Thursday, July 29, 2010

Radhanath swami on the Living Dead

Our bodies are just machines comprised of dead matter, just like an automobile. Like a car cannot do anything on its own without its driver, the body is useless without the soul. Whatever the car does, go forward, backward, slow or fast, it is the driver, the soul, doing it. When the car breaks the laws of state, it is the driver who is held responsible, not the car. The soul actually gives life to the body, making the body seem alive and conscious. Most of the times, we are unaware of the soul and its purpose. The soul has been put on the earth for self-realisation. We sometimes live such dynamic and enjoyable lives, but if we are unconscious of our real self, we are dead spiritually.

53 comments:

  1. Car needs petrol to work and we need spiritual Guru to give us proper guidance in our path towards spirituality.With the guidance of guru we can walk on the path of self realisation without difficulty. Thanks Maharaj for helping us realise the difference between human life and machine life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Radhanath Swami's analogy is brilliant. It explains the nature of our material & spiritual identities in a very lucid & illuminating manner.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Difficult topic to digest - our responsibility. Usually I always blame someone for what is happening to me and rarly I truly understand that actually I am the cause.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A nice lesson for all that one should not live like a dead body when all conscious soul is present in it.One should try to be on the platform of soul and not the body.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A perfect analogy. The irony is that we spent a large part of our lifetime caring for the dead than for our real-self - the soul.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you very much for sharing this with us.

    Sandeep Shinde

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am inspired by revealing the identity of the self. Thank you Radhanath Swami.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Radhanath Swami has shared the true purpose of life with us, that of self realization

    ReplyDelete
  9. After hearing so many lectures from Radhanath Swami, its sad that we still identify ourselves as the body and not the spirit soul

    ReplyDelete
  10. Radhanath Swami has this quality to explain difficult philosophical truths with easy understandable examples.....

    ReplyDelete
  11. The whole world is running after dead matter and trying in so many ways to enjoy...one after another...

    Only great souls like Radhanath Swami can stop us from this craze and help us taste the real and eternal joy of self realization

    ReplyDelete
  12. Shoba RamachandranJuly 30, 2010 at 12:26 PM

    Infallible analogy...works all the time. Thanks Maharaj

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yogita JagannathanJuly 30, 2010 at 2:34 PM

    Yes, we are all stuck in that illusion - we cater to our bodily demands but neglect the soul's demands. When we read such articles by Radhanath Swami, we get inspired to awaken to our real self and fulfil our spiritual needs.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Such a striking analogy. Now whenever I see someone breaking traffic rule, I'll remember that as a Soul if I break God's law, I'll be punished so let me try to follow God's law.

    ReplyDelete
  15. So true and deep statements..If we just take the jist of this and live by it, then our life will surely find a true destination. We definitely requires such words of wisdom to identify our true nature and reconnect to the Supreme Truth via a medium of a pure Guide and Guru like His Holiness. Thanx a lot for Maharaj for guiding so many of us around the world tirelessly and selflessly.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We are become so much mechanical and impersonal so that we have forget the need of our soul. Thank your very much Radhanath Swami for reminding us.
    Ranjeet Kumar

    ReplyDelete
  17. The one quality of pure devotee is that they know where his disciple are struggling and try to get them real truth he always stress that we are not the body but we are the soul.By his blessing may be one day we will understand this very truth.Jai Gurudev!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Radhanath Swami really can get the most sublime truths across with the most simple analogies. Thank you Maharaj!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Radhanath Swami through this analogy is giving us the clarity and making us realize how we should prioritize our spiritual activities by realizing the truth.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks very much Maharaja

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you Radhanath Swami for teaching us responsibility of human life through this simple analogy

    ReplyDelete
  22. Very nice example of the car and driver. It explains the concept so well.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Radhanath Swami doesn't want us to forsake our families & responsibilities. Rather he is asking us to attend to these very diligently, keeping Krishna in the center of our lives. Otherwise the higher purpose of life will be lost in the pursuit of the temporal & illusory material happiness. It would indeed be foolish to trade eternal bliss & happiness of a spiritual life for a fleeting moment of material joy.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Radhanath swami has given a brilliant example.The soul is the one due which we are living.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Our body is simply matter which is anyway dead. Its only the spirit soul which gives life to the body. Radhanath Swami is thus drawing the conclusion that our soul is our true identity, not our body, mainly because body is temporary & perishable whereas soul is eternal & indestructible.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I wish we can actually identify with the driver, and ignore the car, which is just the external covering. Driver is the essence of the car, without which the car is of no use. We should also ignore the demands of the car, and concentrate on the demands of the driver - our soul, which needs the pure love of GOD and service at the lord's lotus feet.

    ReplyDelete
  27. What an amazing analogy by Radhanath Swami. Even a child can understand through this example that we are not what we think we are - we are not the body. In fact, the body is dead matter. And to think that we spend all the time pampering the body looks silly.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Radhanath Swami explains so beautifully that we are spiritual beings and even if we are materially happy, but spiritually dead, then we cannot be really happy and satisfied

    ReplyDelete
  29. Very striking comparison of Body and Soul with Car and Driver, and also very easy to understand. Radhanath Swami has made it so simple to understand.

    ReplyDelete
  30. hrishikesh mafatlalAugust 3, 2010 at 4:45 AM

    Radhanath Swami has made the essential point that nobody can avoid responsibility for his/her actions.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Time and again Radhanath Swami emphasizes on the fact that we are not this dead body but soul just so that one day we realize this and wake up to reality. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  32. Maharaj, thank you for sharing such wonderful truth. So enlightening. Thank you again.

    ReplyDelete
  33. This cogent analogy by HH Radhanath Swami is good one!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Very well said Radhanath Swami...

    ReplyDelete
  35. Radhanath Swami is teaching us the principle of yukta vairagya...which means real intelligent renunciation, even while living in so called material life. We just have to engage every gift of Krishna (family, work), in His service. Since everything is an energy of Krishna and Krishna's property, so we have to take even better care of family, work, etc. Radhanath Swami is living by this example.

    ReplyDelete
  36. After hearing so many lectures from Radhanath Swami, its sad that we still identify ourselves as the body and not the spirit soul

    ReplyDelete
  37. Very nice article.

    Sandeep Shinde

    ReplyDelete
  38. Radhanath swami in every discourse gives us one message that we are meant to understand that we are not the body but the eternal blissful souls. We know it but not yet realized it.Help and pray for me that i can realize it

    ReplyDelete
  39. Thank you Radhanath Swami for explaining the most sublime truth through such simple analogy...

    ReplyDelete
  40. Radhanath Swami has very nicely explained the subject matter of soul, our material body & the higher purpose of our existence.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Due to our forgetfulness condition we really forget who we are and try to fulfill our bodily demand.Maharaj is reminding us.Jai Gurudev!!!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Radhanath Swami's reflections on the nature of the soul is brilliant. After all, it is the soul which gives life to our body. Therefore we should take care of the soul much more seriously. And since soul is made up of spirit, so obviously, we have to understand & nourish the spiritual nature of our existence very diligently.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Radhanath Swami gives a lucid explanation and analogy to make us understand the science of soul.

    ReplyDelete
  44. The purpose of Human Life is very aptly explained by Radhanath Swami.

    ReplyDelete
  45. We take everything for granted because we are careless in our thought process, one may say he is intelligent and back it up with proof of some academics or some other form of achievement. But where is the intelligence displayed when it comes to hearing our soul’s voice.

    ReplyDelete
  46. No body wants to hear about Death but the way its Presented by Radhanath Swami it is naturally acceptable.

    ReplyDelete
  47. If we think the body to be ourselves it is like the driver thinking the car to be himself, which is false, explains Radhanath Swami so nicely by giving an example of a car.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Very basic philosophy which everyone of us must understand. Radhanath Swami has reminded us here that we are not the body but the soul. Thank you Radhanath Swami.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Very base of all spiritual teachings. Thank you very much Maharaj

    ReplyDelete