We are not our body

Vaibhav Joshi on Tuesday, August 14, 2:45 PM

I don’t know if this is the right time to write this. Perhaps i am the last one to offer my condolences and prayers for Harsh, because by some arrangement I never knew about his passing away until today. Even then, it was no less a shock for me than anyone else I guess. I was a close colleague of Harsh at ZS for as long as I was there. Both of us joined together in the June of 2009. And although I had met him briefly a year before joining (during our selection interview), I really got to know him better only after we joined office together.

I used to be a very strange introvert in college days, but after meeting Harsh, his outspoken and jolly personality made me open up a bit. The very first thing I learned from him is that we are not our body. Our personality, the essence of our being, our soul, is beyond the limited frame of our body. And Harsh was a living example of this fact. The way he dealt with the world around him, the people around him, proved that he never identified himself with his body. That is the coveted level of consciousness that yogis and munis try to achieve by doing long years of penances and sacrifices. But Harsh seemed to have naturally imbibed that transcendental consciousness very effortlessly.

I had read about the immortality of the soul countless times before in spiritual discourses. In my college days, I was largely influenced by the teachings of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita who says that the “soul is not destroyed when the body dies” . On a theoretical level, I thought I knew that we are not our body. But only when I met Harsh, I understood the real meaning of that teaching of Sri Krishna. Maybe it was by Krishna’s arrangement, that I got to know this gem of a person so closely, so that I don’t be satisfied with bookish knowledge of the Gita. God demonstrated to me practically: one guy with all possible physical complications, still smiling and buzzing around with full enthusiasm, vigor, energy and positivity. Never for a moment i saw him morose or dejected. In every way Harsh was no less than anyone of us: physically, mentally, intellectually and spiritually. In fact he excelled ahead of many of us despite his apparent disability. What many spiritual discourses could not teach me, was perfectly displayed in the way Harsh carried himself: with dignity, with self-mastery and a positive outlook to life. Not only his achievements are an indication of his strength, but his real greatness lies in the way he connected to everyone without being overtly self-conscious. For someone undergoing what he underwent since birth, it is very easy and natural to become an introvert, who likes to be detached from the world. His merit lies in taking life positively despite all odds, and showing us the real meaning of “living life to the fullest”. As was quoted in the famous movie, Anand: “Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi”.

And I am convinced beyond doubt, that he will continue his journey even though he is no more visible to our limited vision. I offer my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. And on an ending note I offer a prayer to the Lord: Please give Harsh our love and gratitude wherever you have taken him. You have taught us many things through his life. Please give us the strength and wisdom so that we also may be able to mold our lives with positivity and enthusiasm just like Harsh did.