You and the body || On Mundaka Upanishad (2021)

एतस्माज्जायते प्रणो मनः सर्वेन्द्रियाणि च । खं वायुर्ज्योतिरापः पृथिवी विश्वस्य धारिणी ॥

etasmājjāyate praṇo manaḥ sarvendriyāṇi ca khaṃ vāyurjyotirāpaḥ pṛthivī viśvasya dhāriṇī

Life and mind and the senses are born from Him, and the sky and the wind and light and the waters and earth upholding all that is.

~ Verse 2.1.3

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Acharya Prashant (AP): We are two. And there are always two ways to look at our existence. One is to look at our physical body and say that we are purely physical, material. Who am I? (Pointing at the body) This. The other way is to see that you are probably not the body, rather you are with a body or you have a body. Don’t you say my body? You don’t say me body.

Out of these two ways, the first way is more common, more straightforward, and easier to take.

This duality in our existence is the fundamental reason behind all human suffering. On one hand, there is this pre-programmed body that has its own processes and intentions as well; on the other hand, there is the invisible consciousness that is related to this body, attached to this body, but at the same time having an objective very different from that of the body. Hence the twoness.