Alignment of Body and Soul

A single human person is composed of two units, namely, body and soul. What is visible is the body and the soul is invisible, although it is the soul that is the engine pulling the body through all activities. The moment we forget this truth and behave as if it is the body with its five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste that propels us through the complexities of the world, we become sitting ducks for illusions and misery. We thus sow the seeds of disharmony in our system through lack of alignment between the body and the soul.
                   The great Indian system of thought has seen through this difficulty and has offered  valuable suggestions for proper alignment of body and soul. Apart from the methods of ascetics, the venerable teacher Patanjali developed a system of Yoga to help people in properly aligning body and soul. The very first sentence of his Yogasutra states: "Chittavritti Nirodhaha" meaning to stop all thinking. We have to go beyond our mind and commune with our soul where God is encountered for putting everything right with us. Meditation is the method proposed for the same.
                   We see in the Bible too the importance of reverting to the deepest foundation of our being for proper  appreciation of our life. Jesus proclaimed his gospel, i.e., the good news, by inviting people to repent as the Kingdom of God was at hand. The word used for 'repent' in Greek language, the language of the New Testament, is 'metanoia'. 'Meta' means 'beyond' or 'after' and 'nous' from which 'noia' comes means 'mind'. Going beyond even the mind, let alone the body and its five senses, and finding the soul as the powerhouse of our well-being is the secret of true happiness. This is the hidden treasure to obtain which we should be more than willing to forsake everything else. On the contrary, gaining the whole world at the expense of one's soul is sheer foolishness for the simple reason that what can one give in exchange of one's soul.
                The right thing, therefore, is to have the proper balance between the body and the soul. When there is no such balance, we are not able to maintain the 'via media' recommended by Sri Buddha for a genuine life. Excesses in any field, material or spiritual, lead us to addictions whereby our freedom is compromised and we become pathetic slaves ruled by illusions. No wonder if such people gradually become depressed leading some to even commit suicide. Guarding our life in its entirety, body and soul, is essential for our true happiness.      

Let us plunge ourseves into happiness

We have already seen how being led by the Spirit of God we should naturally be led into the path of permanent happiness. However, we need to ponder over matters that help us to be plunged into pepetual happiness as against the danger of leaping into darkness and permanent misery. As we are composed of both body and soul, the material and the spiritual, we are pulled in opposite directions. That the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak is a matter of experience. The body is vivified by the soul and yet the body seems to run riot attracted by the world around us ignoring the legitimate needs of the soul. Here is the source of our unhappiness.
                   Why do we see some well-heeled people committing suicide? They were apparently happy and yet they could not sustain their happiness at critical momens. why? At some point in their life, the essential alignment between their body and soul slipped and they were unable to notice it due to the preponderance of apparent happiness at the time over the real one. A slipped disc immediately alerts us to the disharmony in the bodily system enabling us to take remedial measures. In the case of disharmony between the soul and the body, there is no automatic alarm system as it pertains to two units, namely, body and soul, each with its own logic of wholeness. Unless one tries to learn the difference between the two and the rules of alignment between them, one can never reach for perpetual happiness. The difference between the two worlds of the body and the soul and yet their alignment and functions in life should be a matter of thought for us in order to be always happy.

What should we do to be born again?

Jesus Christ was categorical in asserting that unless one was born again, one could not see the Kingdom of God (Gospel of John, 3:3). An utterly shocked Nicodemus, who thought he was a

knowledgeable teacher in Israel, was calmed down by Jesus by explaining the manner in which  

one was to be reborn (John, 3: 4-13). An additional bonus was added by Jesus in the form of entering the Kingdom of God by those who are born of water and Spirit.       

                 What is the importance of water in being born of the Spirit that is being born again?
Water is the outward symbol of an inward washing by the Spirit so that we are reminded that we
are both body and soul upholding  the truth of the intimate connection between the external and the
internal. This is the ordinary way of being born again enacted in the sacrament of baptism administered by the Church. However, neither Jesus nor the Apostles and the Church after them
never excluded other forms of being born of the Spirit. That is why the Church always advocated
3 forms of baptism; one ordinary way by water and two extra-ordinary ways by blood (catechumen martyrs) and by desire (implicit in really good people).
                As for the Apostles, we have the examples of both Peter and Paul. While Peter was still
speaking at the house of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit came down on those who were listening to him
(Acts, 10: 44). Consequently peter ordered baptism for incorporation into the visible Body of Christ
of those who already received the Spirit without water. Similarly we see how Paul insisted on the faith ensuing from hearing the Gospel message whereby one receives the Spirit (Galatians, 3:2). Jesus
himself allowed the Apostles to do things from their own understanding that is evident from the fact that he did not prevent the disciples from administering the baptism of John the Baptist although that was not in his name (John, 4: 1-2).
               Therefore, what should one do to be born of the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God? Since the meaning of the word 'GOSPEL' is GOOD NEWS, we have to see what is good about the message to be born again or born of the Spirit. It is not only a message for afterlife, but also very much applicable and relevant for our present life. Who would not like to be happy in life? Being born of the flesh, our outlook and habits are attuned to our false sense of self plunging us into misery and unhappiness. The good news is that we need not labor under that kind of a burden, if we let the Spirit rule our life even as we are called to negotiate the vicissitudes of life. Our life will be attuned to our real self enshrined in us as images of God with infinite possibilities. In the process, our true self will emerge to make us wholesome and truly happy irrespective of what happens in our life. Let us take the plunge to be happy forever.

Meaning of being born again

It is life in the Spirit as against life in the flesh. However, with a body to negotiate the world confronted by us daily, we cannot totally deny the persistent demands of the body. Shoudn't we eat when we are hungry? Similar legitimate demands of the body should be met. and yet we shoul live in the Spirit. How?
P.S.John

Spiritual Life and Life in the World

We have already seen that Jesus Christ combines in himself the divine and the human standing thereby as the perfect model for our spiritual life and life in the world. Jesus invites us to be his disciples as he wants us to be truly happy. The most important point here is to distinguish between true, real happiness and the apparent one. Real happiness can proceed only from our original nature, whreas apparent happiness relies on what appears to be real and yet is only a mirage. The method of Jesus, when he appeared in the world, was to invite people to accept the sumtotal of perfect and permanent happiness in the form of the Kingdom of God.
                           Jesus invited people to repent as the Kingdom of God was at hand.His fore-runner, John the Baptist, had exactly the same message. However, the Baptist was satisfied if the people modified their external behavior by being kind and generous to others. Jesus went deeper and demanded a total upheavel of one's personality by being born agin in spirit as against our usual birth in flesh from our parents. The fore-runner could not have imagined this new way of being born as children of God and he was not required to as his duty was only to prepare the way for Jesus. What Jesus was advocating was a new vision for which we had to turn back from our usual way of looking at things. From contacting the world through our five senses and the mind, we have to get behind to our very soul for a peep into our real nature. This will show us that we are nothing short of God's own image and likeness. The kingdom of God starts in our conviction of this reality to preserve and develop which is the real task of our spiritual life. This is to be achieved in confrontation with the world we live in where the life of Jesus should guide and lead us to perfect happiness.

Spiritual Life and Life in the World

It is a constant worry for ordinary people how to combine their spiritual life and their routine life in the world. The usual practice is to compartmentalise the two into two schedules of life. Our day to day life with all duties and functions we are expected to perform is called life in the world. The time set apart for religious duties is considered our spiritual life. The complete division between the two prompts some people to make a distinction between the religious and spiritual life. Although these are not to be identified as the same , complete separation between the two is also not feasible. Our religious practices should be seen as means to enhance spiritual life in us like a reservoir of energy. However, the same should necessarily be made to permeate our daily life giving direction and purpose to our life. It is like filling the petroltank of our car from the petrol pump ready to go places. If the car is left to idle, filling it up with petrol does not serve any purpose. Combining our life in the world and spiritual life may be seen as the coming together of the secular and the sacred in our personal lives.  
                                                       Those who want to follow Jesus Christ in their personal life may learn the art of combining the two in a very fundamental manner. His very person is the result of the union between the two, i.e., the human and the divine representing the secular and the sacred. Being the Word of God - and being God Himself - he took upon himself our weak human nature sanctifying us in the process. We only have to follow in his footsteps inorder to combine the secular and the sacred in out lives. We shall see step by step what are the requirements of a true folllower of Jesus Christ in subsequent communications.