Body of Wisdom

Chariot of the Soul

by Anil Navindra Persaud

It is a curious thing how cultures the world over regard the human body.  Revered as a temple, scorned as a dirty obstacle or held in indifference, no one can doubt that our physical bodies are a central part of the lives we lead.

In the traditions of the Ancient Indian cultures that dotted the South Asian landscape, the physical body is but one of the ‘bodies’ that we possess.  In Sanskrit, the name is sthula sharira - sthula for physical and sharira for vehicle.

Indeed, for a culture in which spirituality was once as intertwined with life as television is today in the West, the body is a vehicle, a carriage, a vessel for something of great significance.  Some learn, or know innately, that the body is a sacred temple, home to the real Self, the identity and core of the human being, a temporal residence for the atemporal soul to continue its evolutionary journey.

Within this worldview, there is a duality in the treatment of the body among those who claim to subscribe to it.  We have an extreme and a middle way.  Those in India, and now thanks to books, photographs and videos, those outside, are familiar with images of sadhus and ascetics who subject themselves to sometimes gross corporal tests, pushing the limits of pain and endurance for the physical body.  Other seekers take more of a middle, and some would say more sensible, ground, caring for the body as is necessary, without indulgence, and seeing to its proper maintenance, in order to live a more active spiritual life, learning, building, teaching, giving and serving.

The body, as demonstrated by some of India’s yogis and renunciates, is capable of great physical feats.  But, for all that happens at a physical level on the outside of the body, none of it is comparable to the almost miraculous processes that continuously run to make operable this physical body.  Millions of tasks are performed within the body.  At the sub-atomic, atomic and cellular levels to the organic systems – nervous, respiratory, digestive, circulatory, glandular, renal, reproductive – the body is an awesome structure, a work of supreme intelligence.

Of even greater intelligence and of great philosophical and spiritual consequence is the fact that the body, seemingly one, but really made up of almost innumerable parts, is not a static structure, but one that cures and heals itself, one that changes and adapts according to the thoughts and actions associated with it.  We make it and we make ourselves who we are.  Recent scientific discoveries only seem to confirm the statements in ancient texts.  “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think,” states the Dhammapada.  Although a very old subject, spirit-mind-body connections are continuously being infused with new material as the material sciences make ‘new’ discoveries.  Recent studies show us that our DNA, far from being static, are quite malleable, and are in fact shaped by our thoughts and our actions, noting particularly the effect that upbringing has on DNA.

Regardless of the intensity, or outright absence, of a spiritual life, and regardless of our intentions, the body remains a central focus in life.  Sometimes we can go to a materialistic extreme and confuse ourselves with our bodies, believing we are the vehicle and not the driver, identifying with that which we know will one day be but ashes in the wind.

Every culture in human history that we know of has had a history of adorning the body.  Indians, with their multitude of methods, are not to be outdone.  We pierce our bodies, decorate it with precious stones and metals, mark our hands, feet and faces, smear it with various materials, stretch and condition it.  Bindis abound, mendhi is trendy, and with a strong propensity for gold, bangles are timeless fashion pieces.  There are ceremonies surrounding the cutting of the hair, superstitions surrounding the cutting of the nails and when the time of the great journey arrives, ancient ceremonies surround the burning of the body.  The body, according to one teaching, is cremated so as to lessen the attachment of the soul to the material world and aid it in a swift journey to more mysterious realms.  Pandits have been known, for the same reasons, to advise against excessive crying at funeral ceremonies.

However we choose to view and use the body, we know that it is an excessively complex entity, capable of accomplishing feats ranging from the very astonishing to the very simple.  The body is perfect from the time it is born.  It grows, becomes strong, works and through it, we are given an allotted time to accomplish our work on Earth.  Then one day, the once perfect body will cease to function.  How will we, as human beings, choose to use that which is given to us?  Where will we take our vehicles?  How will we drive them?  Our choices will make our path.