Transformation for perfect health

 

Only a healthy bud can blossom. Similarly, only a healthy person can succeed. Health is just not the absence of disease but it is also being mentally serene and emotionally soft. If the mind is stiff and unsteady, one is not mentally healthy. When the emotions are rough, one is not emotionally healthy.

The state of good health is called “swastha” in Sanskrit. It also means ‘being established in one’s Self’ and is not just confined to the body or mind. It has to come as a gift from the cosmic mind- from the innermost of one’s being to the outermost and vice versa.

Sometimes when you enter a room inhabited by a disturbed person, you start feeling disturbed for no reason even if the person is no longer in the room. You have the same feelings, same thoughts and same emotions as that person. Similarly, when there is a harmonious vibration like a place of satsang (chanting or singing), you feel good for no reason.

Feelings are not isolated to one’s body, they are all around. It is the same with the breath and the mind. They are in the whole environment. If there is a fire the heat is not just inside the fire but radiating throughout the place. If one is unhappy or depressed, the feeling spreads to the whole environment.

Other people’s words and actions create jealousy, anger, frustration or sadness in a mind that is not centered. The unstable mind contributes to the process and hence, we become responsible for our negative emotions even though it appears that someone else has triggered it.

When we meditate and do pranayama, we increase prana or the subtle life energy. When we attend to the subtle, the gross is healed. The breath is subtler than the body and when attended to, it heals the body. Similarly, prana being the subtler heals the emotions.

Being individually happy is not enough. A frustrated man will spread frustration; a jealous person will spread jealousy. Everyone we meet has to be happy and radiate happiness. This is the only way we can have that unshakeable peace and happiness.

If somebody is shooting an arrow at you, insulting you, realise that they are doing it because they are miserable. They are pouring out their stress, tension and anxiety. When you have blossomed from within, you can take any insult and turn it into your advantage.

When someone commits a mistake, he is not the culprit; the stress within is the cause. Once, the stress is got rid of, then there is no culprit- no one needs to be forgiven. We begin to realise that the whole thing is just a game in which there is no winner or loser. It’s just a play and fun.

The objective is to have joy in life and make sure that the knowledge we gain permeates within us. As we learn more about life, the mystery of the whole creation unfolds. Then the question in the mind is: What is the meaning of life? and What is its purpose? What is this world? What is love? What is knowledge?

Once these questions arise in you, know that you are very fortunate. These questions need to be  understood; you cannot find their answers in books. You have to live through them and witness the transformation. That is perfect health; you are transformed from within. And the bud becomes a totally blossomed flower.

Balance the mind with meditation

 

Have you observed what is happening in your mind every moment? It vacillates between the past and the future. It is either in the past occupied with what has happened or in the future thinking about what you have to do.

Knowledge is being aware of this phenomenon of the mind — of what is happening right now in your mind as you are reading this article. Information can be acquired by reading books or browsing the Internet. You can open a book on any subject such as how to lose weight, how to prepare for an interview, success 101 and so on. There are innumerable volumes available on a countless number of topics, but the awareness of your own mind cannot be learnt from a book.

There is another tendency of the mind – it clings onto the negative. If 10 positive events are followed by one negative event, the mind will cling to the negative. It will simply forget the 10 positive events.

With meditation, however, you can become aware of these two tendencies of the mind and bring it to the present. Happiness, joy, enthusiasm, efficiency and effectiveness are all in the present.

The human mind is very complex. It has its delicate and tough aspects. If you have had a misunderstanding with a friend or colleague at work, you can become stiff inside and this can distort your emotions leading to negativity and you carry this negativity wherever you go.

However, when you culture your mind with meditation, its tendency of holding on to negative emotions simply disappears. You gain the ability to start living in the present moment and are able to let go of the past.

Balancing the States of Mind

In your day-to-day life, you come across all kinds of situations that can be challenging and demanding a degree of alertness to be able to make good choices. These situations give rise to different states of mind and neither life nor the states of mind occur with our permission. In fact, they often occur in direct defiance to our wishes.

Meditation can bring about a balance between the different states of the mind. You can learn to switch from the tough aspect to the delicate aspect within you. You can stand up when needed and let go when needed. This ability is present within everyone, and meditation enables you to switch between these states effortlessly. The whole exercise is to develop an ability to switch back and forth between the tough and delicate aspects of the mind.

One of the biggest deterrents for people not being able to meditate is that they don’t have enough time. Yet when they start to meditate, they find they have more time, because they are able to focus and get more done. Not only that, the regular practice of meditation also leads to greater intuitiveness. It sharpens the mind through focus and expands it through relaxation.

With the integration of meditation into one’s daily life, a fifth state of consciousness, called cosmic consciousness, dawns. Cosmic consciousness means perceiving the whole cosmos as part of oneself. When we perceive the world as a part of us, love flows strongly between the world and us. This love empowers us to bear the opposing forces and the disturbances in our lives. Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish.

Rest and activity are opposite values, but they complement each other. The deeper you are able to rest, the more dynamic you will be in activity. Planning can hold you back from diving deep into yourself. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth.

Restlessness, agitation, desire and ambition stir up the mind and keep it engaged planning for the future or being regretful about the past. Real freedom is freedom from the past and future.

The confluence of knowledge, understanding and practice make life complete. When you grow into higher states of consciousness, you find that you are no longer thrown off-balance by different situations and disturbances. A regular practice can transform the quality of your life by culturing the nervous system to maintain peace, energy and expanded awareness throughout the day. You become beautiful yet strong, capable of accommodating different challenges in life without any conditions.