The subject of yoga attitude towards illness is ofinterest to both the ill and the well. How to maintain a rightattitude at times and seasons that affect us adversely also forms anessential part of the topic of, let us say, the yoga attitude to thebody. Quite often when we speak of the immortality of the spirit, andthe cycles of incarnations, freedom from the bondage of karma, finalliberation from the cycles, and the ultimate goal in human life beingspiritual, a false impression is created as though in the traditionof meditation we consider the physical body to be somewhatunimportant. That is certainly not the case. Because if the physicalbody was unimportant, why would we talk so much about posture,breathing, health, diet, nutrition, and psychosomatic factors, whichactually is the association most people have of Yoga in U.S.A. So thebody is certainly very important; though it is not the end, it is themeans to the higher realization. And if you do not have a positiveattitude to the body, you develop all kinds of complexes.
I must admit that for a long period of my life, Ipersonally considered the body to be unimportant and paid noattention to its needs or its health. But that is a personalconfession of failure rather than a statement of the yoga attitude. Isaid to myself, as many others might also do: well, if I practice mymeditation I'll keep generating my prana; the body will stay healthy.In my travels I paid no attention to my mealtimes and otherrequirements like a necessary rest period and so on. Then came a timewhen it hit me, and I learned my lesson and have considered the bodyto be somewhat more important than I thought at first.
I like to share my own personal explorations oflife. The mistakes I have made and how I have learned from them. Icontinued my work here, nobody suspected that I had become very illbecause I managed to overcome some of the handicap caused by thatillness. I travelled to another country as I do and found that manypeople who came to see me there, were suffering from the sameparticular illness, which without their knowledge, I had gonethrough. Now, what struck me was, that all of these people were sovery depressed about their illness. That was a revelation to me. Ifound out for the first time in my life, only some years ago, thatpeople actually get depressed about the fact of being ill. It hadnever occured to me before.
I see this being here sitting before you as acomposite of, say arbitrarily, three factors. I who am the purespirit, who am unborn and therefore immortal, and in past, present,future continuing from infinity into infinity, and that is the one Itruly identify myself with. In my philosophy that is what I am. Thatis the being that you are. We keep saying that and we need to keepreminding ourselves of that in our meditation when we forget. Weforget because we think, well, there is some kind of a high falutinphilosophy up there. It has nothing to do with us, here, now, inreality, in practical life. So people don't build their attitude oflife around that principle, around that goal of true spiritualrealization. That is from where all the problems arise.
There is a part of my composite being called themind, the psyche. That is the link between the pure spirit and thisphysical body. Then there is this physical body which is controlledby the mind. This physical body is the instrument, a tool. If I amill and have a certain handicap caused by that illness and I carry onwith my daily life.....Well you know what happens, it is like typingon a typewriter in which a certain letter sticks. Have you ever donethat? You keep typing and typing and suddenly it sticks and itreminds you, well, you have to take care of it, have it repaired;till then it keeps getting stuck there.
Now some people get angry at the typewriter. Smashit, hit it, pick it up and dash it on the ground. Right? Or some suchthing. See the relationship of the mind and the body in two ways. Onone hand almost all physical illnesses are a long term product ofyour mental attitude. It is like having to sit down finally and writea check to pay off a debt. You know that writing a check is never avery pleasant experience. You don't welcome the moment when you haveto pay that much money. Is there anybody who welcomes that moment?Unless I am writing a donation; the only welcome moment when writingchecks is when we write out a donation or a loving gift.
But, you see, you have had a lingering debt andyou finally write out the last installment. How do you feel aboutthat? That is the way I feel about any physical discomfort in mylife. Every discomfort is paying off some old debt, some karma. If Idon't pay it off now, and postpone it, I'll have to pay it off someother place. Maybe by then the interest rate will rise; what ahorrible thought! And that is a fact of life. Well better pay it offnow, than to have to wait.
So I feel a sense of relief; this is done and overwith. All right; then I wonder what is the next debt that I have topay. I prepare myself for that time, that moment, whenever it iscalled for I have to pay it. But you see, I do not identify myselfmerely with this physical body. Human beings are an enormously richphenomenon; a human being is a bag of treasures, the diamonds and therubies of light which have not yet been counted by anyone. It is thisbag of flesh and bones which outwardly is sometimes such a nuisanceas every hole in the body oozes. There is so much to take care of it.One night you don't brush your teeth and you know the fruits oflaziness. O.K.? But you see, you won't be able to put up with thisbody, this occasional or regular nuisance unless you keep a goodsense of humour about it. So I now don't identify myself with justthe physical body. I mean, look inside your body. It's a beautifulmachine, so finely calibrated...from the brain down to all systems,so finely calibrated, so well balanced. How well it serves us. Butits disadvantages can be pretty overbearing if we did not have, one,a good sense of humour about it and two, if we did not know, as manyof us do not seem to know or have forgotten, that I am not only thisbody. But if I did not have any of this philosophy, but my body was100 lbs. bigger, would you think I would be a greater man than what Iam now? Would that make me any greater? Or if I only weighed 72 lbs.,would my teaching be less effective? What do you think? Or if my earswere shaped like that of an elephant? What I'm saying is: please doremember that your personality is not just your eyes and ears, whichis not the shape of your nose or of your lips, which is not your maleor female sex. But your mental personality is an enormously richphenomenon composed of treasures, the diamonds and rubies of light,which you have not yet counted.
Now, what do you feel when your one account isoverdrawn $10 but on another account you have $10,000 surplus? Youdon't declare bankruptcy, do you? You don't say you are penniless.You transfer from your rich account into your poor account. Knowingthe disadvantages of this body, knowing the problems that it createswhen one fails to take care of this body, then finally a day ofreckoning comes and you begin to feel ill. I feel ill. I rememberthat I am not this body alone. So I live in a world which isimmensely rich, a world of the happy mind, a loving mind. Knowingthat a part of my being is even richer than all the experiences thatthis body is capable of giving, I have not found myself ever becomingdepressed about physical illness. Physical illness you can controlonly somewhat if you lead a good life, maintain a good diet, maintaina good balance and don't do as I do, stay up nights to work and soon. But remember that apart from this body you have some other areasof your being which at the same time are immensely rich.
We often wallow in self-pity, without reason. Wego out in the evening to laugh and enjoy ourselves in a party but assoon as we get into the car and get home, we feel sorry for ourselveson one account or another. Gradually those attitudes of the mind,when repeated, become our mental habits. When the mind develops acertain habit, the brain responds. The physical brain then releasesthese little commands, little bursts of neuronic energy. Littlecommands for the flow of hormones which then try to balance up andcompensate for all kinds of other imbalances that we have created.For instance, a person keeps getting angry every day. So every dayhis brain has to release a certain hormone to balance it. Slowly onetiny cell quits, one little organ begins to complain. It takes 10years, 15 years, 20 years of maintaining a wrong attitude and thensuddenly the body shows its response, its result. Now at that point,some body situations are reversible by changing the attitude of themind. Some body situations are not so easily reversible. Now thereare two things that you can do about it. Situations that arereversible by changing your diet, by changing your breathing pattern,by changing your emotional pattern, all right, you reverse thesituation and you regain your health. If the situation is notreversible, you can do three things about it. The first of which Iknow is difficult to do that is to really really remember, that thisis another debt paid off, and feel a sense of relief about it. Evenif you cannot feel that sense of relief, there are two things thatyou need to do. One is that you reduce its effects on your body.Swami Rama Tirtha, who was a great Swami, came to USA in thebeginning of this century. In his early youth he was a very sicklyfellow. Brilliant man, but sickly. He took to yoga and conquered allthe handicaps and defeated the best runners in a race. But you seeyou will not rise above your physical handicaps unless you startlearning, unless you learn that the mind is the master of thisbody.
The question arises as to what to do with themind? Does one keep giving orders to the ulcer: go away, go away?What to do with one's laryngitis? Some years back one day I was sick,with burning fever and laryngitis; I really could not speak. But thatevening I had to be interviewed by Henry Wolf my old friend, who usedto call me every year to his TV program in Minneapolis. On thescheduled evening I was suffering with laryngitis and could notspeak. I got up from the bed, I dressed, went out, still with theburning fever. I was interviewed and nobody could suspect I hadlaryngitis. When I came down from the stage I had laryngitis, again,and I couldn't speak.
What I'm saying is that there are mentalmechanisms in your body that can help you bypass some of yourhandicaps and disadvantages. But you have to learn that mind is themaster of the body and if you cannot bypass them now, over a longterm, over a long period of time you can create those balanced statesof mind which do not make you unhappy, which remove unhappiness fromyou.
The greatest sickness in the world is unhappinessof the mind. You can literally laugh some of your diseases off, ashas been proved by others.
When I'm feeling ill and troubled with the bodysomehow, sometimes, I make sure I put on cheerful clothes and readcheerful books and create cheer around me. You say, well do you havethe energy to do so? The energy comes from the mind.
So learn to reduce the effects of your physicalillness by changing your life pattern, and that is what yoga is allabout, and learn to reduce the mental effects. Observe this body as aneutral person. This body is yours to keep. This body is yours topreserve and to strengthen. But this body is not the whole of you.You have another account in which you still have $10,000. In thisimmensely rich personality, you have gems of light and illuminationand that is the cheer your mind can create for you. Good mindedness,pleasant mindedness, happy mindedness, create that and for yourrelatives also who are ill create the same good mindedness and itreduces the strength and the intensity of the handicap that iscreated by an illness.
For the attitude to this body I would like toquote a passage I wrote in 1964:
I live in a cave, a spacious grotto
with many exits of diverse contours,
many coloured beams of lights
pouring in, radiating out -
a thread of life to and fro.
For further detail on this ask the MeditationCenter, Minneapolis, for this author's cassettes on Eupsychea;Goodmindedness.
My cave in a mountain, volcanic,shaking,
quiet restful for long moments,
and again suddenly quaking.
This my cave looks out
to roads, to paths and valleys, to othermountains,
to sailing clouds that lightning rows.
I sit and watch many a procession,
shouting hilariously, mourningsilently,
curious, halting to peep in at me
or indifferent passing
while evenings diminish
or mornings grow.
Warm is the fire I have kindled
and fed with life-fuel;
ashen sleep I blow away.
Stirred awake
the embers glow
Flickering footwork, dancing shadows,
grotesque paintings, darkness mixed
with outer lights and alien rainbows.
Afeared so, I quit this fire,
rushing to my river of depths,
silent waters flowing to quench
bursting flaming thirst-volcanoes.
Safely tucked in mountain's womb,
cool, collected, smiling, poised,
I take a dip of withdrawal
to my subterranean river -
While abroad, the world's procession
lost, wearied, whither-so-ever goes!
There are subterranean rivers within you at acertain place in this cave, in this residence of yours. At the outerhalls of the cave, the psychic levels, you have inner darknessconflicting with outer lights and outer darkness mingling with innerlights, as well as all kinds of shades and shadows and fantasies andfears. But you go deeper, you get to the subtler place in you. You goto the subterranean river of energy and life. There you learn to beneutral to those parts of your body about which you can do nothing,for there are other sources of happiness for the mind. Find thosesources of happiness, create that happiness and you will find thatthere is more energy in you, there is more life in you, there is morecreativity in you, there are greater sources of fulfillment in youthan you have thought possible. The Yogis will keep saying this againand again and again. But people listen and they go out of the lecturehall and forget. Do not forget. That's all.
While giving this lecture the author asked theaudience: Now you tell me, if you have to come here for gettingcheered up and being inspired, where should I go? Someone from theaudience replied: within. The speaker continued: Well, why don't yougo to the same place, go to the center within you, there is so muchfulfillment there that one little key getting stuck in the typewriterof your body will not make you smash the typewriter inanger.
Swami Veda Bharati was trained from childhood inmeditation and yoga philosophy and has taught yoga to thousands ofpeople from an early age. He is an expert in raja yoga which is thesource of all branches of yoga. A faculty member of the HimalayanInstitute, he has written many books and articles on yoga andmeditation. In addition to his writing and meditation, Swami Veda haslectured and taught meditation throughout the world.
Now you can have 5,000 years of wisdom, knowledgeand inspiration in your own home. Swami Veda's taped lectures allowyou to study, meditate and review various facets of yoga science atyour own pace and level.
In 1982, Dr. Arya took the vows of swamihood, andis now known as Swami Veda Bharati. He lives in Rishikesh,India.
You may get a catalog of his taped audio lecturesto:
West-Art Publishers, 10545 Main Street, Clarence,NY 14031. Telephone (716) 759-6078, fax (716) 759-7925.
May we recommend some books?
Livingwith the Himalayan Masters, by SwamiRama
Primerfor Those Who Would Govern, by HermannOberth
SevenYears in Tibet, by HeinrichHarrer
ArnoBreker: The Divine Beauty in Art, by B.John Zavrel
Mantraand Meditation, by Dr. UsharbudhArya
Alexanderthe Great, by Robin Lane Fox