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Prisni dasi

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  1. Does it matter? What benefit is supposedly spiritual, instead of psychological? And if you are doing spiritual advancement, but does not know about it, what value does it have? It is like doing something for someone else. I would say that if something brings material result, it is material. Say, better sex-life, higher salary, better physique, more recognition. Then, what is spiritual result? I speak from the viewpoint of a Gaudiya Vaisnava. And there spiritual result is actually a kind of separation of self and body. The body and soul are like bonded together as inseparable, and the spiritual pratices are meant to cause a separation, and to put more weight on the soul and less on the body. The body can ultimately be discarded. So improvements of the body, including mind and intelligence, are not of direct high importance. If the mind is depressed - who cares? Still, the body, as a vehicle for the soul, has to be maintained, so curing bodily problems can be practical for that purpose. But spiritual practices are not intended for that. Supplementary to spiritual practices are practises meant to strengthen the vehicle, the body, the mind and intelligence, to be able to do the spiritual practices. Those supplementary practices are often mixed in, although they are not exactly spiritual. We take the package of practices. Apply them, and if they cure the vehicle, or cause the separation of body and soul, who actually cares what they are, or what western science thinks about them or calls it? Meditation can alse be used only to strengthen the mind, intelligence and the body, but without causing the separation of the body and soul. Then are such practices spiritual? They might make you feel good, though, and for most people living in this world, that is quite important. The goal of spiritual practices for many - liberation, is the total separation of soul and body, so that the self (the soul) can live completely without a body. For Gaudiya Vaisnavas that is only a step on the way, and maybe sometimes not even that, since the body can be retained as a vehicle. But that is another matter from this discussion.
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