Incorporeal body and physical soul: a different co-existence.

Ignorance, materialism, material blindness and all kinds of superstitions - the basis of confusion is self-consciousness in the body.The ever-changing, temporary, mortal, inert material body is thought of as 'I'. 

The force of nature soon destroys the false self, the false self-identity, the body is destroyed, yet people with undeveloped inert consciousness mistake their temporary body for their own body. In the scriptures this category of people is said to be not at all superior to animals like-

Yasya - Atmabuddhi Kunape Tridhatuke.
Swadhi Kaltradishu Bhaum Ijyadhi.
Jattirthabuddhi salile na kohirchit.
Janeshu Abhisheneshu Sa and Gokhar. 
                    --- Srimad Bhagavatam (10/84/13)

Picture collected from - Printerest

●Translation: He who considers the three-elemental body bag of snot, choler and wind to be the soul, considers his wife and sons as his relatives, goes to pilgrimage and bathes in the waters of the pilgrimage, but does not associate with experienced saints, he is a cow or a donkey. Not great in parts. A civilization built on the basis of the expansion of the body mind and the cessation of the needs of the body, no matter how advanced it may seem, is basically a brute civilization.

● A few Examples:-

1) The body is a machine or vehicle and the soul is the rider:-

When a car moves animals may perceive it as alive but humans know that the car is unconscious dead driven by a driver. When the driver alights, the car remains silent, frozen. Similarly, when the soul leaves the body, the circulation of the body stops.

This is where  in 'Srimad Bhagavat Gita', Sri Krishna says,"Vhramayan Sarvabhutani" i.e. all living beings are made to travel according to their desires and "Yantra-Arurani" i.e. the body is mounted on Yantra (Machines or Vehicles).

2) Clothing and person:-

According to the body size, tailors make different types of coats or dresses for different people in different sizes. One may wear a blue or another a white coat but those people are neither blue nor white.Similarly, nature tailors different types of body-clothes according to different types of desires and actions of different beings.

Some are seen as elephants, some as cows, some as fair or some as black people. But these are all transitory garments i.e. here Krishna says - "Basangsi Jirnani" (Gita 2/12). When the body becomes worn out, the soul sheds these clothes like worn out clothes and assumes a new body form new clothes i.e. "Tatha sthiyani bihay...anyani sansyati nabani dehi".

3) The exposure of the sun and the Earth:- 

In 'Srimad Bhagavat Gita', Lord Krishna explained to Arjuna the difference between the unconscious physical field (Field of activities) and the conscious soul residing in the body."O India, as one sun reveals the whole world, so the soul reveals the whole body."

🖋️Written by Saikat Banerjee🖋️