Body and Soul

During the reading for this week regarding the Halocaust was a part saying "befoulment of the body is experienced as a befoulment to the soul." This link between body and soul are evident in religion as to unite them as one for an overall consistency of being. Yoga is practiced as to achieve this goal. There is much that can be said on how the soul is connected to a persons physical being. One basis much of who they are on how they look and function. Someone who loses functioning of a part of their body can feel like they lost a part of who they are, a part of their soul. The soul can become damaged with increasing torture and pain, both physically and mentally. Everything that impacts us will have an overall effect. In the case of the Halocaust people were subjected to such physical degradation that they changed who they were as to be able to cope. The soul lost what it once was because of this strain. It's evident that no matter how strong we are there is a breaking point, a point where we shut a part of ourselves off for protection. It becomes lost along with the belief that there was reason for it. One may hold something dear to themselves but if an event changes this perspective, the value is lost. This can also be seen when people come back from war. They are changed from this experience, body with soul. People lose their religious ideals maybe believing that not God could allow something like what happened to occur. After reading about the Halocaust its hard for me to believe that something so terrible could happen without cause or reason. The reason of religious plague emphasizes the fact that if there is a God then obviously he's not concerned with the welfare of mankind.
Few examples can be made against this. Many disabled persons lack functioning of body parts but refuse to let it impact who they are. A few years ago there was a young teenage surfer that had her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing. In an interview after the incident she reflected that it barely had an affect on her, and that she was still going to be a surfer and live life just the same. This shows strength in the soul, allowing it to overcome injustice done to the body.