Our bodies are inert!
Saibaba as a youth!
The body and mind are mere instruments in the hands of SELF!
We use a pen to write. Here, the pen is just an instrument in our hand and it is really an inert instrument. It is we who handle it and use it for the purpose for which it is designed. Similarly we use the hand to perform certain works, we walk using our feet. We see through our eyes, hear through the ear and talk through the mouth and smell through the nose. In all the above cases, the limbs are inert instruments just like the pen. Then who uses the limbs. It is the in dweller called the “Self” which utilize the body for various functions. Really our bodies are ‘inert’. If they are not inert, then they should function even after the breath leaves our bodies. Hence remember that the bodies, mind, intellect, and the senses are inert unless they are energized by the Self!
Consider a car with the latest design and technology. It is a marvel to look at the beautiful car. Two things are essential for the movement of the car. It is either petrol or diesel or gasoline. Now they manufacture ‘electric cars’. They run on batteries with stored power. OK. Now one more thing is needed. It is the Driver who will drive the car. Before starting a car, the driver switch on the main power switches which enable all the parts of the car to function. In our analogy, self is the driver of the car. Hence without a driver, a car becomes inert and useless. It is a mere instrument which must be operated by someone on the Driver seat. This is how our bodies, mind and intelligence function. The Self is the energizer of the body. Now a question may arise. With the cessation of breathing, we term the body as a ‘corpse’ which has no life in it. Hence, the breath acted as an agent of the Self to enable the body to function. In a way, the breathing is like the main switch which enables all the parts of the body to function smoothly!
It is the Self or God (both are one) which activates all of us as well as the universe. Bereft of God or Self, there is no creation or Cosmos. The Self acts as a pure white screen for the cinema to fall on. The creation too is a cinema show projected on the Self. We are all hoodwinked by the mind to believe that we are all separate individuals with inborn capacities to function independently. It is a false premise on which we live. It is a dream. It is mere illusion to think like that. All the beings of the world are connected in God and they are all part of the Supreme Being. At no time, we become separate from God but the confused mind makes us to believe that we are separate and self-willed individuals. Hence all of our problems are the result of our false identity with the perishable body and evanescent mind. Hence we must shift our focus from the body/mind complex and rely upon the eternal Self!
Scriptures talk about the fundamental ignorance of human beings. Ignorance is like darkness. Darkness flees away when light is brought in. Likewise, the ignorance vanishes once we gain knowledge. The knowledge is not secular one. It is spiritual wisdom which enables us to perceive the entire creation as suffused with God or Self. Once we gain the knowledge of the self, all our pain and grief vanishes from the mind. The mind acts as a knife. In the hand of a Surgeon, the knife cut the skin of the patient to cure him. When the same knife falls into the hand of a criminal, it is used to inflict wound or kill somebody. But the knife itself is an inert instrument as we dealt in the beginning. Hence mind acquires goodness or evil according to the use we put it in. Give the mind the world, it will think about the world. If it is given the thought of God, it will think about God! Hence mind too is an inert instrument in the custody of the Self!
