Good health, for instance, is your original stature. If you take ill, the doctor merely tries to remove your illness – and that is all he can do. He cannot give you good health. You have to strive and gain it yourself. So it is with spirituality too. Vedaanta removes the spiritual disease, which is ignorance - and allows you to regain your original stature, which is the Ultimate Truth; Vedaanta gives you knowledge to come out of your ignorance. Vedaanta teaches you to know the truth about yourself. This truth is that you are not the body-mind complex; you are verily the Aatma, which is Brahman.
As a young person in my twenties and even later, I never realized how important it is to keep in good health. I was healthy and was enjoying life in general – enjoying eating out at every opportunity, smoking - and never bothered about physical exercise. In those days, information on fatty foods, smoking and the need for exercise, was not known to us at all - the media never focused on such topics as it is being done now.
I was hit very hard one day in my late thirties for the first time, when my health suddenly gave me a fright. I will not describe here what went wrong with my health – but it did give me the shock of my life.
I had a very innocent wife and four excellent young kids - and what happens to them if my health fails? For the first time, I began to think how important it is for me to keep in good health. Immediately, I got into healthy eating habits and quit smoking. (I started smoking again a few years later but quit it again finally) I started daily Yoga Asanas - and brisk walking a few years later. In my mid forties, I started practicing meditation also.
One of the important Mantras I gave my children and through them to my grand children is “What you put in your mind, what you put in your mouth and what you do to your body decides your health and happiness”. Everything in life revolves round your health. If your health breaks down, you can achieve nothing. That is why they say in India that “Aarogyam is Mahaa Bhaagyam” (Good health is your greatest fortune)
Read the biographies of modern industrial tycoons – and you will find that all of them, without exception, enjoyed excellent health. They enjoyed excellent health, because they worked hard for it. One of the important management rules is “Always imitate a successful person”.
Therefore, if you do not work hard at maintaining good health, I will not call you a successful person – no matter how successful you are in your profession. The physical exercise has to be a vigorous and it has to be done daily. You can give up a meal but not your daily exercise. They say that wise persons are those who profit by others’ mistakes.
The next thought is about “Coping with adversity and prejudice”
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