Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13

Don’t base identification on sensationby Chaitanya CharanDas Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13

Some people argue, “How can I be anything other than my body? When it gets cut, I feel pain; when it touches something soft, I feel pleasure.”

But can we base identification on sensation, as does this argument? Suppose we get engrossed in watching a movie. If a sudden blow hits the hero, we feel as if we ourselves have been hit. Though we experience the same sensation as the movie character, we are not that character.

Whereas we can easily walk out of a movie theater, we can’t easily come out of material illusion because it is so captivating as to make us forget that we have a life beyond the material.

Similarly, philosophical introspection suggests that we are more than our body. The whole body is made of unconscious molecules, so it can’t experience anything. Then who is the experiencer, the sensor of sensations? The soul, answers the Bhagavad-gita.

Just as we get engrossed in the movie due to our desire to enjoy it, similarly, the Gita (13.22) states that we souls get engrossed in matter due to our desire to enjoy material things. Whereas we can easily walk out of a movie theater, we can’t easily come out of material illusion because it is far more captivating – it makes us forget that we have a life beyond the material.

To experience our non-material side, we need to practice yoga, which aims to curtail our experience of material sensations and channelizes our consciousness towards experience of spiritual sensations. The Gita (13.25) mentions three yogic processes – dhyana-yoga, sankhya-yoga and karma-yoga – and then (13.26) devotes a full verse to bhakti-yoga. Earlier, the Gita (06.47) has declared bhakti-yoga the topmost yoga, the yoga that connects us most intimately with the highest spiritual reality, Krishna. Through this connection, we access stimulating spiritual sensations coming from that all-attractive Supreme. By thus practicing and relishing bhakti-yoga, we gain increasing realization of our spiritual identity.

So to infer our identity correctly, we need to base it not on bodily sensation, but on philosophical introspection and yogic realization.