The domains of human body and mind are quasi-independent and interdependent.
When a baby is born he is mostly body. His universe consists mostly of
physical experiences. But as he grows the mental seed in him sprouts and starts
to create branches, foliage, and fruits. Further growth takes the mind in the driver’s seat
of the being. So, a fully grown being is quite a bit driven by the mental impulses rather
the physical impulses. But the important caveat here is to understand that the force
of the body is never diminished, only that the commander-in-chief of the being is mind.
But without body there could not be a mind. It is like in a computer: body is the
hardware but the mind is the software. It is the software that drives the hardware.
The source of human life is body. It is the body that wants to live. The role of mind is that of a director to direct the impulse to live properly. Mind is the thinker, the shaper, the artist. The direction of human life is more important than its destination, because it has no destination. It is a journey, whose quality is more important than its worldly achievements.
It is because human life can be lived properly in many different ways that we have so many different religions, so many different philosophies, so many different cultures. And that is why our thinking about life has changed in the last several thousand years of recorded history, with inputs from science and experience. We have a lot more confidence in ourselves today than what primitive man had. At this point in the history of mankind a man can live a fulfilled life without the assistance of religion. But he needs a developed intellectual architecture for that.
Religion has a rich platter to offer but because of its softness toward reason, at times, it may not be able to solve practical problems in some situations.
But as we age the body becomes weaker and that may cast a shadow on the mind.
But the evolved human spirit over eons has developed the vision that the mental
hierarchy should dominate human experience of life. That is how the invention of
God, religion, and mythology has taken place. There is no God outside human imagination.We are the Gods. That is, it is up to us to lead a high level life. It is the potentialities of life which have become even more significant than life itself. It is
in human hands to live a very rich life. Body is only a vehicle of consciousness.
But this stuff is for high level people, for the commoners satisfaction of physical
hungers is life. So, there are two types of people. One looks for a high level
mental life and the other for a life of physical satisfaction, which still requires
a certain minimal mental capacity.
In old age when body wears out mind is not able to propel the being to the desired
level of experience. And, therefore, it knows that the being’s existence is coming to an end. This is the supreme drama of human life. Body and mind must work
harmoniously with each other, but their functions in the experience of the being, which we call human life, are different.
If the body is in unbearable pain, it would not be immoral to terminate it. It is a
supreme hypocrisy that many countries deem suicide to be illegal. In U.S. some
states are allowing assisted-suicide.
Suffern, New York, November 18, 2015; Rev. November 19, 2015
maharaj.kaul@yahoo.com
