________________
impulse. Thus the hormones become the agents for executing the primal drives in the physical body.
Figure 4.14 The relationship between the subtle and the physical body
MENTAL ACTION
PHYSICAL BODY
←
+
MENTAL SYSTEM
ENSORY ACTION
PHYSICAL ACTION
MUSCULAR SYSTEM
NERVOUS SYSTEM
ENDOCRINE SYSTEM URGES AND IMPULSES FIELD OF LIAISON
PRIMAL
OF AND
INGS/EMOTION
FIELD
→
KARMIC
VOCAL ACTION
CONCEIVING AND PERCEIVING
SOUL
LUMINOUS
DRIVES
-
BODY
MOTOR ACTION
MOTOR ACTION
SUBTLE BODY
Figure 4.15 The Jain view of the relationship of the body to behaviour
227
SUBTLE BODY
PHYSICAL BODY
Soul (psyche) + karmic body + luminous body
Psychic radiation
THE LIVING BEING
knowledge
(primal drives)
(conscious mind)
(passions)
aura (lesya)
4
urges & impulses
emotional flow
endocrine system
nervous system
field of action
4
thoughts, speech & bodily activities
AURA
Worldly and Environmental Pressures
The chemical messengers secreted by the endocrine glands are carried by the bloodstream and interact with the brain and the nervous system; together they constitute an integral co-ordinating system, which modern medicine calls the neuro-endocrine system. This system not only controls and regulates every bodily function but also profoundly influences mental states, emotions, thought, speech and behavioural patterns. Thus, the endocrine glands act as transformers between the most subtle spiritual 'self' and the gross body. They are gross when compared with the domain of the primal drive, but subtle when compared with the gross constituents: muscles, blood and other bodily organs. This, then, is the inter-communicating mechanism within the body, which
