Swami teaches... Spirit of healthy body and mind

[Guest guest]

Reet,

Sai Ram. Thank you for your regular, most uplifting and

informative, articles. Excellent work!

I, personally, appreciate them very much indeed.

Thank you.

Patrick.

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

 

Love and Light

 

Swami teaches.... (21 March 2005)

 

Spirit of Healthy Body and Mind

 

Health and happiness go together. Happiness is a vain dream if health is

absent. The Shruthis(holy scriptures) declare that health is basic quality

without it is impossible to realise any of the four goals of life, right doing,

right desiring, right earning and final release.The mind too has to be healthy.

It should not be clogged by greed, envy, hate or pride. It should not be

polluted and poisoned by antisocial inhuman plans and projects. It should be

calm and dear, so that thought can see into its depths and get rid of the evil

feelings and tendencies it evokes.

 

What has to be gained is not money, but, virtue. The means of sustenance

are sought after and collected by birds and beasts; there is nothing specially

human in this pursuit. When intelligence is used for the acquisition of food

and physical comforts, human is lost in animal pursuits. Virtue is the panacea

for both body and mind. The virtuous person can be both healthy and happy. How

is virtue to be cultivated? How can it express itself in daily practice?

Throughservice to living beings, through seva (voluntary selfless service). In

order to urge humans into the path of mutual sympathy, continuous compassion

and concrete service, they have been endowed with the instinct of

gregariousness. Human is a social animal. Humans findsolitary living, unnatural

and miserable. The Ashraamas (monasteries) of ancient times wereacademics where

mutual cooperation and loving service were encouraged.

 

Doctors are the most important class of sevaks. When seva is rendered with

love, intelligence and earnestness, it leads persons nearer and nearer to

Divinity, for it draws unto itself the Grace of God. This is the reason why the

scriptures elevate the vaidhya (doctor) to the status of God. If the doctor is

full of love and compassion, God works through him. Doctors, therefore, have to

endeavour to become the receptacles of Divine Power during their healing

process. We may say that the behaviour, the voice, the mien of the doctor count

for fifty per cent of the cure, the drugs and their efficacy manage the other

half. The science of medicine, practised by doctors in India is known by

the sacred name of Aayurvedha - the science of healthy longevity. Its source

too is as divine as the source of theVedhas! It has to be practised with as

much devotion and dedication as Vedhic ceremoniesand recitations are fulfilled.

The Vedha or knowledge that confers Aayu (longevity) is Aayur-Vedha. The

Ayurvedha deals not only with the curing of illness but it also deals with the

prevention of disease. One sacred duty of the doctor is to advise persons on

how to preserve health and prevent disease. He has to be vigilant in society to

discover and suppress every tendency in Aahaar and Vihaar (food habits and

recreational activities) by which diseases are developed.

The dress worn by humans, the houses where they live and the areas where

they are situated, have to be tidy and clean. The food that is taken has to

supply all elements needed to keep the body to resist illness. The atmosphere

breathed in, the water taken in, the ground lived on, the animals and plants

that surround - all have maleficent microbes that may cause illness, if the

mind and body are not equipped with powerful resistance armour. Exercise,

bathing, washing, cleaning, etc., are prescribed for this purpose. The body is

the boat on which we voyage across the ocean of samsaar (worldly life) and it

has to be kept trim and sea-worthy. The voyager too has to be strong, confident

and courageous. The current belief is that medicine is to be valued for its

validity during illness. Its use ends with the cure. But this point of view has

to change. Medicine is used to see that one does not fall ill, not so much as to

raise him up when he falls. However, for happy and meaningful life it is not

enough to have only a physical health. The mental health and spiritual

awareness are the factors what help too to keep the body strong as they are

interconnected.

One must learn how to keep your impulses under control, and to master the

senses that tend to drag you into wrong and vicious paths. When the desire for

pleasure overcomes your reason and your innate goodness, you are left only with

the shape and form of a human being; you have no right to be called a human

being.

Jnana (Knowledge) is usually associated with two ways of acquisition - the

worldly or thematerial and the Spiritual or Brahman path. The worldly path is

like a pair of scissors. It cutsknowledge into pieces. The Brahman path is like

a needle - it makes the separate parts into Oneand indivisible. The saadhaka

(spiritual aspirant) must be aware of both. When you declare aperson to be a

jnaani (liberated person, he has passed through these two stages.Science or the

study of observable sensory matter, of measurable and calculable items, can give

only incomplete information. The sea has pearls in its depths; but, you have to

dive into it tosecure them.

Humanness and Godness co-exist as inseparables; they are the negative and

positive poles, that have to be together to produce the warmth of love and the

light of wisdom. Once you have established your Self in the Higher Self, you

would not get lost; you can then wander freely in the realms of the Unreal. If

you have not experienced the Self as a spark of the Supreme Self, your

wanderings will be as fruitless as the trekkings that animals do, by instinct.

Believe that God is the inner Truth in every thing and being. Be humble, before

the evidences of His Power and Majesty. Vedhas declare: "Revere your mother

as God; Revere your father as God; Revere your Teacher as God; Speak Truth; Act

Righteously." These five are as the five vital airs that sustain the body of

human. Believe that they have been laid down for your material and spiritual

progress. That will ensure success in your pilgrimage from humanness to

Divinity.

Human does not discriminate and discover the special excellence of his own

faith, as compared with the faiths of others, or, the difference between his

beliefs and religion and the beliefs and religion that others hold dear. He/she

does not evaluate own viewpoint, in the light of the viewpoints and attitudes of

others. He/she does not weigh own acts and judge them, as worthwhile or waste.

The seers and sages of ancient India have laid emphasis on this discipline and

prescribed measures to achieve these ends. The remedies have prescribed in the

ancient texts. People who are completely ignorant have no doubts or

misgivings; those who are fully wise, too, have no doubts or misgivings. It is

the half-baked variety of scholars and students that fall into the traps laid

by the prejudiced and perverted. Education should insist on their assimilating

the essence of the teaching which they elaborate. Now, students direct all their

efforts towards acquiring more and more knowledge of just one specialised branch

of learning. So, they are woefully deficient in general knowledge, and are

unable to adjust their behaviour or conduct, and survive the vagaries of

fortune. Education does not end with the accumulation of information; it must

result in transformation of the habits, character and aspirations of the

individual. But, human is interested in everyone except own self. Human being

is like a man standing on the bank of the Ganga, and crying that he is having

unbearable thirst. He has in him the very embodiment of Peace, Bliss and Love.

But, he has no knowledge of this.

Enormous energy and expenses are being devoted for investigating the

mysteries of the atom. But there is no comparable concern for developing human

behaviour. Politics and economics are bedevilled by crises. People are riven by

caste and religious conflicts. The appetite for power and position has become

insatiable.

What is the reason for the divergence between scientific progress on the-one

side and the social and moral decline of man on the other? By ancient saints had

realised that one can get enduring peace and happiness only by spiritual

realisation and not by any other means.If there is no love of God, fear of sin,

and practice of social ethics, how can there be peace in the world? Scientists

and political leaders are teaching all kinds of things to the youth. But of

what use are these teachings? Youth needs the example of leaders who stand up

for integrity and morality. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol.

12 Limits that liberate," Chapter 34; Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 14."The four

blemishes," Chapter 15 and "The doctor's profession," Chapter 53; Sathya Sai

Speaks. Vol. 24. "Bhagavan's call to students," Chapter 7).

Namaste - Reet