Yes, the body is the key to salvation — and this fact is logically as undeniable as the Cartesian dictum cogito, ergo sum, (I think, therefore I am). Read on and you will understand what I am driving at.
The closest Sanskrit translation for the word salvation is moksha. But unlike salvation the word moksha connotes much wider meaning than the biblical word salvation.
Since the Indian logic deems the vedic and vedanic (post vedic) literature as an incontrovertible evidence/proof, any quote from such a scripture is, naturally, deemed to be authentic and factual.
Most people, particularly the westerners and many Indians as well, consider Hindu theology to be essentially pessimistic, nihilistic, despairing and depressing. In fact that it is not. Read Isha Upanishad, the very first of the eleven Upanishads that the great sage Adi Shankaracharya has commented upon and you will know what I am driving at.
Isha Upanishad is the shortest of the eleven Upanishads, carrying just 18 mantras out of which three are lifted from elsewhere. Most of Isha mantras are loaded with meaning and in fact support Adi Shankar’s philosophy of Advaita (monoism) in an irrefutable way. My interest in this piece is the 14th mantra of the Upanishada :
संभूतिं च विनाशं च यस्तद्वेदोभयं सह ।
विनाशेन मृत्युं तीर्त्वा संभूत्यामृतमश्नुते ॥ १४ ॥
This mantra has been interpreted variously, from sublime (by Adi Shankaracharya) to ridiculous (by some Sanskrit professors). The most puzzling and intriguing word in the mantra is the word “sambhuti” (संभूतिं). The real meaning of the mantra, in fact, rests on the meaning of this very word “sambhuti.” I feel the interpretation provided by Adi Shankaracharya is the most appropriate one and hence I would prefer it over others — and will try to be as close to the original mantra as the English syntax allows.
According to Adi Shankaracharya the word sambhuti (संभूति) is derived from the word “sambhavan” सम्भवन् which, according to Shankaracharya, means to “take birth” or “get born.” In Bhagawadagita chapter 4 shlok 8 Krishna uses the words “sambhavami yuge yuge” ( सम्भवामि युगे युगे ) to mean “I am born in every age”.
The other key word used in the mantra is vinasham (विनाशं) that needs to be understood in the right perspective. The word vinasham (विनाशं) would literally translate to mean ‘destruction’. The Western/Christian readers who are familiar with the Bible’s Book of Genesis would understand the concept of Creation and Destruction described in 2 Peter 3:10-12. The End of the World will happen suddenly and quickly and “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”
Incidentally, the history of Indian Philosophy has a dominant philosophical system elucidated by an ancient sage, Kapil, who gave Indian philosophy a complete systematic build-up, starting from creation to destruction and then recreation, in a cyclic order. This is known as the Sankhya system and I would strongly suggest readers to have a look at it for better understanding of the Indian/Hindu philosophy. The words used in the the Sankhya system for a systematic creation and destruction respectively are uttpatti and pralay. In Isha Upanishada the word vinasham has been used to denote pralaya or destruction or annihilation. According to the Sankhya system the state of destruction or annihilation is considered divine in the sense because the Nature or Prakriti in this state merges with the invisible impersonal, neutral, absolute, all-pervasive, timeless divinity. Thus
संभूतिं च विनाशं च यस्तद्वेदोभयं सह ।
विनाशेन मृत्युं तीर्त्वा संभूत्यामृतमश्नुते ॥ १४ ॥
would translate to mean:
The ones who understand the phenomenal world (संभूतिं) and the noumenon (विनाशं) or the sublime reality, equally well,
Defy death and attain immortality through this body.
Or it could also mean that the ones who understand the two worlds equally well defy death and attains salvation through this very body.
Since the Sankhya philosophy is essentially atheistic and does not recognize the existence of God and insists on a self-regulatory system of creation, evolution and destruction the Hindu priests or dharmacharyas have perpetually shunned the Sankhya philosophy but those interested in it may get it in Ishwarkrishna’s Sankhyakarika.
The crux of my argument in this piece is that our physical/empirical body, according to the Vedas and Upanishads recognise the fact that salvation, if any, can only be achieved through this very living body, because it’s the body that performs the karma. It is the instrument through which we function. Because soul without body is impossible!
Next : This body is the last chance