On Wednesday, May 1st was Labour Day, I went to volunteer at the Sree Narayana Mission Home for the Aged Sick as a part of seva (service) of Life Bliss Foundation Singapore. All the old folks were on wheelchairs as some were stroke patients or physically handicapped. In that brief few hours of spending time with these old folks, I felt a deep compassion for these people and began to question – How can more people learn the science of living a healthy life till their golden years?
As a yogi, I simply know I will exit this body gracefully when the time comes without sickness or suffering. How can I transmit this understanding of a new health consciousness to people? This gave me the impetus to share with humanity that we don’t have to settle for the current false order of society. The key is having the knowledge to create the right health consciousness and start living it.
Many of us think that health means absence of diseases in the body-mind system. This is an incomplete view given by society because society has a narrow view of human being’s possibility based on the current state of human life process. However, in the Yogic Science, our masters, rishis and sages see health from human’s highest potential and create many spiritual practices to help humanity experience health according to the way the human body is created in life. The human body is created to experience the best things in the outer world and inner world.
In Vedic tradition, health means life is dancing through your body and you experience a sense of well-being. A good benchmark is the moment you wake up from your sleep, you experience an intense excitement or enthusiasm to live that day happens. Waking up should be a dance to the bathroom and feeling ecstatic with a vibrant energy bubbling inside your body-mind is health. Is this possible for modern human beings living in this century?
A big “YES”, this is possible because this is something I experience daily. Just like to enjoy wealth, one needs to have a wealth consciousness to attract wealth, same way, to enjoy good health; one also needs to create a health consciousness.
There are 2 major factors that are closely related to the state of health of individuals. First factor is Happiness i.e. health is about infusing happiness in our life, the happier we are, the healthier we feel. Second factor is Spiritual Practices i.e. it is the spiritual practices which keep us in touch of the higher purpose of life beyond the body-mind. In fact, research had shown that people, who have some forms of spiritual practices, live at least 7 years longer than those without.
Spiritual practice is the lifestyle in Vedic culture, everything we do, whether it is eating, sleeping, working, being in relationship, parenting, worship, meditating etc, is a form of spiritual practice to remind us of the higher purpose of life. To enjoy good health, one needs to build a strong foundation of a new health consciousness which comprises 4 major pillars:-
- Physical Health. The first lesson one needs to internalise is the utility value of human body. The body is the vehicle for our dreams and outer world achievement; it is also the closest object to our inner space. Why are you not aware of your body? Why are you not taking responsibility in maintaining this body? Why are you abusing this body with all kinds of enjoyment? Humanity has reached the peak of the luxury and comfort of the outer world, but we are at the peak of suffering in the inner world. The second lesson one needs to learn is how the engraved memories or engrams (samskaras) create disturbances and diseases in our body-mind. The worst engram against physical health is LAZINESS which is responsible for many common diseases like stroke, heart diseases, diabetes, dementia, cancer in the human body. Breaking the laziness pattern is an important spiritual practice that every one needs to do for himself. Intense Hatha Yoga practice is a great way to break the laziness pattern. If you start owning your body, you can design a yogic body with Yoga. Besides being healthy, you will start expressing the 5 qualities of a yogic body i.e. stamina, energy, flexibility, physique and power.
- Mental Health. The mental health is related to our inner space i.e. the psychological and emotional aspects of our well-being. Why we behave the way we do? What are our root thought patterns? It is important to note that almost 80% of our body is driven by different patterns. Patterns are deeper than engrams and they can swallow our life away if we are not aware. That’s why in Vedic tradition, a large emphasis is given to spiritual practices that enable individuals to break free from their root mental patterns of suffering. When a man becomes free from his mental patterns, he simply explodes in creativity.
- Emotional Health. The emotional health is deeper than the mind which is the sticky part of our existence. There are 2 layers of emotional health i.e. the lower emotions and higher emotions. Lower emotions include greed, fear, anger, pain, guilt, vengeance, worries, jealousy whereas higher emotions include gratitude, bliss, love, peace, forgiveness, compassion, respect and trust. The more time we spend in lower emotions, the lower energy we will experience and the reverse is truth, the more time we spend in higher emotions, the more energy we will have. Hence, you see that happier people generally live longer than people who are stuck with lower emotions like anger or hatred. It is no surprise that our ancient masters have developed many yogic techniques which constantly put us back to the higher emotions of joy and bliss.
- Spiritual Health. In every one of us, there are 2 parts to our existence: one is the perishable part i.e. our body-mind which is matter and the other part is the imperishable part i.e. our Atman (pure consciousness) which is energy. The imperishable part is the space which is beyond thoughts and emotions. The more we are aware of this space, the more we are able to see life as it is and live a conflict-free life. Ultimately, this is the space which brings all kinds of health because this space connects us to the Source of life. The whole purpose of human birth is to awaken one’s consciousness of the imperishable part of our existence which is beyond the body-mind. It is only by sitting with self in meditation that one can access to this space. When he is established in this space permanently, he becomes a liberated soul (Jivan Mukta) who is beyond the cycle of birth and death.
For those people who are old and sick, it is unfortunate that they did not have the right understanding to change their life in this birth. But many people like the children, youths, adults and institutions can be taught of this new health consciousness so that humanity as a whole, starts making changes in their unconscious lifestyle and the current false order of the world. It is time we get back to a spiritual lifestyle where spiritual practices are a way of life. Namaste. 🙂