Is loving our body the cause of misery?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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Thank you. So, is it that if we love our body, then we get misery and we cannot attain God? So, we should just focus on bhakti whenever we can and at night we don’t feel like sleeping, we wake up and we’ll be jammed on the bed.
See, there are two different things over here. There is pampering the body and there is torturing the body. Pampering means that there is one extreme where every single desire of the body I want to satisfy.
Whenever I feel like sleeping, I go to sleep. Whenever I feel like eating, I eat. So, now that is actually, you know, whenever if I can just keep eating, whenever I feel like eating, then that is very unhappy for the body.
So, pampering the body is undesirable. But the other extreme is torturing the body. That means the body has genuine needs and don’t fulfill that.
So, the body needs a certain amount of rest. The body needs a certain amount of food. If you don’t fulfill that, that is also harmful.
In 6.16, the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, One who eats too much or one who eats too little, such a person cannot be a yogi. And similarly, one who sleeps too much or who sleeps too little, that a person can also be a yogi. So, one has to be regulated.
Next verse Krishna says, So, now what will be regulation, what is regulation may vary from person to person. So, among the Pandavas, if the Pandavas would have food, Kunti would divide the food of the Pandavas in two halves. One half would go to Bhima.
And the remaining half would be divided into five parts, four Pandavas and Kunti. Now, somebody may say Bhima is a glutton, he is eating so much. But Bhima, he had a body like that and he had a need like that.
And one time when the Pandavas, when Kunti was tired, Bhima said, I will carry Kunti. And he said, all right, carry Kunti, I will carry the other Pandavas also. So, all four Pandavas, Kunti was carrying through the rest.
So, he was Bhima Karma Vrkodara. The Bhagavatam says, Vrkodara he would eat a lot, but Bhima Karma he would work a lot also. To do phenomenal things.
So, for him, eating that much was regulated. So, what will be regulation for different people will vary. And we have to learn by experience what is regulation for us.
So, as if we are not able to sleep, then why we stand just lying on the bed doing nothing. We can read, we can chant, we can do some devotional activities. But the body also needs rest.
And if we do not give that, that will also cause harm to the body. So, we have to find out using our own experience, what is the regulatory level. For some people, they eat two chapatis for lunch, that is enough for them.
For some people, they make 10 chapatis for lunch. Now, it is not that 10 chapatis per person is a glutton. If after eating those 10 chapatis, the person is still energetic and is doing a good amount of work.
So, different people have different appetites. Like that, with respect to sleep also, different people may have different needs. Some people may need to sleep 8 hours.
Some people may sleep 5 hours. Some people may sleep somewhere in between, whatever it is. So, we have to find out what is regulation for us and function.
So, we don’t pamper the body. So, what causes misery, Krishna says, is pampering the body. Ye hi samsparsh jab hoga, dukh hoon nahi hai.
They pamper the body that will lead to misery. But, karshayam daha sharir astha, Krishna says that in the 17th chapter, says those who torture the body, Krishna says, they are, that is also, Krishna says, unhealthy. But we call it na vidhyasur nishchayah, since demoniac.
So, it is undesirable. So, we don’t torture the body. We don’t pamper the body.
We nourish the body in a way that is regulated. So, that the body becomes a functional tool for us, whatever we need to do. Any other questions?