Matter is not everything

Science says that everything is material. There is nothing else. Now the question is - "why is a living person living and a corpse a dead body? A living body as well as a dead body are both made up of the same set of basic elements. But one is alive and the other is dead. Why?"

Ancient Indians (so also the Greeks and other ancient civilizations) said that it is the soul that makes the difference. A soul makes an otherwise dead body a living body. A body minus the soul is dead!

So this world is made up of three fundamental elements in various combinations and configurations, plus the soul. It is not just the elements alone.

But how did this world come into existence? That is what our current science is not clear about. But the ancients seemed to have an answer.

We will see that in the next post.

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This is a series of posts based on the well known discussion in Chändogya Upanishad (part of Säma Veda, believed to have been recorded more than 3000 years ago) regarding ultimate truths.