Who-are-you-Why-are-you-here. Story

 Surely we are not the Human Body

You have a House,

but you are not the House.

You have a Car,

but you are not the Car.

You have a Body,

but you are not the Body.

Do you know who is this ‘You’?

Are you shocked? If we are not the human body then what are we? Everybody thinks, “I am this amazing creation called the human body. I have two hands to grasp, two feet to walk and a mouth to talk. I have a head and I have a heart. I have ve senses through which I perceive the outside world. I have eyes to see the beauty that surrounds me, ears to hear what others say and a nose that can smell amazing fragrances. I have a tongue that can taste even before I eat and skin that helps me feel all that I touch. I have this wonderful body, and the body must be me. What else can I be?”

Nobody denies that we have a body. Can anybody deny that a human being is blessed with a brain, a heart, two kidneys, a liver, lungs and several other organs that make his body a wonder that it is?

Aren't we the ones who see, hear and touch? Aren't we the eyes, ears and the skin? No doubt we have the ve sense organs of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching and we also have several action organs, feet to walk, hands to grasp, but are we these? Unfortunately, we believe that we are this body when in reality we

have a body and all that is in it - blood, esh, and bones but we are not all this. That's why we say, “My kidneys failed,” we don't say, “I failed” because I am not the kidney. Sometimes, out of ignorance we say, “I got burnt,” when our skin gets burnt, but then we realize that only the skin is burnt, not I. If the skin got burnt and is dead skin but I am not dead, then obviously I am not the skin.

As long as we are conscious, we feel we are the body, but what happens when we lose consciousness? We still exist, but we dream that we have become a pilot or even an elephant. I dream but the body doesn't. It clearly tells me that I am not the body.

When the body sleeps, I know that the body slept. It is different from me. I can even be still and observe my body only as my body, not me.

It is amazing to know that each human being has about 37 trillion cells. The body has 30 trillion Red Blood Cells. The human eye has roughly 125 million retinal cells. If the eye was to be compared to a camera, it

would be a whopping 576-megapixel camera. It can see 1 million colours. The nose can smell 1 trillion different types of smells. There are 200 different types of cells and 35 billion skin cells. There are 100 billion neurons in the brain. And our brain produces up to 60,000 thoughts per day. Our body holds a capacity of 6 litres of blood, and our blood vessels stretch up to 60,000 miles. Every day, approximately we take 23,000 breaths and our heart beats 1,15,000 times. There are around 1 lakh hair follicles on the human head. The body produces 23,000 litres of saliva in a lifetime, enough to ll a humongous swimming pool. Our brain's electricity when awake can light a small bulb. The heart creates enough energy daily that can drive a truck for 32 kilometres. The heart pumps 1.5 million barrels of blood in a lifetime. If the heart was separated from the body, it could still beat on its own electrical impulse for a little while. Our taste buds are replaced every 10 days. It is astonishing to know just how ignorant we are about the greatest machine ever conceived - the human body.

While the human body is an amazing creation that is beyond our comprehension, how we are able to live with these sense organs, organs of action and other vital organs – is a wonder beyond wonders. But the biggest wonder is – are we the human body or do we have a human body? What do we say? Don't we say, “This is my hand?” We say, “I have two eyes to see, and my heart is beating fast.” No doubt we have hands, a head, and a heart, but who are we? Who is that talking about having this body? Who is saying that these are my hands, my eyes, and my heart?

We have a house but we are not the house just as we have a car that we drive but we are not the car. Our beautiful clothes belong to us but we never mistake ourselves to be the clothes that we wear. Then why do you and I think that we are the human body? We easily look at a picture of ourselves and say, “This is me.” Don't we all identify ourselves as the body? It is unfortunate that we mistake ourselves for the body that we wear. We don't realize that we are the ones who wear the body. Those who consider this for the rst time would be shocked. But the truth is we are not the body that we always thought we were. 

You see me wearing a shirt and you say, “It's a lovely shirt.” But I say, “Where is the shirt? What shirt are you talking about?” You say, “You are wearing this amazing pure white Calvin Klein shirt and it looks so good!” And I say, “You seem to see a beautiful shirt, but I don't. These are just amazing threads that have been woven together to appear as the shirt.” Now, is my paradigm of the shirt wrong? No. Is your paradigm wrong? No. Although you know that the shirt is not a shirt but intricately woven threads, you permit your ignorance to veil the truth and see it as a shirt. Why is it that you cannot see the threads that lie further beyond the shirt? There is no doubt that the shirt is made up of threads and is actually nothing but threads. But due to our ignorance, a kind of cosmic illusion, we fail to recognize the true nature of things beyond a certain point.

Let us analyze how this body came into existence. It was conceived when two cells, male and female, fused after copulation. It was just a tiny zygote barely visible to the human eye. The zygote grew into an embryo, and then an infant that was nally delivered to planet earth.