by Her Grace Matsya Devi Dasi from the Hare Krishna Melbourne (ISKCON) temple
Think of a chariot drawn by five horses.
The chariot is our body. The five horses are five senses. The charioteer is our intelligence. The reins are our mind. The passenger is the soul.
If we use our intelligence and mind to control our senses, we can have a beautiful life.
Nowadays, everyone says, let one enjoy one’s passion.
We need to remember; each action has its consequences.
Hence as humans, we must examine – if the passion or our action is harmful to us or the society, we should nip it at the bud, if it is beneficial we can proceed.
In this way, we can be super blissful regardless of any situation, Nature throws in our life!
We need to understand that we’re not our body.
Our body is a vehicle for our soul to attain the purpose of human life.
The symptom of our soul is the consciousness.
Now for example, I am writing this Message of Hope – if I die now, I won’t be able to write, but my body will be there.
My family and friends may lament that I am gone or dead.
What does that mean, my body is there?
That means, that they’ve never seen me. They’ve only seen my body.
As long as I have consciousness, they know, I am alive.
Once the soul leaves the body, we say the person is dead – the body dies, not the person!
One evolves from a baby to child, youth, middle age, old age body, etc.
Yet the same spirit is there and doesn’t undergo any change.
Therefore, it is confirmed that every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing body every moment.
This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body.
Such changes of body account for varieties of enjoyment and suffering, according to one’s work in life.
Knowing this, we need to focus on our action/karma to get a better body or spiritual body, rather than lamenting for changes or death, which is inevitable.
The senses are compared to venomous serpents.
They want to act very loosely and without restriction.
If we allow, the result will be a roller coaster life.
One who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul will never allow the senses to act independently.
Such a person is never deluded by the changes of bodies and always blissful with full knowledge.
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