Is Your Body Something Inferior and to Be Despised?
We say there is God in man, godliness in man, see divinity in everyone, see Narayana in everyone, the connection between man and God is jeevatma and paramatma, or even Aham Brahmasmi, I am myself God.
Do all these have scriptural authority? The question comes up because it is also said that you are not your body, don’t get attached to your body, body is just flesh and blood and bones, that’s not the real you, to the extent that it conveys that body is something to be abhorred.
There could be a little bit of confusion here. When acharyas of different streams uphold their own thought as the best, this can happen.
Is it that body is something lowly and the invisible soul inside is what is pure?
Let’s look at what Veda says.
Broadly, what is the body made up of? Pancha bhutas. Where do they come from? They are not synthesized in a man-made factory, it is not plastic or some chemical. I would say, even plastic and chemicals are also nothing but Parabrahma. How can you even have something which is not Parabrahma?
Pancha bhutas come from Parabrahma itself when srishti happens through the process called panchikarana. Pancha bhutas are just Parabrahma transformed into matter, energy and space. Prithvi, Jalam and Vayu are solid, liquid and gas, Agni is energy and Akasha is space.
So, human body is made up of pancha bhutas and you don’t have to call it names and abuse it.
Veda says –
Yo vai tam brahmano vedamritenavritam puram
Tasmai brahma cha brahmaashcha chakshuh praanam prajam daduh
In Taittiriya Aranyaka it says – Tasmai brahma cha brahmaa cha. Ayuh kirtim prajam daduh
Won’t make much of a difference.
This body is a place or a city, puram, it belongs to Brahma, Parabrahma – it is filled with amruta – because the constituents of the body don’t go anywhere, they don’t perish. When death happens they just go elsewhere, join back the big pools of pancha bhutas. When a man is alive, some part of the pancha bhutas, they come and concentrate at a certain place, when death happens, they just go back. The pancha bhutas themselves are amruta, they don’t die.
If you understand this tatwas, then Brahma and Brahmas – both knowledge and action based on that knowledge, what that means is mantramaya karma, both knowledge and action guided by mantras – they all will give vision, life force and progeny.
You have to know this principle. The body is not an alien object which is lowly or should be abhorred and hated. Body also is Parabrahma only. An aspect of Parabrahma.
Brahmas – mantramaya karmas – that’s why we have chantings for each and everything. Mantra when you get up, mantra when your feet touch the ground, mantra when you take bath, mantra when you wear clothes, mantra when you eat – each and every day-to-day action is linked to mantras. When you do it that way, your clarity improves, your vision expands.
When you take food – before that you say – Pranaya swaha… Brahmane swaha
You are remembering and calling out to the five pranas within the body, which control and run all your internal activities – from breathing to digestion to blood circulation to excretion – everything.
When you say Pranaya swaha – it means this food is meant for prana, the life force called prana, this will go in and replenish the energy for prana.
This for apana… this for vyana, this for udana, this for samana
And finally, Brahmane swaha – recognizing Parabrahma, not Parabrahma which sits inside the body somewhere, in the heart or somewhere.
Parabrahma cannot limit itself to one place like that.
Parabrahma is the body itself. The complete body is Parabrahma.
So, when you chant these mantras and take food, this is what should run through your mind.
Then ajnana goes. Things start becoming clearer.
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