Category:Bodily Activities
Theme Analysis
"Bodily activities" (karma) refer to the actions performed by the gross and subtle bodies under the influence of the modes of material nature. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the soul is distinct from the body and is merely the witness or the force behind these activities. In the conditioned state, the living entity falsely identifies with the body, thinking "I am the doer," and thus becomes entangled in the reactions of his work. This leads to transmigration: the activities of the present body prepare the subtle body, which in turn determines the next gross body. However, a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be active in the body yet aloof from its reactions. By engaging bodily activities in the service of the Lord (bhakti-yoga), one spiritualizes the activity. The devotee acts mechanically for bodily maintenance but keeps his mind fixed on Kṛṣṇa, or uses his body directly for the Lord's service (worship, bowing down, etc.), thus achieving liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
- The Distinction: The soul is not the body. Just as a dreaming person is aloof from his sleeping body, the self is aloof from bodily activities. The soul is the root, but the body is the machine.
- The Trap of Karma: Conditioned souls are bound by their bodily activities because they identify with them. Every action creates a reaction that forces the soul to accept another body.
- Subtle Mechanics: The mind's activities (thinking, feeling, willing) manifest as gross bodily actions. These subtle imprints carry the soul to the next life.
- The Solution: One should not stop activity (which is impossible) but change the consciousness. By engaging body, mind, and words in Kṛṣṇa's service, one becomes free from reaction (nirguṇa) and attains the spiritual kingdom.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Bodily Activities - The Machinery of the Soul.
Subcategories
This category has the following 6 subcategories, out of 6 total.
C
E
F
K
W
Pages in category "Bodily Activities"
The following 73 pages are in this category, out of 73 total.
1
A
- A devotee should not be too concerned about social and political obligations, since all such activities belong to the body. He should similarly restrict his eating; this is essential to the execution of devotional service
- A Krsna conscious person is free from both the outer and inner activities of the material body. BG 1972 purports
- According to the activities of the present body, one prepares another subtle body. And according to the subtle body, one attains another gross body. This is the process of material existence
- Activities of the gross body are reactions of the mental condition. The mind's activities are thinking, feeling and willing. The willing portion of the mind is manifest by the activities of the body
- Actually, the activities of the body are not the activities of the soul. The soul is different from the body
- Advancement of material comforts of the body is activity in the mode of ignorance according to the laws of material nature. Real advancement of knowledge means progress of knowledge in self-realization
- As a king, Prthu Maharaja was ordered by Lord Visnu to keep himself always aloof from the activities of the bodily situation and to engage always in the service of the Lord and thus keep himself in the liberated stage
- As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (BG 2.13): dehino 'smin yatha dehe. Everyone is encased within the body. Since the body is never identical with the soul, the bodily activities are simply illusory
- As one who is awake has no connection with the activities of the body in a dream, an awakened, liberated soul has no connection with the activities of the present body
- As soon as the living entity becomes aloof from the activities of the body, he becomes free from the reactions as well. BG 1972 purports
- As the supreme master of all bodily, mental and intellectual activities, He (Lord Kamadeva) is the only enjoyer of their results. The five sense objects and eleven senses, including the mind, are His partial manifestations
- As the supreme master of all bodily, mental and intellectual activities, Krsna is the only enjoyer of their results. The five sense objects and eleven senses, including the mind, are His partial manifestations
- As we experience, every individual soul has a body, and one person's activities or one body's activities are not enjoyed or suffered by another body or another person. The question is how the activities of one body are suffered or enjoyed in the next
- At night in the rainy season the moving clouds reflecting the moonlight make the moon appear to be moving. This is called illusion. The spirit soul, or the living being, is the root of all the activities of the material body
B
- Because he (who keeps himself in the mode of goodness) is not attached to the objects of sense gratification, he does not eat more than what he requires, and he controls the activities of his body and mind. BG 1972 purports
- Because of desires, one is put into difficult circumstances to suffer or to enjoy. This transcendental vision of the living entity, when developed, makes one separate from bodily activities. One who has such a vision is an actual seer. BG 1972 purports
- By Krsna consciousness, he (conditioned soul) can revive his real position and thus come out of his embodiment. Therefore, when one takes to Krsna consciousness, one at once becomes completely aloof from bodily activities. BG 1972 purports
- By the activities of the body and senses, we can understand the condition of the mind. The condition of the mind is affected by past activities in the past body
E
- Enjoying the activities of the body is the purusa, or the living entity. He is one knower, and the other is the Supersoul. BG 1972 purports
- Especially in the human form of body, one's duty is to act in such a way that he can release himself from his encagement, but without the instructions of Narada or his representative in the disciplic succession, people blindly engage in bodily activities
H
- He (Arjuna) should rather be happy to kill their bodies in the righteous fight so that they may be cleansed at once of all reactions from various bodily activities. BG 1972 purports
- He (the person in false ego) does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material nature, under the order of the SPG, and as such his bodily and mental activities should be engaged in the service of Krsna, in KC. BG 1972 purports
- He (Vrtrasura) stopped all his bodily activities and became situated in trance. Taking advantage of the silence of Vrtrasura's body, Indra pierced the demon's abdomen, and because of Vrtrasura's trance, Indra was able to come out
I
- If we adjust these bodily activities towards Krishna's side, then the labor is fruitful, but if we adjust towards maya's side, then the labor is useless
- If we follow the instruction of the spiritual master and execute devotional service to the Lord, we will remain always free from the contamination of bodily and material activities, and our life will be successful
- It is said in the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya (13.2): O devotee of the Lord, to see you is the perfection of the eyes, to touch your body is the perfection of bodily activities
O
- One can fully remain in intimate connection with the Supreme Lord directly or receive orders from His bona fide representative the spiritual master and execute the orders sincerely when one keeps aloof from the activities of the body
- One does not know that so long the mind will be absorbed in this karma - karma means bodily activities - I'll have to accept another body. And there is risk. I do not know whether I shall be able to accept a human body
- One must attempt to engage one's bodily, mental and verbal activities in the transcendental glorification of the Lord, otherwise such activities will remain unchaste and impure
- One should know that the activities of the body are due to the soul within the body. That is the real fact. The body is only the outward covering
- One should recognize the difference between activities of the body and spiritual activities by which one understands that he is not the body. BG 1972 purports
- One who lays down his life on the sacrificial altar, or in the proper battlefield, is at once cleansed of bodily reactions and promoted to a higher status of life. So there was no cause for Arjuna's lamentation
S
- Since there is no question of sense gratification, there is no material leisure for a person in KC. And because he is regulated in all his work, speech, sleep, wakefulness and all other bodily activities, there is no material misery for him. BG 1972 pur
- Sri Rupa Gosvami affirms herein that purification of consciousness, purification of bodily activities, austerities, peace of mind, etc., all become automatically manifest in the person who is engaged in devotional service
- Srila Narottama dasa Thakura has sung: deha-smrti nahi yara, samsara-bandhana kahan tara. One who is spiritually advanced has no connection with the body or with the bodily actions and reactions
T
- That is the symptom of a pure devotee of Lord Krsna. Just as when a man is fully absorbed in some particular thought he sometimes forgets his other bodily activities
- The activities of the body, there is no difference between the lower animals and the higher animals; or, in other words, without spiritual conception of life, simply in the bodily conception of life we are equal with the animals
- The activities of the subtle and gross bodies depend on how developed conditions are
- The following questions may be posed. As long as the liberated soul is in contact with the body, why don't the bodily activities affect him? Doesn't he actually become contaminated by the action and reaction of material activities
- The individual soul enjoys the activities of a particular field, but the Supersoul is present not as finite enjoyer nor as one taking part in bodily activities, but as the witness, overseer, permitter and supreme enjoyer. BG 1972 purports
- The jivatma is enjoying or suffering by eating the fruits of the bodily activities, but the Paramatma, who is free from such bondage, witnesses and sanctions the activities of the individual soul as the individual soul desires
- The Krsna consciousness movement is meant for releasing all these conditioned souls from this misconception of life. Anyone, any intelligent man can understand that as soon as we identify our activities with the body, then we are fool number one
- The members of the Yadu dynasty acted automatically for their bodily necessities, but their actual attention was always fixed on Krsna. Their bodily activities were performed mechanically, but their minds were always absorbed in Krsna
- The mind of a person in Krsna consciousness also acts in a similar way (activities of the gross body are reactions of the mind). The tongue chants Hare Krsna, the maha-mantra, the hands are raised in ecstasy, and the legs dance in Krsna consciousness
- The subtle body's activities - be they pious or impious - create another situation for the living entity to enjoy or suffer in the next gross body. Thus the subtle body continues whereas the gross bodies change one after another
- The word baddha-sauhrdah - "bound in friendship" - is particularly used here. Karmis, jnanis and yogis cannot be bound in devotional service. Karmis fully engage in the activities of the body. Their aim of life is to give comfort to the body only
- Their (all books of knowledge) purpose is to restrict bodily activities by certain rules and regulations, and these rules and regulations are known as codes of morality. The Bible, for instance, has ten commandments intended to regulate our lives
- Then (when absorbed in thoughts of rendering loving service to the Lord) it will be possible to remain separate from the activities of the material body. This position of neutrality can be possible only for a devotee
- There are activities of the body, activities of the different senses and activities of speech. A Krsna conscious person engages his words in preaching the glories of the Lord. This is called kirtana
- These activities (of the body) are completely different from the activities of the spirit soul of the living entity
- These symptoms create transformations of bodily activities as well as movements of the senses. All of them can be accepted as different feelings of the heart. Sometimes some of the feelings are quite natural
- This deity is called sri-vigraha. Aradhana: worshiping the sri-vigraha. Decorating, cleansing the temple, tan-mandira-marjanadau. So we can engage our bodily activities in that way
- This trance stops all material activities of the body. The King (Maharaja Pariksit) saw the muni (Samika Rsi) in that position. He also saw the muni as follows
- Those who are elevated by virtue of experimental knowledge can only satisfy their blunt material senses either by gross bodily activities or by mental speculation
- Thus practicing control of the body, mind and activities, the mystic transcendentalist attains to the kingdom of God (or the abode of Krsna) by cessation of material existence. BG 6.15 - 1972
- To achieve that success (associating with God in any one of the five transcendental rasas), he (a mahatma) engages all activities-mental, bodily and vocal, everything-in the service of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. That is called full KC. BG 1972 purports
W
- We can offer many services with our bodily activities. But all such activities must be in relationship with Krsna
- Whatever one is supposed to do, either for happiness or for distress, one is forced to do because of the bodily constitution. The self, however, is outside all these bodily activities. BG 1972 purports
- When one takes to Krsna consciousness, one at once becomes completely aloof from bodily activities. In such a controlled life, in which his deliberations are changed, he lives happily within the city of nine gates
- While sleeping we forget the activities of the gross body, and when active in the gross body we forget the activities of sleeping. Actually both states - sleeping and waking - are creations of the illusory energy
- Without the instructions of Narada or his representative in the disciplic succession, people blindly engage in bodily activities to enjoy maya-sukha - flickering, temporary happiness
Y
- You are conscious of your bodily activities, I am conscious of my bodily activities but Krsna consciousness is conscious of all the bodies, that is the universal consciousness
- You are not dying. Hanyamane sarire. That you can experience practically, daily. How is that? When you sleep at night, then you dream, means subtle body. So these activities of this gross body stop. You again work in the subtle body