Is the Atman within us, is in any way, tortured or affected if we fast or do other bodily harms?

[Aupmanyav]

I don't see how this relates to what I said about Krishna.

I am not talking about Krishna. I am a Hindu and it is OK for Krishna to be a God. I will not deride him. He is mentioned in Srimad Bhagawatham as God. But I am talking of other people who make such a claim.

 

[stvdv]

I am not talking about Krishna. I am a Hindu and it is OK for Krishna to be a God. I will not deride him. He is mentioned in Srimad Bhagawatham as God. But I am talking of other people who make such a claim.

Okay, so then my feeling was correct, that this had nothing to do with my post to which you replied

 

[Shantanu]

In the 17th chapter of the Gita, the Lord says in verse 5 and 6 that those who perform severe austerities (which are not recommended in the scriptures) like continuously fasting for days or weeks, are only torturing their bodily organs and also ME (Vasudeva/Brahman/Paramatma/Atman) which is residing within us.

So, is it really true that if we torture our physical bodies (like by fasting or by commiting suicides) we are also torturing the Atman/Paramatma/Brahman within us? ... If yes, then why the Lord said in Gita, that the Atman cannot be burned, wetted, dried, sliced or harmed?

There is something certainly within us, apart from our body. Where is it? that is a good question? what is it? that is another good question. What is the mind, that is yet another good question? What is the soul? that is also a good question, what is atman? also an important question. Finally what is parmatman, a very relevant question.

What is certain is that we have brains that regulate our body funcitons. What we think is done in what we call the mind. As to where it is nobody knows. It is a realised entitty, the bit that makes us analyse. How do we anlyse? We analyse by speaking or typing on a key board or writing down with a biro/pen on a piece of paper. We have thoughts when we do not do any writing and still analyse events and circumstances and make decisions to act. It is done in the mind. So the mind is a multifaceted Entity that does not have cells and is not somatic in that sense. It is above us in coordinating the functions of the body. OK so far, are you with it?

Now when we stop using the mind to do any proactive work, the body becomes nonexistent. yet the mind is still functioning. The body on the other hand is guided by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems with the hormonal control and immunlogical functions, biochemistry and phsiology to keep the body working away.

When we do have to work, the mind is engaged and analyses everything seemingly from the forehead or the cerebellum, from what I feel the thoughts are coming into my head for action.

When we do not wish to work, have no desires, ambitions, aims, beliefs to analyse, no objectives, wishes, hopes, anticipations, expectations, missions, no duties to anyone or to oneself so no dharma, there is no action that takes place and one is free of karma (actions). But the residual mind is stil there nonchalantly generating the words that we express in our keyboards, or spoken words in conversations and writing down what one can remember from the memories of those conversations, so that we are working like an automaton from what is the Supermind, being at the interface of the somatic mind and that Ultimate Mind which we call Om in Hinduism. The transition from the somatic mind to the Supermind is channeled through an entity known as atman that describes who we are deep down, our character, our raison d'detre, for it is totally pure and is in noway connected to the gunas that the somatic body and somatic brain consists of. When this point of working entirely from the Supermind as Om is attained, one becomes a Mahatma, or Om itself. This is the basis of the philosophy of Vishista Advaita Vedanta.

Any questions?