How much are you worth on the black market?
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!
In form and while moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel!
In appearance, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon among animals! – William Shakespeare
Meet Mr. Steve Sewell from Cumbria, UK. At 58, unemployed and with a wife and two children to support, he tried to auction himself on the internet auction site eBay. But no one raised his starting bid from 99p (about Rs.90). He had listed his human body under Engineering Goods and described it as "some wear to moving parts, surface finish worn." Since no one bid he has relisted himself.
In case someone decides to sell himself in the black market then this is what one can expect for his body parts: human hair – Rs.4000, blood – Rs.1200 – Rs.4000, two eyeballs – Rs.9600, scalp – Rs.3600, skull with a full set of teeth – Rs.7200 (providing the jaw is in perfect condition and arthritis-free, a teetotaller's liver – Rs.96000, human heart Rs.720,OOO. With recent successes in hand transplant procedure, a hand and a forearm could fetch you Rs.24000 and skin without tattoos goes for Rs.16000 for the full two meters. There is only one catch: as you would be making your body available after you die, you are probably worth more dead than alive!
There is only one thing that the black marketers have missed consciousness. This is what the Vedic literatures like the Bhagavad-gita have pointed out as the real self. The eita defines consciousness as "that which pervades the entire body is indestructible." Atma, or the spirit soul, is like a spiritual spark. And this spark is the basic principle of the material body which courses through the body and gives it consciousness. As a single drop of potassium cyanide rapidly spreads throughout the body, the influence of the atma spreads all over the body. We all understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body and no human efforts can ever bring it back to life.
The real glory of the human form of life is described by the Srimad-Bhagavatam in this way: "The human body, which can award all benefit in life, is automatically obtained by the laws of nature, although it is a very rare achievement. This human body can be compared to a perfectly constructed boat having the spiritual master as the captain and the instructions of the Personality of Godhead as favorable winds impelling it on its course. Considering all these advantages, a human being who does not utilize his human life to cross the ocean of material existence must be considered the killer of his own soul." Such an act is unpardonable, however obtuse or unconcerned we might want to be.