Life Supreme — Page 97
100. LIFE SUPREME. Let us proceed to consider the following four bodies of man: 1. The Physical Body. 3. The Etheric Body. 2. The Mental Body. 4. The Spiritual Body. . PHYSICAL BODY. The physical body reflects the inner state of man and fulfills the truism 'As a man thinketh so he is. " It has been referred to as 'The temple of the soul,' and should therefore be kept clean both internally and externally, for 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness. ' God says in the Holy Quran: "And uncleanliness do thou shun. " (76:4) "Oh ye who believer When you stand up for a prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, and pass your wet hands over your heads, and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you be unclean purify yourselves by bathing. (5:7). There is also a maxim that 'Man is what he eats. ' Inner cleanliness may be maintained by taking in such things that are strictly beneficial to the body and avoiding everything harmful. This may appear to be an obvious statement but due to ignorance and the unrestrained desire to satisfy the palate, man absorbs all kinds of unhealthy concoctions. Islam teaches that man should eat only good things: ""They ask thee what is made lawful for them. Say, all good things have been made lawful to you. " (5:5). The real self is not the physical body but an intangible inner creation which has the capacity of existing within and without of the body. The real self may be described as a combination of the mental, etheric, and soul bodies which function within the physical and which we shall now proceed to discuss. . MENTAL BODY "Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts. " (Hazrat Ali). Thought is the mental body. All thought does not originate from the brain, though the latter plays an important function in the flow, stimulation, and regulation of this universal power.