Thoughts from Amma's pen: Prevention Is Better Than Cure …. But! There’s No Money In It!

[Guest guest]

Thoughts from Amma's pen:

Prevention Is Better Than Cure ….

But! There’s No Money In It!

Prevention is better than cure … this is a widely used truism. But! It is only a half-truth! If the full truth be known, one must state – “Prevention is better than cure, but there’s no money in it! It is in the second part of the statement one must admit – that – “there lies the rub!” A corollary world follow thus – because there is no money (or fame or acclaim or publicity or gain) in it, prevention will never be taken seriously, nor will it’s practice become popular.

A train accident in which hundreds are killed hogs headlines. If quick witted person spots a fault on the line and alerts the driver, thus preventing the accident, the incident merits a few lines on the back page. If a surgeon succeeds in transplanting a heart and keeping the patient alive a few weeks with a huge amount of machines, he is given national honours and paid a king’s Ransom. If a dedicated soul teaches hundreds how to live properly with proper diet and exercise, thus preventing heart problems, he receives little or no acclaim and previous little financial rewards. Skillful lifestyle or Yoga teachers working with children may prevents hundreds, if not thousands of his wards from ever taking up smoking, drinking or drugs. His / Her work will go unsung. But, if

some adventurous social worker weans one or two away from drug addictions and a life of vice, his story will be raved over in books and movies.

Preventing is better than cure, no doubt, but it cannot be measured. Hence, there is no way to assess its value. Yoga is, after all, the science of prevention. Learning to live so skillfully (Yogah Karmasu Khaushalam) that one prevents illness, Catastrophes, Karmic misfortunes and so many of the common ills that befall mankind.

Pujya Swamiji often said, “Most people live to learn,” and learn they must in the School of Hard knocks, suffering misfortune after misfortune (Read: ill health, family breakups, confusion, conflict). The Yogi “learns to live” and thus avoids much misfortune and problems in his life.

Yet, cinemas, newspapers, magazines do not report much on the “good news” of healthy, happy, contented living. Pain, misfortune and trouble are the basic ingredient of soap operas. And, everyone knows how well the soap opera sells, what fame it brings to the actors, fame and monetary reward.

A great Yogi two millennia ago said it well – “Thou cannot serve two masters – God and Mammon.”

Krishna told Arjuna, “What is Night to The man of the world is day to the Yogi, what is day to the man of the world is Night to the Yogi.”

The Yogi always “lives against the tide.”

It is the price once pays to experience spirituality.

In spiritual realms – preventions is better than cure – and there is evolutionary gain in it – That is reason enough for the Yogi to embrace it!

AMMA

 

New and Improved Mail - Send 10MB messages!