Why is there so much attachment to the body? Please explain

Question - Gurudev, you always have said that our body is a beautiful gift from the divine/nature yet you also have said that we are not just the body and more than that. Is there any reason behind why even after death, a man/woman in the form of a soul keeps on looking for a body. Why is there so much attachment to the body? Please explain

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Feeling or experiencing the infinity within this finite body, living the timelessness within the time span of life, uncovering the bliss within the misery, this is what we are here for on this planet and our body is an instrument to experience that bliss.

The soul is attached to the body because body is the instrument of carrying out one’s Dharma (one’s duties or karma). It is said, ‘Sharira madhyam Dharma-khalu sadhanam’. It means that if one has to carry out one’s duties or one’s karma, it can only be done through the means of the physical body. Those who are Asariri – meaning without the physical body - cannot do it.

See karma cannot be dissolved without a body. So one has to come back to the body to dissolve all the karmas. But moksha is possible only with the body. Moksha means relief from pain, relief from sufferings, relief from ignorance; the whole knowledge is about this only. The spiritual path helps one to release themselves from all of this.

That is the reason even the Demigods (Devtas) have to take a human form to carry out their Dharma for attaining liberation.