Miscellaneous - Religion   

Key to self-realisation

CHENNAI: Science has been continually probing and unravelling the fascinating aspects of the universe and the human body; but more fascinating is the fact that the scriptures are a storehouse of these truths. In a lecture, Swami Suddhananda pointed out that the Vedas and the Upanishads provide an insight into the intriguing world of one's body/mind complex in the fashion of a comprehensive manual that one uses meticulously to operate a technical gadget, and it is in the hands of each one (user) to use both the manual and the gadget effectively. Just as when one buys a vehicle, one has to learn to drive it successfully and also maintain it, so too one has to learn to use the body and maintain it.

The basic truth of the dichotomy and interdependence of the body and the soul is the key to self-realisation. The birth of each individual signifies a soul living in a human form for a limited period of time.

The body grows from childhood to youth, adulthood and old age, and heads towards death. The soul within, while being responsible for the functioning of the sense organs, mind and intellect, has at its disposal all these (body) to enable it to strive for liberation during its lifespan.

The body is the ground for experience and it is the self within that experiences. The body's function is similar to that of a car, a knife or a pen when these are used to carry out actions such as speeding, cutting or writing. The body signals hunger and also satiation; but it is the experiencing self that desires for varieties and delicacies. The body is not aware of death, while the self is aware of the body's ageing nature and fears death. The thoughts arising from sensory experiences shape the destiny of the individual.

The Katopanishad uses the analogy of the horse driven chariot to describe the body. The self is the lord of the chariot and the mind is like the reins that enable the charioteer (the discriminating intellect) to hold the horses (the senses) in check. The road is the world of objects over which the senses move. If the reins are not held firmly and wisely, the senses will get out of control and the self will be caught in the cycle of births.

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