The Connection Between Body and Soul — and Why Lakshman Acts While Ram Remains Still

Introduction

Now we come to the Question–Answer session.
Anita ji has asked several questions, and we’ll take them one by one.

Right now, Anita ji, you only need to hold one clear thought deep within:
Every living body — whether it’s a human, an insect, an animal, or a bird — is made of two elements.

Every being, every form, is composed of these two:
one is the conscious element, which we call the soul (Atma),
and the other is the body (Sharir).

A person exists only when these two come together.
A bird, an animal, a plant — all exist by the union of these two.

But right now, we see ourselves only as the body.
Now we have to separate the two in our understanding.

The Relationship Between Body and Soul

The body cannot exist without the soul — without it, it becomes a corpse and decays.
And the soul, too, cannot function without a body, because it expresses itself through the body.

Here’s a simple example: electricity and a bulb.

When you switch on the power, the bulb glows and the room lights up.
If the bulb thinks, “I am the one lighting the room,” would that be right?
Of course not.

If the house has no electricity, even though the bulb is fixed, can it give light? No.

To light a room, both are needed: electricity and the bulb.
Electricity without the bulb won’t light the room, and the bulb without electricity can’t either.

So, electricity is like the soul, and the bulb is like the body.
Only when both are joined does the light — or life — appear.

In the same way, a human being is the union of Atma and Sharir.
Only when both are together can there be movement, thought, speech, and action.
If either is absent — body or soul — nothing can happen.

Another Example

Suppose you love music and you have a harmonium.
The harmonium is an instrument — it can’t play by itself.
It needs you.
You are the subject, the harmonium is the object.
Only when both come together does the music arise.

Likewise, the soul is the subject, and the body is its instrument.
Only through their union can life’s activities happen.

So the first and most basic realization is:
When I say “I am,” this “I” (main) and “am” (hoon) point to two aspects.

• “I” refers to the body, the form.
  
  

• “Am” refers to the soul, the presence of consciousness.
  
  

Only when both are together can we say “I am.”
If either is missing, life cannot go on.

So the foundation of all spiritual understanding — whether it’s the Bhagavat Purana, the Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, or Mahabharata — begins here:
To know that I am the union of the soul and the body.

Right now, our “I” is attached to the body: “I am this body.”
But spirituality says: if you wish to grow, to evolve, to move upward, then you must shift that “I” from the body toward the soul.

That’s the whole practice — to turn the sense of “I” away from the body and connect it to the Self:
“I am the soul; the body is my instrument.”

This is the root principle of all spirituality.
Only by grasping this can we truly understand any scripture.

Question

In one place, it is said that Lakshman will do the actions — he will pluck the fruits, he will fill the lotus stems with water from Lake Pampa and offer it to Ram.
Why does it say again and again that Lakshman will do these things?
Why doesn’t Ram do them?

Answer

When you perform any action, through what power do you do it?

For example, right now you are asking this question — through which element within you are you doing it?

It’s your mind, your mental energy, isn’t it?

So, in any action, the ability, the power to perform, comes first from the mind’s power.

Now, in the scriptures, the word manas (mind) has two meanings, and this often confuses people.
One is the mind of thoughts — the stream of ideas that come and go, which belongs to the physical level.
The other is the power of mind — the living, conscious energy that uses thoughts as its tool.
That belongs to the soul.

The soul acts in the world through its own manah-shakti — the power of the mind.

You are the soul, and you perform every action with the help of your manah-shakti.
That manah-shakti — that active, conscious energy — is what is represented by Lakshman.

So, when you ask, “Why does Lakshman do all the actions while Ram does not?” —
the answer is: Ram is the soul itself, the still center, the pure consciousness.
Whatever the soul does, it does through Lakshman, the power of mind.

Lakshman is the expressive, functioning energy of Ram —
the thought-power through which all perception, choice, and action occur.