Are We Body or Soul ?

Swamiji unfolding the secret - are we body or soul ?

Since the soul is Divine, and the body is material, your curiosity is natural—how does the communication between the two take place? The soul communicates with the body by energizing it with consciousness, or the force of life. Its presence makes the intellect, mind, and body work. 

Now the reverse communication—how does the body communicate with the soul? The link between the material body and the spiritual soul is established by the ego. In the materially conditioned state, the first covering on the soul is of the ego. The word for ego in Sanskrit is asmitā, which means “that which is not.” This ego creates a false identity for the soul. Due to it, the soul is under the illusion of being the body, mind, and intellect.

In this illusion that it is the body, the soul identifies with the pleasures and pains of the body. When the senses come in contact with the sense objects, they experience fleeting pleasure. In its mistaken conception of being the body, the soul too experiences this pleasure. However, the experience does not satisfy the soul, which can only be satisfied by Divine Bliss. So the search for pleasure continues. This is how the two-way communication between the soul and the body-mind-intellect works.