[Posted Oct 23, 2009]

You're Not That Body

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Can you find your self?

New Scientist Oct 13, 2009 - ANIL ANANTHASWAMY

Out of your head: Leaving the body behind

So what exactly is an out-of-body experience? A definition has recently emerged that involves a set of increasingly bizarre perceptions. The least severe of these is a doppelganger experience: you sense the presence of or see a person you know to be yourself, though you remain rooted in your own body. This often progresses to stage 2, where your sense of self moves back and forth between your real body and your doppelganger. This was what Brugger's young patient experienced. Finally, your self leaves your body altogether and observes it from outside, often an elevated position such as the ceiling. "This split is the most striking feature of an out-of-body experience," says Olaf Blanke, a neurologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

...Blanke's team stumbled across a way to induce a full-blown out-of-body experience. They were performing exploratory brain surgery on a 43-year-old woman with severe epilepsy to determine which part of her brain to remove in order to cure her. When they stimulated a region near the back of the brain called the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), the woman reported that she was floating above her own body and looking down on herself. go to story

Sri Guru and Gauranga

A B C D

excerpt from lecture on Introduction to Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Los Angeles, Nov 23, 1968

Preliminary talks on spiritual matter is discussed in this Bhagavad-gita. And this book is still read, even after five thousand years, all over the world. Just see His wisdom. That is a test. Big scholars, big religionists, philosophers, they are bewildered still about Bhagavad-gita. Therefore there are so many interpretations. But this, what is this Bhagavad-gita? Bhagavad-gita is the A B C D of spiritual knowledge. It is not very high depth of spiritual knowledge. High depth of spiritual knowledge is in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. This is only entrance. Just like children are taught A B C D, or first book of knowledge. It is only the first book of knowledge.

And what is that first book of knowledge? The first book of knowledge teaches from the very beginning that you are not this body. That is the beginning of knowledge, spiritual knowledge. And the whole world, great philosophers, the great politicians... Now yesterday the boys gave me one paper. There is discussion about "Transcendental Meditation". There was publication of our activities also, and some others are mentioned. So the so-called "Transcendental Meditation", they are discussing on the mind. And the Bhagavad-gita, mind is immediately rejected as matter. So "Transcendental Meditation", they're on the platform of the mind. Just see. And the Bhagavad-gita says that mind is external nature only.

indriyani parany ahur
indriyebhyah param manah
manasas tu para buddhir
yo buddheh paratas tu sah

In the gross material concept of life we are under the impression that "I am this body." Therefore we are concerned with the senses. If our senses are gratified, we think we are now satisfied. So this is the gross type of existence, I mean to say, existence of ignorance. Illusion. Maya. When one is under the thought that "I am this," this is illusion. Illusion means you accept something, something is presented as reality, and you accept it. Just like the example is given water in the desert. Mirage. There is no water, but a, an animal is hankering, is running after water in the desert. That is practical, that due to sunshine there is a reflection, it appears in the desert. Sometimes you might have seen—not here, in India we have seen several times—that exactly there is a vast water, and it is reflecting, the reflection. That is called mirage. There is not a drop of water, but the animal, when he is thirsty he thinks there is water. He jumps into the desert and the water is going ahead, going ahed, and he is running after it and then dying. So this illusion, that "I am this body." So we are after this sense gratification. Body means the senses. So that is mirage, illusion. Just like the animal is running after water in the desert.

So even this yoga system, the hatha yoga system, that is also based on this illusion. They are trying to put this body under certain exercise and thinking that they are elevating themselves in spirit. But Bhagavad-gita, in the beginning, says that you are not this body, neither this mind. This is the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, and that is A B C D. Any person who does not know that I am not this body, he has no even A B C D knowledge of spiritual kingdom. If one is attracted with this bodily function or mind, mental function, he is outside the spiritual purview altogether. He rejected immediately. That test is in the Bhagavad-gita.

These people, the so-called yogis, so-called karmis... Karmis means the ordinary workers, those who are running in the street with motor car, this way and that way, very busy. You see. What are they? They are karmis. Karmis means under the bodily concept. They are thinking that comfort of this body and sense gratification is the end of life. That is karmi. If they have got very nice apartment, a nice wife and good bank balance and a very nice dress, oh, there is perfection. That's all. That is karmi. And jñani means that when they are confused... Just like there are a section of people in your country, they have seen enough of this material affair, happiness, or they are searching after something wrongly. But actually those who are intelligent, they don't remain confused. Actually they want to see "What is my actual position." They are called jñani, man of knowledge. So jñana, or knowledge, is on the mental plane and karma is on the bodily plane. So some section of people, they are engaged in this bodily platform, and some section of people are engaged in the mental platform.

Whatever religion and process of elevation of life we have manufactured, they can be grouped in two ways: mental and bodily. That's all. And Bhagavad-gita is transcendental. Neither on the mental plane nor on the bodily plane. Therefore the last instruction of Bhagavad-gita is sarva-dharman parityajya. Dharma, you have created so many religious principles, so many concocted spiritual ways of life or material ways of life. Somebody are materialists and somebody are so-called spiritualists. So Krishna says that you have to give up all this nonsense—on the mental platform and bodily platform. You have come to the transcendental platform. And what is that transcendental platform? To understand your relationship with Krishna. That is Krishna consciousness.