|| तत्वबोध -- 17||

TB-17 Physical Body

स्थूल शरिरम् किम्|

 The student asks the teacher what is this physical body?
The guru replies.. (not an easy topic)..

पञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहा भूतैः कृतं सत् कर्म जातं सुख दुखादि भोग आयतनं जायते अस्ति वर्धते विपरिणमते अपक्षीयते विनश्यतीति षद्विकारवत् यत् अस्ति तत् स्थूल शरीरम्|TB-17|

Why is this not easy? Because the whole thing is mushrooming like a nuclear explosion..! The definition of any one term ends up introducing dozens of new terms.. and each one have to be explained as well for a complete understanding of TB..

First he says पञ्चीकृत पञ्चमहा भूतैः कृतं.. this physical body is made up of the five gross elements, which themseveves are produced by a process called pancIkaraNam..(this will be explained later for sure..!)

सत् कर्म जातं.. it is also born due to our own puNya karma.. ( I see a lot of question marks rise on the heads of the readers.. but that also has to wait.. it comes later..)

सुख दुखादि भोग आयतनं.. it is the only means by which humans are able to UNDERGO the physicall processes of pain and pleasure.. in other words a physical place to which pain is inflicted or pleasure is allowed to happen.. (how we react to pain and pleasure comes later..)

जायते.. born in time अस्ति..stays in time वर्धते.. grows up in time.. विपरिणमते.. metamorphasises in time अपक्षीयते. grow weaker in time.. विनश्यतीति.. perishes in time षद्विकारवत् यत् अस्ति.. .. that which undergoes the above-mentioned the six-fold modifications (no living being is an exception to this including a gnAni..) 

तत् स्थूल शरीरम्| That is physical body.. 

Now summing it up.. teh five gross elements are space, air, fire, water, and earth.. these are formed from the five subtle elements which are also named the same.. the physical body of any one of us is from the grossi-fied elements only.. also Sankara says in vivEka cUdAmaNI "janthUnAm narajanma dhurlaBam" rare indeed is when one is born as a human.. so it is born of good karma becasue in our karmic baggage every one of us has enough papa karma.
With this pApa wanting to manifest, it takes eons and eons before we get a chance to be born as a human WITH FREE WILL.. moksham is possible ONLY for a human being.. even gods may be born again.. we do not know.. but for sure, a human CAN escape the cycle of birth and death.. So this human physical body is definitely due to our sath karma alone..

Why do we have to have aphysical body? Our karmic baggage nneds to be exhausted.. pApam will give us dhuKam and puNyam will give us suKam.. that is why no one if fully good or fully bad.. vyAsa says that human society is a fabric woven from white and black thresd..! how neat? then for each one os to exhaust this pain and pleasure a house needs to be constructed.. OUR PHUSICAL BODY is that house..!

then the 6 vikArAs.. born, exists, grows, metamophasises (capable producing another human body), grows old, and perishes..! Tell me who is exempt from this?? NOBODY..! those who have left us so far OUTNUMBER the curren 6 billion population on this tiny earth..! Our scriptures talk about 84 lakhs of life forms of which human bodyis one of them..!! and there are several trillion stars in the universe each capable of supporting a planet liek earth and thus life forms..! and this has been going on for countless years..!! Thus jIvAs are conuntless in number, having countless karmas, being just LUCKY TO BE BORN AS A HUMAN..!

Now you can appreciate the beauty of our human physical body, instead of complaining about it.. I certainly am glad to be a human.. and CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO BE A CRAB IN MY NEXT BIRTH..!

Let us proceed later with sUksma SarIram.. this is getting to be more fun now..!

hari: om

affly,

mani

.