Person vs. Body

Person vs. Body

How strange it is that as soon as someone dies, their identity becomes a “body”.

We suddenly stop using the name and start calling him or her as a ‘body’. We start using phrases like “where is the body? Have you seen the body, or bring the body here etc.”

We may not even notice it, but deep inside our subconscious mind, we know that the person whom we called Ram, Sham, John, Smith or Mary has gone and now what is lying in front of us is just the body. So we don’t call it by the name anymore.

The body is still here but where is that person we knew? What happened to the soul? Where has it gone? Since time immemorial, sages, Rishis and philosophers have been trying to understand this phenomenon.

The great saint / Guru Kabeer Ji said :

“is man kau koi khojahu bhaayi

Tan Chhooty Man kahaan Samaayi?”

“search for this ‘Mind’ (soul), o’ people.

When it escapes from the body, where does it go?”

The human body is made of five basic elements of the nature: Dharti, Agni, Jal, Vaayu aur Aakaash

(Fire, earth, water, air and sound or space).

All rites / rituals for the dead in all cultures are meant to systematically return all these elements back to the nature. 

“Sooraj kiran mili, Jal ka jal huaa Raam

Jyoti jot rali sampooran theeaa kaam.”

If all the elements go back to their source, and the individual soul also merges into Supreme soul, then the cycle is considered ‘Sampoorna or complete’.