these pancha koshas ( or in fact seven koshas)sheaths ,three shareeras ( sthoola, sookshma and Kaarana Shareera -the third one which is supposed to hold the'soul' have been studied by many of is yoga and philosophy books .Whether we have imbibed anything is all together a different issue.

Since you have chosen the word 'body' I thought of dealing with it as a lay person , as I am.

Apart from philosophical thinking that body is the temple where God resides and the form in which the formless resides have to be taken care of,now a days so much importance is given to this body as 'identity'. wherever you go they ask for KYC--'know your customer 'and the institutions like banks are required to update the details-such as name, parents, date of birth, the residence of this body.

Who am I? I am not speaking about the philosophy of Ramana. But importantly related to this question is another: Am I the same person now as I used to be? For part of the issue of personal identity is how growth, change and life experiences transform one’s self. Perhaps they alter me totally, I may think. The identity problem is compounded by asking further: Might I be a very different person in the future?

I am the same person today that I was as a child or teenager because I have the same body, or at any rate a body that has merely changed incrementally over time. The story of one’s life necessarily hinges on one’s experiences, beliefs, memories, attitudes, desires, thoughts, dreams, and the like – whether these prove to be physical or non-physical in nature.)

There is an ancient puzzle known as ‘The Ship of Theseus’. Theseus was a legendary king, revered as one of the founders of Athenian society. Plutarch reports that the ship in which Theseus and those under his command sailed the Aegean sea had its planks replaced one by one. Over time the entire ship was replaced, raising the question whether it remained the same ship or not, and if so, in what sense.

Theseus’ ship appears poised to sink the physical theory of personal identity. Why? Because even though the ship has merely changed incrementally over time, overall it has changed totally, so that no part of it remains the same as at first. And if no part of an entity remains unaltered over time, can the entity itself remain?

It has been known for quite a while that incremental replacement occurs within the human body, but recent discoveries indicate more precisely the scope of this reconstruction. For example, our gut lining is replaced every five days; the skin’s outer layer every two weeks; red blood cells every 120 days; bones every ten years; and muscles between the ribs every 15.1 years. If the regeneration paradox is considered a serious worry, the bad news is that human bodily regeneration goes on relentlessly and at variable rates for different parts. The replacement paradox is further complicated by the growing practice of organ transplantation and grafting, with replacement materials supplied by living humans, cadavers and fetuses as well as by other species, and artificial prostheses.The cerebral cortex and visual cortex of the brain have been confirmed to be as old as we are, that is, not to regenerate.

While talking of body we cannot ignore the word DNA. We all know that our DNA structure is unique to each of us. . DNA certainly seems like a tempting physical carrier for personal identity, because it’s as identifying of oneself as anything can be. (The question of how DNA translates into personhood or personality, if at all, however, is an even greater mystery than how electrical activity in the brain can do so.) But even here, hopes are dashed for identity.

The human body contains between one and ten trillion cells. Red blood cells have no DNA, but all the others do. It also turns out that only ten percent of the DNA present within our bodies belongs to our own cells; the rest resides within the ten to one hundred trillion bacteria and other organisms of several hundred species which inhabit our bodies. Hence it now looks as if what counts as my body, although macroscopically quite specifiable, is, from the standpoint of genetic coding, only ten percent mine. This leaves us with the awkward conclusion (which we shall have to accept) that to be me is to cohabit my body with trillions upon trillions of other organisms, whose genetic coding radically deviates from my own DNA blueprint. My body is no longer simply my body.

Therefore,a person is an activity, not a substance, and definitely not merely a collection of attributes, whether physical or psychological. A person just is what he or she does in an ongoing way from day to day, reconfirming and projecting into the future, . We can call this the ‘continuity of responsible action’ view of personal identity.
I think that 'this responsible action view' referred to by biologists is termed by Viswa is service to all with pure words, thoughts and deeds.
Our paths are different. But we have come to the same conclusion-one talking about the world'Kshetra and Kshetragna' and the other one reaching the same shore through KYC( Know your customer) and DNA route.One is totally philosophical and the other one is biological.

Is it not strange that even a simple word'body' makes our mind scatter and wander in so many directions?
Sorry Viswa,pl put up with my long boring response.

Jayasala 42

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Viswamitra · Jul 11, 2015

Dear jskls,

Thank you for your first response. What an apt quote from Lalitha Sahasranama? If everything is part and parcel of the whole which is defined as Kshetrajna, how the manifestation i.e. Kshetra should be revered and respected is what I wanted to convey through this post. You did it so eloquently by quoting Lalitha Sahasranama.
Unity of these two components i.e. Kshetrajna and Kshetra and purity of Kshetra leads to divinity which is Kshetrajna.

It is now my turn to thank you for giving the relevant quote.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Jul 11, 2015

Dear Akanksha,

Thank you for your kind words of appreciation. Thank you for sharing the relevant quote from Bhagavad Gita here to support that Kshetrajana is part of everything. It is smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest. Knower, Known and Knowledge are one and the same. Forgetfulness is the gift that was given to us to perform our duty and function independently to become aware. We have no right to abuse our own body or the body of others. They are all gift to the humanity. Unless we understand the importance and relevance of the form, we can't recognize formless. When it is wrong to dwell in the form with ego, desires and attachments, it is also equally wrong not realizing the need of the form to become aware of the formless.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Jul 11, 2015

Dear Smt. Srinivasan:

Your first sentence says it all. The form is given to realize formless. Dwelling in the form with ego, desires and attachments is bad but at the same time not understanding that the form is a gift to realize formless is also bad. It is a vehicle the Shetrajna uses to make the round trip from the source to the source. Cleanliness is described as next to Godliness and inner purity is as important as outer purity. Once we are constantly aware of the oneness of all beings, the journey ends as very well articulated by Ramana Maharishi. As Maharishi said awareness already exists and it is the cloud of thoughts and bad qualities that hides that awareness.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Jul 12, 2015

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

At the cost of repeating myself, I would like to say that if you are going to provide responses of this high quality, I don't mind writing posts that would trigger such wonderful responses. Clearly, your response is far more valuable than my original post. I am humbled by your appreciation of my post and I consider that as approval from a very learned person.

It is stunning to know how much knowledge you have in science, psychology, philosophy and many other subjects of wide category. I purposefully titled it as "Body" and avoided writing about five koshas and three or four sareeras. I wanted this post to be a general post that doesn't cover technical details of how it is explained in the philosophical context. At the same time, I didn't want to cover only the Sthoola sareera but wanted to cover, Sookshma, Kaarana and Mahakaarana (Soul) sareeras as well.

Therefore,a person is an activity, not a substance, and definitely not merely a collection of attributes, whether physical or psychological. A person just is what he or she does in an ongoing way from day to day, reconfirming and projecting into the future, . We can call this the ‘continuity of responsible action’ view of personal identity. I think that 'this responsible action view' referred to by biologists is termed by Viswa is service to all with pure words, thoughts and deeds.
Click to expand...

Your above paragraph explains it all in clear terms and how much better it could get than this? It is the man's habit that forms into his character. What he puts his mind to becomes a habit. Therefore, purified mind produces a better character. His thoughts, words, actions, heart, character, company, etc. determines who he is.

I truly enjoyed reading your thoughts on KYC and DNA arriving at the same point. I happened to read a book called "Biology of belief" written by Dr. Bruce Lipton, a contemporary scientist. He explains how changing the structure of our thoughts considerably influences the city of cells in our body. According to him, each cell has brain of its own and coordinate its thinking aligning with the behavioral pattern of other cells around it. According to him, by modifying thoughts, a person can substantially change the behavior of the cells confirming the philosophical thinking but with more scientific evidences. Isn't it a beauty of the Creator to plan everything with such minute details to arrive at what need to regenerate itself at what frequency and so on. I read recently that natural birth of the child gives better immunity for the child than children born under C Section. Therefore, more and more physicians are applying a fluid that is released by the body of the mother at the time of birth on the skin of the child. Being a man with no knowledge of such things, I can't stop wondering at the Creator's ingenuity.

Viswa

jayasala42 · Jul 12, 2015

Dear viswa,
In forums there is nothing like original post and responses.Each one shares his/her own experience enriching the over all content.small or big, crisp or elongated every mail has its own value.
You have talked about applying mother's fluid on the skin of the baby to enable the child to have better immunity.I am reminded of a distinct instance that happened in our village home in 1956.I was in Pre University class.We had 4 or 5 cows at home and all of us know how to bathe,feed the cows clean the cow shed, prepare cow dung cakes , dry them up on the backyard wall and so on.
One fine morning one of the cows, Lakshmi by name, gave birth to a calf.The delivery was complicated.In the process the calf passed away.The mother was in tears and cried uncontrollably.

In the adjacent village around the same time a cow died during delivery leaving the calf motherless.knowing this, my father brought the calf home.
It was actually a drama unfolding before us. The new calf was at the front yard. The lamenting cow was standing at the back yard.
A gentleman well experienced in these issues came home. He asked us to prepare a nice paste of boiled brinjals, veththilai, omam and sombu( a country drug) .My Amma ground these well in a grinding stone.The vaginal muscles had not yet shrunk properly as it was just 40 hrs after delivery.The expert tactfully removed some vaginal fluid from the cow and mixed it well with the herbal brinjal paste and applied it generally on the skin of the motherless calf standing at the front yard( vaasal thinnai).
Normally cows will not suckle any calf, other than one born out of her.When this calf was taken near the cow, first the cow didn't look up at all. Then slowly it raised its head, and smelt the calf.The cow seemed to confirm whether the calf was its own.It started licking the calf and it could recognise its body fluid smell on the calf.It was a scene that lasted for nearly 15 mts.
After getting fully convinced ( as per human terminolgy) milk started flowing through udders and the cow started suckling the baby.

Earlier evening when this proposal was being discussed a few neighbours accused my father in trying to cheat a dumb creature( vaayillaa jeevan).
All those neighbours accepted the event whole heartedly when they saw the delight in the eyes of the cow.
This incident of 'matha-shishu'sangamam' was a great eye opener to us.
The people did this with their common sense approach and not with a knowledge of cell intelligence.
With the theory of cell intelligence becoming very popular, some of the doctors never care to diagnose properly. If it is not cured with medicine prescribed, they don't hesitate to shift the blame on cell intelligence..My sister's daughter-in-law just 35 ,had a low platelet counts ,around 25,000 oly( mormal for the age must be around 2,00,000) After conducting so many tests, doctors both at Vijaya Hospital and Apollo simply stated in common man's language" one of the cell in your body thinks the platelet to be the enemy and it goes on destroying platelets whenever they are formed.It is very difficult to locate that particular part of the body.Even if recognised, we cannot remove that part by surgery since the same culprit part is doing so many beneficial functions in the system."
After keeping the patient for 40 days, Apollo discharged her with very marginal improvement.Then we took her to a siddha specialist.With medicines and some pathyam in meals, within 3 months, there was a definite increase in platelets to one lakh and within 6 months she became normal.
While we appreciate the research in 'Cell Intelligence' theory,this should not stand in the way of proper diagnosis.

Though totally unconnected,I think the title 'body' deserves this additional response.

jayasala 42