What Is Healing?

How old is the healing science? We can't say how old the healing science is; it may be as old as human beings are, or humanity is, or perhaps much older.

What exactly do we mean by the word 'healing'? When a sick kitten gets healed or becomes alright when the mother cat licks it, at that moment, you can say healing takes place.

Buddha gives a beautiful explanation or definition for the word 'healing'. He says healing is our way of expressing our compassion, expressing our care towards somebody to help cure him.

Healing is nothing but helping a person restore his physical, mental and emotional well-being. At any level, healing can happen; we can help somebody to restore their physical wellbeing. We can help somebody restore their mental well-being or we can help somebody restore their emotional well-being.

In other words, giving someone a feeling of well-being is healing. According to me, allowing Him to work on us is healing. When I say Him, I mean the Divine personality, the Divine Energy. We may call Him by various names but allowing Him to work on us is healing.

If we can give a few courteous words to others, a few good words to make them feel comfortable, which make them feel joyful, even that can be termed healing.

An experiment was conducted in Ohio University in the 1970's to study heart diseases. A toxic, high cholesterol diet was fed to rabbits to bring about a blockage in their arteries. All the rabbit groups showed consistent results except one group. Strangely 60 percent fewer symptoms resulted in this group of rabbits. It was found that the student who was in charge of feeding this group of rabbits was in the habit of fondling and petting them. He used to hold each rabbit lovingly for a few minutes each day before feeding them. It was amazing that this alone seemed to enable the animals to overcome the toxic diet. When experiments were repeated with one group treated neutrally and the other lovingly, the same results were brought about.

So let us look into the major healing systems created by the great Master, Patanjali, in ancient Bharat. There are thousands of great Masters, rishis and mystics who were healers. Almost all the spiritual Masters expressed their energy only in the form of healing others, only in the form of healing the people, healing the sick. There was, and is,

no Master, mystic or rishi whose life was not associated with at least one or two healing miracles, always human beings. Especially Hindus have gone to Masters or rishis, to be healed. Not only that, to qualify as a Master in the eyes of the common man, a person has to exhibit healing powers.

There are thousands of records, proofs, and testimonials to show that there is something called 'healing' happening. Whether at the physical, mental, emotional, psychological or being level, healing continues to happen through so many Masters in so many ways. Let us see the healing system created by the great Master, Patanjali, one of the greatest Masterminds of healing. Of the thousands of Masters who were born in the East, Patanjali is one of the greatest.

According to Patanjali, there are seven energy centers or seven charkas in our body. These seven energy centers are the Masters of our physical, mental, emotional, psychological, intellectual and being level activities. Our entire physical, mental, emotional, psychological, intellectual and being level activities are managed by these energy centers. They can be broadly associated with certain glands in our bodies. Of course chakras are not glands but they can roughly be associated with some of the medical glands. Chakras are the energy centers which make medical glands work.

We may wonder, 'What is the proof that something called a chakra exists? The concept of energy centers within the human system may have been dismissed a few decades ago for the simple reason there was no tangible proof of their

Part 4: Don't Worry, Be Happy!_English_part_4.md

existence. In recent times, Kirlian photography and other techniques have demonstrated that these chakras exist and they are the energy fields in us. This new kind of photography, called Kirlian photography, was made popular in Russia. With this, just like X-rays, you can discover a bone fracture, tuberculosis or any disease related to the bones. Just like X-rays, Kirlian photography is also used as a diagnostic system.

Through this Kirlian photography, you can photograph the aura body of every single individual. Aura means the subtle light that is continuously emitted by our body. Our body emits a subtle light continuously. By photographing that light, Kirlian photographers are able to diagnose, six months ahead of its symptoms, any disease which is going to manifest in a person. Sickness can be prevented even before a person has any idea that he is going to be sick. This way we can be cured even before we have any knowledge of our illness on the physical plane. The energy aura will look shrunken.

Research has also shown that if a person is depressed or dull, the chakras are seen only as button-sized energy centers. However, if the person is joyful, blissful, ecstatic or in a meditative state, these chakras seem to expand to the size of a car wheel even! When photographed, they appear as the size of a car wheel; that is, they expand almost sixty to seventy times. Through this photography, scientists have proved one more thing, that our emotions play a major role in the chakras; our mind plays a major role in our energy

centers; our mind matters. The play of mind over matter, that is the play of mind over our body, is proven by this Kirlian photography.

There are thousands of other pieces of research recorded by various scientists who are working on the various spiritual healing systems. They have all come up with a big discovery, that the mind plays a major role in the body. Dale Carnegie says, 'Whether Jesus saves or not, we do not know, but prayer saves, because the very attitude of praying, the very attitude of meditating, creates positive vibrations in our being, in our body.'

Each and every one of our chakras is related to some emotion in us. For example, love is related to the anahata chakra, the chakra in the heart center. In almost every language around the world, heart and love are two words that are synonymous. It's not that God created all the languages on a single day and made phonetic packages and dropped them, no. The different languages were created in different places, by different people and in different situations but it is a strange coincidence that in almost all languages, heart and love are two words that are synonymous. Of course, such a major thing can never be a coincidence. There must be some reason behind it.

For example, you see one of your friends, a childhood friend, with whom you have cherished loving memories. You see him after ten years at the airport or in a mall. The moment you see him, you can feel something flowing from

your heart region. The experience of this feeling is what we call love.

Similarly, the navel chakra is related to worry. If you receive some news that is shocking, which you are not able to put up with, immediately you will feel the first blow in the navel region. The first problem will be a stomach upset. Again, in so many languages, when people hear sad news, they say, 'I can't stomach it.' The stomach is very sensitive to our thoughts. The moment worry starts in your system, it will express only in the stomach. The stomach is very closely associated with worry. You will always notice that people who are ambitious, who are perfectionists, will have ulcers. Too much perfectionism will lead to stomach trouble and ulcers. Ulcers mean that we are continuously grinding out worries. Continuously chewing on worries will lead to ulcers.

Each and every emotion is related to one of your energy centers, one of your chakras. If that emotion is used properly, the chakra functions well. If the emotion is abused, the chakra shrinks and disease prevails.

Rishis have declared that the very nature of man is bliss. Bliss can be defined as unchanging, everlasting happiness. It is our nature to experience bliss, even though most often we don't experience it this way. Children are always in bliss and progressively lose it as they grow up. Bliss is continuously happening in ourselves, yet we do not experience it at all. Why? We are constantly stopping the flow of energy that results in bliss; that is why. We do this through a bundle

of negative emotions. We actually stop the flow of bliss. And this, in turn, causes blockages in our chakras.

Several negative factors like childhood traumas, cultural conditioning, restrictive or exhausting habits, physical and emotional injuries, or even just a lack of attention when you are craving it, all contribute to the blockage of the various chakras. For each difficulty perceived in our life, we develop a coping strategy. When the difficulties persist, these coping strategies become chronic patterns, anchored in the body as defense structures. And this, in turn, prevents the free flow of energy in our system, in our being. So we stagnate and become a closed system with the chakras blocked. It is important to recognize the blocks we carry, find ways to understand their source and meaning and find ways to heal them.

All the chakra blockages are due to emotional imbalance only and emotional imbalance is nothing but the play of mind over matter.

When our chakras are blocked, disease happens to us. If our body and mind are at ease with each other, we feel the easeness in us. If our body and mind are not at ease with each other, we feel the dis-easeness, the disease. Disease happens to us if our body and mind are not at ease with each other. The diseaseness between the body and mind expresses as a disease in our body. For any disease, we can find the root of the disease from this disturbance of the associated chakra. Today, the modern day psychologists have proved that more than eighty

percent of diseases are psychosomatic, meaning they have their root in the mind. They originate from the mind and then come to the body. The root is the mind, not the body.

One lady was always worried about her health. As much as her family tried to convince her that nothing was really wrong with her and that it was all a play of her mind, she would not listen. One day, a visitor came to her house. As usual, she started complaining to him about her ill health. The family sat around in silence. The visitor said, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you look fine to me. I don't think you should think this way about your health.' The lady cried out, 'What are you saying? I would collapse now if I was not so weak!'

You see, the mind, beyond all logic, keeps telling us that we are sick. Actually the mind and body are two aspects of the same phenomenon; mind and body are not two different things. That is why the body is a psychosomatic phenomenon. Mind is the subtlest part of the body and the body is the grossest part of the mind. And they both affect each other; they run parallel. When we suppress something in the mind, the body will begin a suppressing path. If the mind releases everything, the body also releases everything.

What we do not realize is that even our thoughts have power. The Hindu scripture, Brihadaranya Upanishad says, 'As our thoughts are, so is our will; as our will is, so is our action; as we act, we become.'

Our lives are driven by our thoughts and thoughts are energy. The cosmic energy is linked to individual energy. The separation we see is only our illusion. It is possible for us to tap into the inexhaustible cosmic energy, instead of which, we choose to live in a shackled compartment of depleted energy.

When the chakras in our body are disturbed because of the suppressions in the mind, we see we are in disease. There are several techniques to release these blocks that will result in a healthy body. When the body is pure, when it is healthy, we see tremendous new energies flowing, arising, new dimensions opening before us, new doors suddenly opening to new possibilities. The body has much hidden power. Once it is released, we will not be able to believe that the body carried so many things in it, that it has so much potential in it. Joy and fulfillment keep us healthy and extend our life.

Generally, we all carry this opinion in our minds, that our senses are destroying us, that the body is our enemy. We are taught from a young age that the body is our enemy and we have to control it. From childhood, we always hear statements such as, 'Don't go out in the rain. You will catch a cold. Don't play too much; you will feel tired. Don't overeat; you will have indigestion. Don't go out in the sun; you will get a headache'…and what not. When you start loving your body, you don't have to control it. You will have a deep relationship with it.

Someone asked me, 'Don't we have to control the senses?' Yes, but how can you clearly tell the difference between the two? The only thing we know clearly is the gross body, so we start controlling it. Gradually, with a lot of practice, you can succeed in controlling your senses but you only become insensitive. When do you feel the need to control someone? When you don't trust them. You control your body because you have lost trust in it. You could end up losing all your sensitivity, your joy of life, without attaining anything.

Instead, it is best to enter into a relationship of deep love, of respect, not only with your body, but with everything. By entering deeply into the system with love, clarity and compassion, we can get out of the negative aspect of it. So, the right thing to do is to cooperate with our body, to trust in our body wisdom. Drop all negativity, all hostility and all ideas of controlling the body from our mind. This will slowly free us from the idea that we are our body.

Someone asked me, 'Swamiji, how can we drop control?' The truth is, whatever is controlled will express itself in some other way. It will refuse to be controlled! We just have to drop the negativity and see!

-A real incident:

Once a young man came to me and asked me to help him stop smoking. I asked him how he had picked up the habit in the first place. He said once he had gone out with a group of friends who were all smokers.

Unfortunately for him, he met his father on the road that day. Seeing him in the group, his father assumed that he, too, had been smoking. When he returned home, his father yelled at him, refusing to believe that his son had not been smoking. The next day, the boy said, he smoked a whole pack of cigarettes, just to spite his father! In that way he gradually got addicted.

When he asked me how to drop it, I told him, 'Don't drop it. Go ahead and smoke but don't do it to prove anything to anybody. Don't do it to spite your father. And don't imagine that you have become mature and independent by smoking! Every time you pick up a cigarette, do it silently. Be conscious of why you are smoking. You will realize on your own.'

After just a few days, the boy returned to me. He said, 'Swamiji, I'm not able to smoke anymore! Doing it consciously, I realize that I was not smoking for the sake of smoking. Smoking is not that important to me.'

Then he added something which made me very happy. He said, 'Swamiji, I realize now that I have been abusing my body all these days, by pushing smoke into my system!'

When we become conscious of what we are doing, many things drop on their own. This is the only permanent solution. Of course, it may take a few days to awaken the intelligence. The patience to wait till then is what is called tapasya, the penance. In the meantime, don't fall back on second-rate intelligence that you have picked up from society, from the moral codes set up by society. Have trust in your body!

We always live in deep fear of our bodies. We feel as if we are sitting on a volcano. The moment we sense a cold or fever coming up, the day we have the slightest headache, we reach out for a pill. It has become totally accepted for us to swallow pills for no reason. Most of our common ailments can be easily handled with a little care but we don't credit our body with the power to heal itself. When our body can digest food, pump blood, mend broken bones and perform a thousand other complicated tasks without help from outside, can't it take care of a fever or a headache?

Allow your body to function according to its own intelligence and you will see for yourself how much wisdom your body has! There is actually something called body intelligence but we cannot see it until we drop the doubt! We must have the courage and trust to test it in our life; then we will find there is tremendous body intelligence available to us; there is no need to control the body at all. So by realizing the body intelligence, we become aware of our negativities and we can work towards removing them.

If we can get the right technique, make enough time to use the right technique, unlock the chakra or open the chakra, and remove the blockage in order to come out of the disease it has caused, the disease disappears but some of us may not

be able to get the right technique and make enough time to meditate or may not be able to make enough energy to put into the meditation. For those kinds of people somebody else who is a meditator, who is a Master of meditation, can meditate and pass the energy onto the energy centers of the person who is in disease.

The energy can be given. Here comes the question, 'How can energy be given?' There are a few people who are ready to believe that energy can be created by meditation but they are not ready to believe that somebody else can give that energy. Einstein said, 'Whatever exists is energy.' After Einstein developed his theory, physicists and a whole group of scientists turned towards spirituality because he was the first person who proved the truths declared by our ancient sages, the rishis. He said, 'Whatever exists is energy.' There is no borderline between matter and energy. The solid energy is matter; subtle matter is energy. We cannot have any boundary line between matter and energy. Matter and energy are one and the same at two different levels.

Now, the modern-day physicists have come up with this idea of quantum physics. The atom, or part of an atom, is static and moving. Static and moving both are one and the same and happen simultaneously. Initially, the first group of scientists declared there were two particles; one static and the other moving. The next batch declared that the same particle is static at one time and moving at the another time. Now the next batch, the next group, has declared and proved, that it is static and moving at the same time; it is not static at one time and moving at the other time. It is static and moving at the same time; there is no time gap. There is no space gap and there is no time gap.

Whatever you call matter is nothing but energy; whatever you call energy is nothing but matter. According to Einstein, energy is matter, matter is energy and whatever exists is energy.

If you notice, from this conclusion, if matter can be given to somebody else, why can't energy be given? If I can give this kerchief to you, why can't I give you energy also? The only thing you should know is the right time and the right method of giving it. If this kerchief has to be given, it has to be lifted, and it has to be precisely handed over to your hand. In the same way, energy has to be given; it has to be channeled properly, given to your being. If a person knows the right technique of channeling and giving, energy can be given and it can be taken.

The science of giving energy to a person who is sick or diseased or to a person who is in need is what we call healing. The energy can be given to any chakra, any energy center, that needs it and the energy center responds to it. Apart from the intellectual explanation of healing, we have records, medical proof and research reports done in our own ashram, to prove the science of healing, to prove how the energy is given and how and where it works in the system. It has been recorded and how it heals the disease has been proven.

Let me tell you who can give energy and who can receive energy. The man who has realized himself as energy, who has experienced himself as something beyond the body and mind, is the only person who is authorized or qualified to give energy. When you experience you are something beyond the body and mind, only then can you radiate energy. Until then, you cannot radiate energy. Once you experience that you are beyond the body, you are beyond the mind, you are pure awareness, you are pure energy; then, naturally, you start radiating the energy. You start expressing the energy which has become your experience; it will start oozing out and expressing around you. A man who has experienced that energy in his own being is the person qualified to give that energy.

Whether we believe it or not, whether we accept it or not, whether we want it or not, we are in energy. Even if the fish fights his best with the ocean, he will be in the ocean. He may try his best to avoid the ocean; he may try his best to push the ocean away; he may try his best to escape from the ocean; he may try his best to jump from the ocean but he, again, will fall into the ocean. Whether he swims with the current or against the current, the fish is in the ocean. Just like that, whether you understand or not, whether you experience or not, whether you believe it or not, you are in energy. The person who realizes it is the one who is qualified to give energy; he is the one who is qualified to share his energy.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, do you chant any mantra when you heal? Please teach us; we will also do the same.' I tell you, there is no other secret. I don't chant any mantra. When I touch, I just become the touch, that's all. My whole being touches; my whole being feels the energy. Your being is nothing but energy; whether you believe it or not, your being is energy. If your being is not energy, how would you be alive? You are alive; touch totally, that's all. It's the totality that heals; totality is always energy.

Who is the one who is authorized to receive energy? Anybody who is in need can receive energy. There are a few who quickly use it. There are a few tips that can be given to use the energy very easily and quickly, to receive the energy in a beautiful way. People who are basically openhearted, with an open mind, receive energy more easily and more quickly.

Many people ask me, 'Swamiji, should we have faith to get healed.' I tell them, 'No, there's no need.' To know the apple is tasty you don't need to believe; just have a bite, that's all. You will know it is tasty. To know the sun is rising in the east you don't need to believe it; just open your eyes and see. You will see, there is no need to believe. To understand or to have healing you don't need to have faith. You need to have only one thing: an open mind, an open mind to experience. You don't need to have anything else. People with open minds, people with open hearts, receive and experience more easily and more quickly.

-A small story:

One full moon night, an enlightened monk, a sanyasi, was sitting outdoors and enjoying the beautiful scene; the night sky, the stars, and the cool breeze. In a nearby hut, he heard a man complaining bitterly about the miseries of life. So he went and called the man saying, 'Come out, and enjoy this starry night, this full moon!'

The man refused to believe that there was anything beautiful in this life. 'No,' he said. 'I don't trust your words. First, show me the moon, the stars; prove to me that they are beautiful, and then I'll come out!'

The sanyasi cried, 'Just come out, and you can see for yourself!'

But the man refused. Before even coming out, he wanted proof! How can you see unless you come out?

So, after a minute, the sanyasi suddenly started shouting, 'Your hut is on fire!' Immediately, the man came rushing out of the hut.

Then, suddenly, seeing the moonlit night and starry sky, he became lost in the beauty. He totally forgot that his house was supposed to be on fire. He started to tell the sanyasi, 'Oh, it is so beautiful! When you told me I didn't believe you but, now, I understand.'

Then, suddenly, he remembered, 'You told me that my hut was on fire. You lied to me!'

'Yes,' said the sanyasi. 'I had to tell that lie to bring you out of your hut.'

There is actually something called body intelligence but you cannot see it till you drop the doubt! You must have the courage and trust to test it in your life; then you will find there is tremendous body intelligence available to you. There is no need to control the body at all.

When I say people with an open mind, people with an open heart, we always have the wrong idea that they are people who trust anything. This is the opinion of people who work and live based on logic and find it hard to trust anything. All our colleges and universities help us sharpen our logic but they have forgotten to help one of the major dimensions of human beings; their emotions. They help us sharpen our intellect; they help us sharpen our logic. They do everything to sharpen our intellectual and logical thinking but they have not done anything to help us grow emotionally. Because we have not grown, we have not experienced the emotional intelligence, the emotional existence of our being.

We lack one major dimension of our life. If a man is born without eyes, born a blind man, can you explain to him what he is missing? No, you cannot explain to him what he is missing in his life. Similarly, the man who never experienced the emotional aspect of himself, the man who never trusted

something, can never understand what it means to have a deep trust, what it means to have deep emotional intelligence, what it means to have a deep open heart. It is very difficult to make him understand what it means to trust something or somebody.

In Bharat, you will see that every village will have a small shrine and most of the shrines are nothing but one small stone under a tree. Under the tree a small stone will be installed with turmeric, some ash and sandal paste applied on it; that will become God. And you will see hundreds of people going to that stone and getting healed, coming out of their physical diseases, mental illnesses, coming out of their problems. Nothing but simple stones under the tree, worshipped as God, heal people. So many people go to the river and pray to the river; they go to the sun and pray to the sun. They go to the temples and pray to the Gods. There are a few places where they go to the trees and pray to the trees. Trees are worshipped as Gods. Praying to the trees, praying to the stones, praying to the rivers and people get healed. How is it possible? How can this happen?

There was beautiful research done by one of the American universities. I've read the results. They say they took one hundred patients with the same disease and medicine was administered to all one hundred. What they were given was not really actual medicine, but colored water. Neither the doctors nor the patients knew what the medicine was. Just colored water was given to all hundred patients. They say that after five or six days into the study, results showed that more than forty patients were completely healed. They were cured, and another thirty patients were more than sixty percent healed. This research was conducted not once, but eleven times in eleven different places. They did this research and said that at least forty percent of the people got healed. That is not a small number.

This kind of therapy is called placebo therapy. A placebo is a false, pseudo medicine with probably no medicinal qualities in it at all but it has to be given in such a way that the patient thinks it is medicine, and even the doctor has to think it is medicine, so his gestures don't reveal the truth that it is not actually medicine.

And so, the conclusion of this research is that whatever the diagnostic method, whatever the medicine, the very faith, the very belief that they are taking medicine, heals them. The very faith works miracles in human beings. After this research, the medical field has opened its eyes to spiritual healing, or towards the science of spiritual healing. Now we have started looking deeply into the science of spiritual healing. They started saying faith is one of the major aspects to get healed or to regain your health. Faith and trust are major aspects of your health. The very faith, the very trust, can do miracles in your physical system and forty percent means more than one-third of humanity can be healed just by faith. The energy of the emotion can work wonders.

But the problem is that, in all our educational systems, all our universities, all our colleges, they train us to think in a

logical way; they help us to grow our intellect. They help our intellectual growth but none of them has taken any concern to help the emotional part of our being. Mystics, the rishis and Masters are the people who know about the whole aspect of human beings. They know that just intellectual growth is not enough and sometimes, it can be harmful. Just intellectual growth without enough emotional growth is harmful and that is what is happening today to society, to humanity. Just intellectually, scientifically, we have grown; we did all the scientific research and made discoveries but we forgot to develop our emotions: love, compassion, and all these higher emotions.