Body, Mind, & Soul

This seems one of the most talked about things-these three perhaps form the basis of any spiritual effort, process, and result! It is the combination of these three entities, which are distinct enough, but appears as one, and boggling the minds of people who either do not want or have not the power to distinguish these three entities. Let us venture to divulge into the nature of these three entities:

Body

This component symbolizes vesture that is utilized by the soul, using the mind to operate it. Body caters to the need of external world from which the senses, faculty of intelligence and wisdom, and the mind itself function. The existence of the mind and the soul is not recognizable or perceptible without the existence of the body. However, due to the effects of this world, which is basically ephemeral and changing in its nature, people imagine the body as the basis of everything. This leads to the misconceptions and misleading perceptions about the reality of the universe, and majority among the people strives hard to cater and fulfill the needs of this body. While spirituality deals with the higher aspects of this body, namely, mind and finally the spirit!

Mind

This is one of the most confusing and alluring subject in the human history and not so many convincing arguments or findings have been postulated about this component of the body-though there is no part in the body, which is called the mind, if we dismember the body with the scalpel! It is very confounding and interesting simultaneously that we are concerned about the thing that has no form or any cognizable aspect, but the irony or the good luck is that we are but mind-dependent. In the orient languages of East, the mind is known as "Man", and the human is called as "Manushya", or "Manishi", which means born out of "Man"-the human body is born out of mind! So the co-relation of body and mind is placed right from the birth itself, and we can't ignore the mind. Mind or the psyche, as it is known to some people, is very powerful in its faculties and if controlled, it can provide the liberation. It is said that that mind has a dual nature-imagine the allegory of a lock and a key. Lock is the body and mind is the key: if the key is mover anti-clockwise, the body will be locked and would be limited to worldly affairs; however, if the key is moved clockwise, it can free the body from sensory entanglements, and open the world of spirit, where there is no limitation but bliss and bliss only! Sometimes, it all sounds too much beautiful and most of the time fiction, but the matter of experience comes once and again-the fiction can be turned to a fact by experience only!

Soul

This is what we really are! Soul or the spirit is the basis of everything and without this, everything else is inactive. It is only through the power of soul that body and mind function and do their activities. The three are connected to each other as a bulb, wire, and current-bulb is the body, wire is mind, and current is soul. Bulb itself is useless till it glows with the current; however, to bring the body in contact with the soul, wire is needed. Though bulbs and wires may differ; current is same and has the same function-to glow the lamp. Outer appearance of body makes us believe that there exist no current and the aspects of the bulb are the things to be considered; but in reality, it is the current that forms the basis, and we need to discuss about it. Soul like the current is unaffected by praise and blame; by recognition or ignorance; by anything and everything: it gives life to the bulb and when it withdraws, the bulb stands off, having no power of its own and unable to function anymore.

© 2006, Davis Virtual Assistance. This article may not be reprinted or copied on any type of media either in part or in whole.

Vivek Kumar is an experienced writer of non-fiction and poetry who especially enjoys writing about spirituality topics.