Spiritual Message for the Day – The Connection Between Body and Mind by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Baba Times Digest© | 6 February 2015 12.34 EST | New York Edition
The Connection Between Body and Mind
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 24 Your Questions Answered by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Visitor: What is the connection between body and mind?
SWAMIJI: In a large ocean, in cold countries, the upper part of the ocean becomes solid. It becomes ice. The bottom is liquid and the upper part is solid. And, the solid suddenly does not emerge at one particular spot. There is a gradual solidification of the water becoming thicker and thicker, as it goes up, until it becomes very thick and hard on the top; and when you go down it becomes thinner and thinner, until it becomes very thin like water. Now, how do you reach this ice with the water underneath? What is the connection between the two? What is the connection between the ice on the top, and the water at the bottom? Is there a connection, or no connection?
Visitor: No connection.
SWAMIJI: There is no connection. So, I have answered your question, or you have answered your own question.
SWAMIJI: The questioner has the answer within him, deeply hidden. Only, it has to be brought out by an analytic method. The Guru is like a midwife. He brings out what is already there, not creating something new. So, I have brought out something, as a midwife.
Liquefied body is mind – that is all – to give you a brief answer. When body liquefies, it becomes mind; when the mind solidifies, it becomes body. There is no "connection," actually; it is one thing only, appearing as two things. Water and ice are one thing only; they are not two things.
You cannot concentrate on something with a desire for something else. Your mind is the same as your desire. As a cloth is made up of threads, and a cloth is not independent of the threads, the mind is made up of desires, and it is not independent of desires. So, how would you concentrate, except through the mind – which means to say, with your desires only? And, where are your desires? What are the things that you require?
If there is a chaos in the way of your assessment of desires, and if you are not very clear as to what it is that you really need in this world, the mind will not be prepared for meditation or concentration.
You will be able to concentrate your mind only on that which you desire. Or, to put it more plainly, you cannot concentrate on anything for which you have no affection.
God bless you.
Excerpts from: The Connection Between Body and Mind - Chapter 24 Your Questions Answered by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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