You might be wondering why I am sharing all this amazing knowledge with all of you. What prompts me to write on these sessions is the deeply enriched excitement I am experiencing through them.
My pure intent is to share with you the science behind spiritualism and how it can deeply influence our life on the daily basis in a very fruitful and fulfilling way. A heartfelt gratitude to management of ISKON for delivering these wonderful sermons selflessly.
The 4th session was completely eye-opening and enlightening. It was all about what we all are looking for in our life, the real inner quest to discover ourselves and finally find the true purpose of our life. It is rightly said half-knowledge is very dangerous and to acquire it completely and comprehensively, we need to be open-minded and receptive. Change is the only way to live a happier and holistic life.
In the 3rd session, we had understood the four painful aspects of living beings.
which are birth, death, miseries, and diseases.
It is very important for us to know that how we can get out of these pains permanently. We need to understand the science of soul behind it, because with the knowledge of absolute truth we can understand what is real and what is unreal.
Let’s understand a very important thing first:-
Who am I?
Am I, Mr. x or Ms. x
Am I citizen of any country?
Am I the part of any community?
Am I belonging to any region or religion?
Who am I? If we take the help of प्रत्यक्ष प्रमाण और अनुमान प्रमाण, the astonishing answers we got were: As per Dr. Monsen, total worth of human body is Rs 110/-.
But does it make sense to say that we are just made up of chemicals and our worth is that much only? Second thing which modern science has failed to explain is the beautiful concept of mind, intelligence and soul.
Can modern science show,
Where is mind?
How does intelligence look like?
What is the shape of the soul?
Henceforth it is confirmed that we are not just body but we are beyond that which we need to understand. Now शब्द प्रमाण is the only way to actually get the answer to – Who am I ? But to understand that we need to surrender and need to be humble.
What can be the best source to understand these than Bhagavad Gita!!! Bhagavad Gita is the core of all vedas scripture and it is the most authentic source for all the answers to our questions.
In 2nd chapter called सांख्य योग, Lord Krishna has told Arjuna:- “you are not the body, you are a super soul.”
Yes, we are super souls and not just bundle of chemicals which have been composed together by chance and are exhibiting various feelings & emotions.
There are 2 kinds of viewpoints:-
Material viewpoint:- we are bodies made up of matter. everything gets finished at the time of death.
Spiritual viewpoint:- we are not the material body of flesh and bones. we are spiritual souls encapsulated in the material body. our soul never dies, only the material body decomposes.
Soul is eternal!!!
We experience pains of birth, death, diseases and old age because of our materialistic nature. If we truly understand the spiritual viewpoint and imbibe the wisdom within spiritual literature, then we will be out of this pain permanently. To understand in a better way, the relation between the body and soul, let’s use an analogy of a car and the driver.
The car has headlights to see, body has eyes to see.
The car has four wheels to move, body has hands and legs to move.
The car has horn for sound, body has mouth to speak.
The car has a radiator to supply water, the body has the heart to pump the blood.
Now as the car can’t budge even an inch without the driver; the body is also termed dead without the driver and that driver of the body is the soul. So we have clear answer of the question – Who am I?
I am the soul and not the body, body is just the vehicle and the soul is the driver of the vehicle. We have got a firm understanding about the body but now we need to understand that,
What is the soul?
What are the elements of soul?
What is the size of soul?
Lord Krishna has given the answers to these questions in bhagwad geeta. In 7th chapter, Lord krishna has given the knowledge about two energies with us.
Inferior material energy, consists of gross elements:- earth, water, fire, air & ether and subtle elements:- mind, intelligence & false ego.
Superior spiritual energy, consists of सत् [eternal], चित् [full of knowledge] and आनंद [full of bliss].
We can easily understand that our gross body is made up of earth, water, fire, air, and ether & our subtle body is made up of mind, intelligence, and false ego. Now soul is covered by these gross and subtle coverings. It is situated in the region of the heart. the soul is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss.
In mundaka upanishad, the size of the soul also has been defined.
Size of the soul = one ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair.
After having the clear understanding about the body and soul, we can actually separate them individually as we have understood them through the analogy of car and driver and that driver is separate from the car, likewise, soul is separate from the body.
Now we can understand that why siblings or twins who come from the same parents, brought up in the same environment, can be exactly opposite in nature and the choices they made in their life. the simple answer is on the level of gross body, they are same but their subtle body is different which consists of mind and intelligence.
Now let’s understand these very important 3 subtle elements.
Mind:- thinking, feeling and willing,
Intelligence:- discrimination of good and bad,
False ego:- the sense of false identification of body.
From our materialistic viewpoint, we have got into the false belief that our mind controls the intelligence but if we understand the spiritual viewpoint, we can easily identify the reason that intelligence what we carry is not genetic or something else. it is carried forward through our subtle body and soul from our previous lives or past incarnations.
So, when someone dies what we say is, so and so passed away. we don’t say that the body passed away. because gross body is just like clothes. when we buy clothes, we become happy. in a similar manner, when someone gets birth in our family, we become happy.
But when someone dies, we need to have a clear understanding that body dies not the soul. so as after some time, our clothes are useless, we wear new clothes. we don’t cry or feel sad because our favorite clothes just became useless and they have served their purpose.
Likewise, when someone dies it just means that the body is now useless and need a new body where subtle body and soul can reside in it. it is the process of evolution and we need to understand it in the right spirit and right manner.
So from this session – 4 we have understood that, ‘Who am I!’
I am the permanent super soul and not the temporary body.
The goal of our existence in the material world is to go back to the kingdom of God, from where we emanated in the form of the soul.
Hare Krishna!!!
About Dr Gazal Goyal Bansal
Founder and CEO, Life Coach and Speaker, Dr. Gazal Bansal is a
Doctorate in Political Science, UGC (JRF), a Gold Medalist, Certified ISO 22000 Lead Auditor, a Licensed Practitioner of NLP from The Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (TM) & a Pranic Healer.
As a spiritual evangelist and a practical thinker, she is a radical enthusiast and a firm believer in the philosophy of conceptual pragmatism, logical reasoning, and the spiritual energy matrix. She is a staunch believer of the fact that before you speak, your energy speaks.