Philosophy of "self" - Mind, Body, Soul Relationship

 Mind, body and soul relationship. 

Every philosopher seems to explain this mind body and soul relation. So I thought, why should I not give a try 😅 

So it started as that I was thinking about how we understand things and then my mind told me that, The light falls on object, our eyes receive that fallen light and forms the image of object at retina. From retina it goes into the brain, the brain interpret that image and match the image with the images stored in the memory and if this image match with an existing image then the brain tells our soul the name of particular object and then if our soul intends to spell it's name then it is spelled through our tongue. 

It's our soul which governs our body. Without soul no action can take place within the body. Not even cognitive processes can take place. Soul and brain together run our body. Soul intends and brain executes. Final decision is made by the soul. And final execution is done by the limbs.

Soul has desires but whatever we desire are not only of soul but many of them are also of our Ego. Ego is a part of our "self". Both Ego and soul are innate part of our "self". As we grow our Ego develops. Its development and desires largely depends on our upbringing. But some part of it is also innate. 

It's our soul where the sense of right/wrong is stored. This store is not like the memory of brain. Soul store our consciousness, our feelings and emotions. When we eat something it's our soul that feels and delights. We're the combination of soul and Ego. Though the sense of right/wrong lies in soul but it's manifestation/details lies in Ego, which means a person who is raised in a culture different than another culture then his opinion on right and wrong could be different. For example a person may say that taking dowry is good another may say it's bad. However the knowledge can distinguish who's actually right and who's actually wrong. Knowledge if strengthen the reasoning then reasoning can correct the Ego's stand on a particular topic. 

Ego may have some existing reasons for a stand point but as the knowledge increases and if that knowledge match up to the reason then ego's stand point can be modified. For example earlier a person used to consider non veg as wrong but as he receives more knowledge regarding that matter and that knowledge also matched up to his reason then he would start considering it right. Its opposite can also occur, the main point here is the matching of knowledge with the reasoning. 

Reasoning is a faculty of brain and it must remain free from any influence of ego. If it comes under the influence of Ego then there will be no benefit of increasing the knowledge for then Reasoning will not be able to improve/modify/change viewpoint of ego. Only the constant efforts of developing the soul can keep the reasoning free from influences of ego. 

Our soul and Ego both have their desires but often times some of the Ego's desires are not right because they are inspired by our upbringing and environment. So it's utmost important to seek knowledge for it distinguishes the right desires from wrong. For example a person has a desire to steal, he is raised in a culture where stealing was prevalent so he developed a positive attitude towards it. He doesn't consider stealing as a bad deed. So his soul will intend (this desire was not created by the soul but of the Ego, since Ego has no power to finally intend so it's always soul that makes final decision) to steal and his brain will execute this intention within the body and as a result his hand and foot will done the job. 

Now suppose that person was going for stealing but in the way he met his friend and his friend gave him some knowledge about morality, God, afterlife and those knowledge matched to the person's reasoning and as a result his reasoning modifies his Ego's earlier standpoint on stealing. Now he considers stealing as bad. 

The desires of soul is usually very different from that of the Ego. Desires demand by Ego are generally people oriented such as, greatness, praise, fame, appreciations, etc. While desires of souls are usually like seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself, calmness, peace, union, love, forgiving, compassion, to please its creator, to be submissive to God, to be humble, etc.

Though all the desires of Ego are not bad and many of them are natural and innate by nature but nonetheless its desires are needed to be monitored. The desires of having bodily pleasures is an example of innate Ego desire. To have a desire of living comfortable life is an innate Ego desire. But to have a desire of looting People to make a comfortable life is a learned Ego desire and this desire can be changed by Reasoning through knowledge. The more a knowledge is appealing to reason the more it will change desire. 

Similarly to have a desire to do hard work with honesty to make a comfortable life is also a learned desire and this can also be changed by Reasoning through knowledge. Many people become corrupt daily and many people also left corruption daily. The more a knowledge fits into Reasoning, the more it will affect one's desires and behaviours.

Suppose a person John, he was an honest police officer but one day his friends told him that there's no benefit of being an honest man, if you want to live a great life then leave that honesty and choose the path of corruption. They gave him examples of how many people are living a great life because of doing corruption. This hit his reason and he also became a corrupt officer. 

Similarly suppose there was a shopkeeper James. He used to sell adulterated items. One day his friend told him that he should stop doing this. He informed him about life, death, concept of judgement day and those information hit his reason and he left selling those items from that day. 

Seeking knowledge is one of the desire of soul. It nourishes the soul and at the same time it helps Ego choose the right desires and also help them achieve in right way. 

Temperament is the Innate part of the Ego. Temperament is not same for all the people. Temperament is something we need to learn about ourselves. It's like some of us are naturally good at something and some of us are naturally good at other things. It's more like some innate skills. So if one understand his/her temperament then he/she is more likely to tackle the life in a better way.

It's the combination of our soul and Ego that make us differ from each other. Ego element is much dynamic than soul. While soul element is much deeper than Ego. The combination of both is called the 'self'. 

Abhi itna hi samjh aa rha baki baad me bataenge.. 🚴