Most people are underworked and they have ill health today.
Health is life's way.
If you allow life to function fully,
It is healthy.
Only by using this body you can keep it well.
The more you use it,
The better it gets.
There was a young physician once.
He went to his senior colleague and said he had some problem with a certain diagnosis of a patient.
Then the senior colleague said,
Oh nerves and vomiting,
Is it?
Yes,
But I don't find any medical reason for him to be having nerves and vomiting.
So the senior colleague suggested,
You ask him if he is playing golf.
If he is playing,
You tell him to stop.
If he says I'm not playing,
Ask him to play.
He'll become okay.
Health is like that.
Really.
Some people are overworked and they have ill health.
Most people are underworked and they have ill health today.
If you lived here on this planet 200 years ago,
Physically you would be doing at least twenty times more activity than what you're doing right now,
Physically.
Definitely,
Isn't it?
You would have walked to this place,
You would have done everything with your hands.
You would be doing minimum twenty times more activity.
I think I'm wrong,
Hundred times probably.
Some of you,
Two hundred fifty times.
So if you were doing that much activity,
Then I would have told you take a break,
Take some rest.
Now the body has not been used.
Only by using this body you can keep it well.
When you say health,
You're talking about physical health.
You must use this body.
The more you use it,
The better it gets.
A few years ago,
When we were a small group of people here,
I took them on a trek.
So when we were walking,
At that time,
Almost six weeks before that,
A naval helicopter took off from Mangalore.
I heard stories about it,
I don't know how far as two people said.
There were some important documents on the plane and things like that,
And I mean on the helicopter with four senior officers,
Three senior officers and a pilot,
The helicopter crashed into the jungle.
It's very thick.
Western Ghats,
The mountains in the jungle is very,
Very thick.
And six weeks later,
They had not found the helicopter.
So a full battalion of army was camped there,
Combing the jungle from one end to another to locate this helicopter and recover whatever they had to recover from that place.
So there was a whole battalion of armed personnel,
Maybe about two hundred,
Two hundred and fifty people camped and they were combing the jungles.
They have been there for six weeks.
So when we walked in,
We were like… we were having problems cooking and everything because it was pouring rain and we had walked for a whole day and then we walked into this army camp and made ourselves into uninvited guests because the food was smelling good.
And you really know only the value of food only when you used your body,
Like that.
If you walk twenty,
Thirty kilometers in a day,
At the end of the day if you have not eaten the whole day,
You really value food.
So we walked in and this officer was very generous,
He welcomed us and he was very happy to have us,
The captain who was there.
And one of the sergeants in India… in Indian Army they are known as Havildar… what?
Havildars.
And this guy just looked at us and he asked us,
Why are you walking?
He said,
Just like that,
We want to walk.
He couldn't believe it.
Just like that.
We are here for six weeks,
We are just waiting when this damn thing will be over.
Every day we have to walk twenty,
Thirty kilometers searching for this damn helicopter which we can't find.
And you are just walking for fun.
He just wouldn't believe us,
Is it possible that somebody could just walk for fun?
Blisters in your legs and you know,
He just couldn't believe that.
He doesn't understand what he is doing as a force exercise in the army.
He is keeping him so healthy and well.
Yes,
He doesn't understand that.
So,
Health,
One of the simplest things about health is just to use the body.
If you sufficiently use the body,
Body has everything to create health for itself.
Does it mean to say that's the only thing,
Nothing else will happen to me,
I'll be perfect?
I would say if we physically used our body as much as we should,
I would say eighty percent of the ailments on this planet would just disappear.
Eighty percent.
The remaining twenty percent in that,
Another ten percent is because of the type of foods that people are eating.
They change the food habit.
Another ten percent would disappear,
That means only ten percent ailment would remain.
That has happened because of variety of reasons.
One is karmic,
Another could be atmospheric and there are other aspects that could have happened in the system which can be looked at.
Out of all the sick people,
If ninety percent of them become healthy just by using the body and eating the right food,
Ten percent could be easily handled.
But now the volume of ailment is so big because we don't eat properly or we eat very properly and we don't use the body properly.
So,
Apart from this,
There are other aspects to life.
To put it very simply,
As we exercise your body,
If you just do this a thousand times a day,
Just do like this thousand times a day and after one month just see how well your hand will work.
Nothing else,
Just sit here and just do this thousand times a day.
After thirty days,
You'll find your hand works wonderfully well.
If you do that with your brains,
It will work wonderfully well in a month's time.
If you do this with your heart,
It'll work wonderfully well.
If you do that with your life energies,
It will work wonderfully well.
When all these things work well,
That's health.
So,
You just have to use your body,
Use your head and use your energies.
If these three things are well exercised and balanced,
You will be healthy.
This happened to me once,
This is way back I'm talking.
This was just the second or third Vyavaspanthana program I was conducting and it was one of those little choultries where,
You know,
You had to run up the staircase and up and down any number of times because the arrangement was like that.
I just counted that day,
One particular day.
I'm teaching but I had to manage the kitchen and da-da-da everything.
I went up and down the staircase hundred-and-twenty-five times in that day and I felt very healthy at the end of the Vyavaspanthana.
I'm sure many of you who have volunteered in the Vyavaspanthana programs have become very strong and healthy.
Sudden burst of activity may lay you down but if you build activity into your life,
Physical,
Mental and energy,
All these things if you build in,
Health will come.
Your body is working well,
Your mind is working well and your energy is supporting the two,
Making sure nothing goes wrong,
That's health.
Life is happening in full flow,
That's health.
Health is not an idea,
It is not a medical idea.
The medical fraternity and the medical knowledge has become more and more essential because we have built in very unhealthy lifestyles.
Never before in the world medicine had the kind of importance as it is having today.
Simply because we are becoming more and more sedentary,
So we are becoming more and more unhealthy.
Hundred years ago,
What a sixty-year-old person was doing,
Physical activity,
That much activity a twenty-year-old cannot do it today.
That means we are just weakening humanity.
A degenerate humanity we will become over a period of time.
So,
You must use it.
Health is not something that you invent,
Health is not your idea.
Health is life happening well.
The life process is happening well,
That's health.
Health is life's way.
If you allow life to function fully,
It is healthy.
