The very image (nature) of all beings is Existence or Divinity. That Divinity is in the form of truth, consciousness and bliss solidified. That Divinity ever remains the same, immutable and detached. When a man forgets his very image (the self), he assumes the identification of the self with the body. This assumed relationship of the self with the body is of three kinds –
l. I am the body, 2. The body is mine, 3. The body is for me.
We perceive only two things – the perishable (insentient) and the imperishable (sentient). The two are totally different from each other. In the Gita they have been named body and soul, perishable (Kshara) and imperishable (Aksara), and field, the body (Kshetra) and the knower of the field, the soul (Kshetrajna) etc. Saints have named them ‘Not’ and ‘Is’. The self is sentient, imperishable and ‘Is’ while the non-self is insentient, perishable and ‘Not’. ‘Is’ is ever attained while ‘Not’ is acquired and lost.
There is a vital fact that by perceiving ‘Is’, pure (real) ‘Is’ is not perceived but by perceiving ‘Not’ as ‘Not’, real ‘Is’ is perceived. The reason is that when we hold ‘I am a pure, enlightened and liberated soul’, we have to apply our mind and intellect and thus with ‘Is’ there is also ‘Not’ in the form of mind and intellect. But when we hold the ‘Not’ as ‘Not’ that ‘I’ am not the body’, ‘the body is not mine’ and ‘the body is not for me’, our mind and intellect also go with ‘Not’ and pure (real) ‘Is’ remains.
Let us say for example that after sweeping and removing the dust and dirt with a broom, the broom is also discarded and what remains is the clean house. It means that when we think with our mind and decide with our intellect that ‘I am the soul’, we stay connected with nature (our constitution). But when we hold ‘I am not the body’, we get detached from both the body and the constitution, and the pure self as Divinity remains. Therefore in self-realization the negation is important. In negating, it is essential for an aspirant to accept three facts – ‘I am not the body’, ‘the body is not mine’ and ‘the body is not for me’.
So long as an aspirant holds, “I am the body and the body is mine and for me”, he may study and listen to a lot of gospels and may preach them to others, he will neither attain peace, nor salvation. Therefore at the beginning in the Gita, the Lord has laid special emphasis for a striver on the fact that he (the self) is not the body which undergoes changes, birth and death.
I am not the Body
First of all aspirant should clearly understand the fact that he is Divinity (divine entity), not the body. We declare that ‘I am the same today who was in childhood’. As far as the body of the childhood is concerned, it has undergone so much change that it is difficult to recognize it, but I (the self) am the same. In childhood I used to jump and play, then I was studying, and now I am doing a job / business. Everything has changed, but I am the same. It means that the body, which undergoes a change continuously, is not the self. The myself (self, swayam) is one that undergoes no change at all.
So far we have acquired innumerable bodies and they have been left but we remain the same. At the time of death the body will be left here but we’ll go to other wombs, to other worlds such as heaven and hell etc., or we’ll attain salvation and go to the Abode of God. It means that our entity (existence) does not depend on the body. The body may increase or decrease, it may become weak or strong, young or old, may live alive or die but our divine entity remains the same. When we live in a house, we don’t become the house. The house is different from us. The house remains there and we go away leaving it there. The body turns into ashes when it is burnt but we don’t turn into ashes. In the Gita the nature of the self has been mentioned as follows – Weapons cannot cut the śarīrī, nor fire can burn It, water cannot drench It, nor can the wind make It dry. śarīrī is un-cleavable, incombustible and It neither can be wetted nor dried. The reason is that It is eternal, all-pervading, unchanging, immovable and everlasting. 1
It means that the division of the kaleidoscopic body is totally different from that of the uniform śarīrī (self, swaroop). The self is not tainted with any bodies (over innumerable births), therefore in the Gita the Lord has declared It as all-pervading by the expressions –‘yena sarvam idaṁ tatam’ (2/17) and ‘sarva-gataḥ’ (2/24). It means that the self is not confined to one body, but is all-pervading.
The body is formed on the earth (in the womb of the mother), walks about on the earth and merges in the earth after death. After death it assumes three forms-if it is burnt, it turns into ashes; if it is buried, it turns into earth and if it is eaten by animals, it turns into excrement. Therefore the body is not the main thing, rather our self is the foremost.
Although the sense of being (of existing) is of the self rather than the body, yet a striver commits a mistake that first he perceives the body and then perceives the self in the body; first he perceives the appearance and then perceives the real (existent element). How long will this applied polish last? A striver should think over whether the soul (self) or the body first existed. If we think over it, it is proved that the soul exists first and the body is formed later. The existent element is first and then is the form. Therefore our sight should first be turned towards the existent self (Aatma, swaroop), not to the body.
As a dining room is the place where meals are eaten, so is this body the place where pleasure and pain are experienced. He, who experiences pleasure and pain, is not the body, but the self which identifies itself with the body. The place of experience is different from the experiencer. The body is like the garment which is different from us. Whatever clothes one wears, the clothes are separate from us. Just as even on changing numerous clothes, we ‘self’, remain one and the same, we don’t become numerous, similarly by acquiring numerous bodies in numerous wombs, we (the self) remain the same. As by discarding old clothes we don’t die and by wearing new clothes we are not born, similarly by casting off old bodies, we don’t die and by acquiring new bodies we are not born*. It means that the body is born and it dies but we are not born nor do we die. If we (the self) die, who will bear the fruit of sinful and virtuous actions? Who will go to different wombs and to heaven and hell? Who will be bound? Who will be liberated? Our life does not depend on this body. The self is timeless, beginningless and endless. We are not born at the time of new creation nor do we die at the time of final dissolution, but we remain the same ‘sarge ’pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca’ (Gita 14/2).
Our nature and the nature of the body are totally different from each other. Neither have we union with the body nor does the body have union with us. As the body lives in the world, likewise we don’t live in the body. There was never our union with the body, nor is, nor will be nor can be. In fact we don’t need the body. Even without the body, we live in bliss. It means that without the body, we don’t lose anything. Till now we have acquired and cast off numberless bodies but has it made any difference in our existence? What loss have we sustained? We have remained the same- ‘bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate’ (Gita 8/19).
All people realize the absence of body, senses, mind, intellect and ego but no one ever realizes the absence of the self. For example in deep sleep we realize the absence of the body etc. But we don’t say that I didn’t exist in sound sleep, I died. The reason is that even in the absence of the body etc., we existed. So when we are awake, we say that I slept so soundly that I knew nothing. It means that we existed the same in sound sleep. It proves that our existence does not depend on the body, senses, mind, intellect and ego. All-gross, subtle and causal bodies cease to exist but the self never ceases to exist.
Our self is naturally detached- ‘Asango hyayam Purusha’ (Brhadaranyaka. 4/3/15), ‘dehe ’smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ’ (Gitā 13/22). Therefore we in spite of having assumed our affinity and attachment for the body, infact remain untainted and unattached. Therefore the Lord declares ‘śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate’ (Gitā 13/31) viz., the self, in spite of dwelling in the body neither acts nor is tainted. It means that the self, when it assumes itself to be bound, is, infact liberated. The bondage is assumed while liberation is axiomatic. As darkness and light can’t meet each other, similarly the body (insentient, perishable) and the self (sentient, imperishable) can’t meet each other. The reason is that the body is an ‘ansh’ fragment of the world while we are an ‘ansh’ inseparable part of God.
One vice or virtue reveals itself in different forms according to the situation. To attach more importance to the body than the self i.e., to assume the body as the self is the main flaw (evil) which gives birth to all evils. To attach more importance to the self (Divinity) is the main virtue which gives rise to all virtues.
Arjuna at the beginning of the Gita asked the Lord to instruct him how to attain salvation ‘yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me’ (2/7). In response to this question the Lord first of all described the body and the self. It proves that the man who wants to attain salvation, for him it is necessary to realize ‘I am not the body’. So long as a striver holds that ‘I am the body’, he may listen to so many gospels or preach them to others and may practise spiritual discipline, he will not attain salvation.
In human body there is predominance of discrimination. Therefore only a human being can possess this discrimination ‘I am not the body’. Identification of the self with the body is not humanity but it is beastliness. Therefore Sri Sukadevaji Maharaj tells Parikshit —
‘0 King! Now give up this animal intelligence that you will die. Just like the body had no existence in the past, it was born later and then it will die, but it is not so with you (the self), that you were non-existent in the past, you were born later and later you will die.’
The body never remains uniform while the self never changes, it always remains uniform. The body did not exist before birth, will not exist after death and at present also it is dying every moment. In fact when the body comes to the womb, the process of dying (death) begins. At the death of boyhood, youth ensues. At the death of youth, old age ensues. At the death of old age, the soul acquires another body –
dehino ’smin yathā dehe, kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir, dhīras tatra na muhyati (Gita 2/13)
Boyhood, youth and old age-these three states (stages) are of the gross (physical) body while attaining another body after death is the stage of the subtle and causal bodies. At the death of the body, the gross body is left but the subtle and causal bodies accompany the soul. Unless a man is liberated, his affinity for the subtle and causal bodies persists. It means that the self transcends the gross, subtle and causal bodies and their states. The body and its states change but the self remains the same.
1 nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi, nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ, na cainaṁ kledayanty āpo, na śoṣayati mārutaḥ; acchedyo ’yam adāhyo ’yam, akledyo ’śoṣya eva ca, nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur, acalo ’yaṁ sanātanaḥ (Gita 2/23-24)
Narayana ! Narayana ! ! Narayana ! ! !
From book ‘For Salvation of Mankind’ by Shradhey Swamiji Shri Ramsukhdasji Maharaj
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