MORTAL BODIES, IMMORTAL SOULS

MORTAL BODIES, IMMORTAL SOULS

At this time of Corona Virus which is globally taking the lives of thousands of people at a quick pace, it is germane to think of mortal bodies and immortal souls.

According to all religious seers, bodies are mortal. They become lifeless when the soul inside them departs invisibly.

This is a mystery for man. His inability to know wherefrom he comes and whereto he goes after completing his earthly journey is a brain-teaser. Is death an eternal end of his existence is the question to which he wants a most  satisfactory answer? 

Luckily an English metaphysical poet John Donne (1573-1631) and Lord Krishna in The Gita tell us that though the body is mortal, the soul that sustains its life is everlasting.  And the real substance of man’s life is not his body, but his eternal soul.

            Let’s first read what Lord Krishna says: Of the unreal there is no being, and of the real there is no non-being. The soul is unborn, un-manifest, un-diminishing, immovable, immutable, unthinkable, all-pervasive, indestructible and eternal. It is subject to neither birth nor death. It does not perish along with the body. Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and dons new ones, so does the soul leave the worn-out body and enters a new one. There is no growth and decay, birth and death for the soul. It is absolutely changeless.

            The above-mentioned attributes of the soul are intimated in The Gita to Arjuna the reluctant fighter who does want that his rivals in the battlefield who are his kith and kin should be killed by him. The truth which Lord Krishna, the teacher, succeeds in imprinting on the mind of his pupil, Arjuna, is that bodies are mortal, but their souls are not.

            Now a sonnet by John Donne .one of the greatest metaphysical poets. The term metaphysical consists of two parts,’ meta’ from the Greek prefix signifying ‘beyond’  and ‘physical’ meaning the objects of the universe. In sum the term indicates poetry’s ‘concern with the fundamental problems of the universe and man’s place and function in life.’

           

The title of Donne’s poem is ‘Death, Be Not Proud’. Its full text s given below:

                                    

                           DEATH, BE NOT PROUD

“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty, and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think’st though dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death; not yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow;

And soonest our best men with thee do go ----

Rest of their bones and souls’ delivery!

Thou’rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke. Why swell’st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more: Death, thou halt die.”

           

               Mark especially the words:

   ” One Short sleep past, we wake eternally”

and think whether it is not an exact

 echo of the message of The Gita.

31^st May 2020                         G. R. KANWAL