Prevention and Cure🔗

All of us place so much emphasis and effort, give so much importance, spend so much money and energy…only to cure diseases. However, we do not spend even one percent of our effort to prevent diseases.

This is not only as an individual, but even as groups, as societies or as a country. All the governments of this world build so many hospitals…spending so much time, effort and money in curing diseases. We do not do anything to prevent diseases because for what ever reason we do not believe that they can be prevented. Medical people…scientists or doctors…either in psychology or physiology, are constantly working only with patients. They finally have come to the conclusion that man, as such, is illness. There is a poignant letter written by Sigmund Freud considered by many as the father of Psychology, after 30 years of research, that in his experience, man as such is sickness and cannot live happily.

Of course, the specimens on whom he did his research were all sick people, his patients. He did not have an opportunity to interact with a Buddha…a person who has achieved spiritual bliss in himself. Since he did not have this opportunity he came to the conclusion that life is misery; and human beings cannot be healed, therefore a human is nothing but a bundle of suffering. He arrived at this conclusion only because his exposure was so limited!

Eastern mystics, the Rishis, however have declared ‘Amrutasya Putraha’ which means human beings are the embodiment of immortality by nature, and the embodiment of energy and bliss. After so much of research, psychology has concluded that the nature of human beings is sickness, but the rishis have declared the opposite…that the nature of human beings is bliss. Be very clear…depending on which point of view you take your whole life will be changed.

The rishis speak of potentiality whereas Sigmund Freud speaks of the reality in which we live…and the reality is sickness, be it physical or mental. Even though we may have sickness, life itself is not suffering. Can you say that the sky is nothing but clouds, just because you see a cloud? There is some space beyond the clouds which we call ‘pure sky’. This is the space in which the sun shines, and where the silence, beauty and bliss of space prevail. The rishis declare that any disease is nothing but a cloud in your mind and body.

Just like the clouds, these too will pass…they will move on. We work intensely on cure once we fall sick but somehow we do not ever think of prevention…we take our health…our body for granted. We do not even remember our body when we are healthy. A simple definition of health is that if we are able to tolerate our boundary, to tolerate our body, be at ease with our body we are healthy. When we are unable to be at ease with our body we reach the state of dis-ease or disease!

A beautiful saying in Taoism goes like this…‘When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits the belly is forgotten; when the chain fits, the neck is forgotten!’ When we are healthy, we forget our body and boundary and do not think that we need to maintain the body.

Another point in this context is that we always think of health as no diseaseness…the absence of disease. Have you noticed we place a lot of emphasis on not going to any hospital, not taking any medicine, managing the day to day routine well, to think we are healthy? However, according to me the definition for health is positive; it is ‘well – being-ness.’ It is not merely no diseaseness. No diseaseness is only part of health; there is something more than no diseaseness; a positive well-being, a state of ease going beyond the state of no diseaseness. This is what I call health.

If you look at life from the point of view of the ancient masters, the rishis, they say that life is to be lived in a blissful way .They say ‘Anandam Paramaha Nabhyajaanaath’. In Sanskrit it means existence is bliss; do not waste it by missing it. The very existence, the very life and breath is bliss. They say that the body is filled with nectar and life is bliss. Therefore ensure that you do not waste it by not enjoying it…by not experiencing it.

If we are experiencing life as only misery, as a totality of clouds, we are missing life somewhere seriously. We are sick somewhere. Only when we feel that life is a great blessing, we feel that it is an overflow of energy. This is when we are living life….understand clearly…Existence is bliss! We cannot exist without bliss as anything in the world can exist only in the hope of achieving bliss. Bliss is the one and only inspiration…joy is the one and only hope with which human beings are still alive on planet Earth. Only when we understand that life as such is bliss will we be able to move ahead in our journey of preventing diseases!

As long as we believe that life is misery, whatever we do will be against life; we will be going against the current to escape from the misery that we perceive. However, if we perceive it as bliss we will try to relax more and more. There are only two options for us. Either we can think of life as misery and try to escape from it…or think of life as joy, and relax more and more and enjoy it in the state of ‘well-being ness.’

Meditation…when I use this word, I mean putting your mind totally at ease with your body and your consciousness. Now, our body and mind are not at ease with each other. Let me give you a scale of what is ease of mind and body with each other…if you are living comfortably within the boundary of your body, your mind is comfortable with your body.

Have you ever noticed how does the mind live with our body? Observe your now. When we are in our house, we are thinking of our office. When we are in the office, we are thinking of, say a beach. If we are in the house, we can be sure our mind is not in the house. If we are here, we can be sure our mind is not here. Wherever our body is, we are not. Our mind is not comfortable with our body which is why it keeps moving here and there. We are not happy or totally in the present moment!

This is why we are either in the past or in the future. The pull towards the future or being caught up in the past happens because we are not happy with the present. If we are happy with the present moment, we will see that our mind is naturally at ease with our body, without any botheration of the future or the past.

A vast majority of our time we spend in two kinds of thinking. It is either planning or worrying. Planning happens based on our body. Chronological planning is what we are to do today, tomorrow and so forth. This is perfectly alright. This happens keeping our body as the centre. Our consciousness stays inside the body and it works. Planning never drains our energy; it does not tire or depress us…we do not feel bored or disturbed about life. It continuously gives us energy.

People who are in the field of construction or engineering feel a deep satisfaction of creating because an important part of planning is creativity. Understand, only God can create; so whenever you plan and create, you are experiencing a moment of Godliness. That is why great poets, dancers, musicians or any creative person has such a deep satisfaction within their being...a deep fulfillment...the joy of creating. Even in the field of art, so many thousands travel the path of art, however not all of them get paid! Many of them do it as a hobby. They do it as a hobby because it gives them fulfillment. Fulfillment can come only when you experience the Godliness that is inside you. Only those people who experience Godliness can create. When a woman becomes a mother she feels totally satisfied...she reaches her fulfillment, as she has created and realized her potential. When a seed becomes a tree, it gets a deep satisfaction because it has realized its potential. So when we create, we realize the God within us. Creativity makes us realize our potential energy and rejuvenates us constantly.

There is a second type of thinking, which is worrying. Note that in this type of thinking, we will not be the centre of our mind while worrying. Our mind will be centered elsewhere thinking and brooding over the future. Our imagination is based on greed or fears, and phobias based on fear. When we travel in these two zones, greed and fear it is sheer hell on the mind. Is it any wonder that the rishis have described the travel through greed, fear, anger, and jealousy as our journey through hell!

We must understand that hell is psychological, not geographical. It is just a state in which our mind stays, the space within which our mind is stays. When we are filled with greed and fear we are definitely worrying...we are in the space of hell. We are not comfortable with our self or our body. Naturally we end up with a deep feeling of discontentment. This is how we create more trouble for our body and mind.

Understand very clearly that when I use the word meditation, I mean that your mind is living totally at ease with your body...you are living totally at ease with your body and that you are living inside your boundary comfortably. And mind you, there are thousands of meditation techniques to reach that state of ease.

Let me explain how meditation can cure us and how it can prevent us from contracting sicknesses. Physically there are thousands of researches which have proved that meditation cures ailments. I have seen this not only in my own body but in that of others too...how meditation effects miraculous cures!

Just a month before I left for this trip, a lady came to meet me. She had been suffering from psoriasis for the past 20 years. She had tried every possible medication but in vain. Now she had come for my help. As I sat talking to her, I realized that she had a deep sense of self contempt and a very low self esteem. I suggested that she should stand in front of a mirror and scream at herself for 15 minutes every day, to bring out the anger and self condemnation she had for herself. She resisted...saying that this was impractical.

I again asked her to try it just for 21 days which she did. Amazingly enough, it has been medically recorded that after 15 days she has been totally healed! This technique which I gave her is from Sufism.

We have similar testimonials attesting to the power of meditation to cure many other sicknesses.

Mentally there is no need for a testimonial...to know that an apple is tasty, we only need to take a bite. Likewise we only have to meditate to know what miracles it creates. Almost all our psychological disorders are based on greed and fear. Excess of greed and expectation always leads to hopelessness. Any hope leads to hopelessness…hope is the path and hopelessness is the goal. If we hope to have some money, we have been saved if we have not achieved it! Achieving money only leads to depression of success. We never achieve the joy that we had hoped to achieve on achievement of money. It is an endless trip for the mind which keeps searching for newer and newer achievements…and endless journey of ‘what next’.

We do not work solely for money…we think we will have something through the money. Only when we have achieved that status we sought through money, only then do we feel that we are fools; that we have gained nothing. Only when we achieve our hope, we understand that it has ended in hopelessness. This may sound very radical or contradictory…be very clear…till we achieve our hope; at least we have a hope.

Once we have achieved what we hoped for, we realize the hopelessness of it. This is why people who have enough of the outer world of material and money…turn to the inner world having seen that fulfillment of hope only leads to hopelessness.

Only meditation takes us beyond fear and greed…it gives us a deep sense of fulfillment and well being…it shows that life itself is ecstasy and life is too short to be spent in worrying…that the present moment is too valuable to be spent chasing the past or the future. Meditation makes us realize the value of the present moment. It makes us feel and experience the ecstasy of the present moment.

However, we rarely experience the present moment. Buddha calls this ‘Thathaatha’, which means ‘suchness’…that which is…just is…now and here. We are nothing but a link between the past and the future. We are never an entity, an individual in the present moment and therefore never experience the ‘suchness’. Only when you experience the suchness will you understand the beauty and grandeur of it. Only then you can begin to understand my statement that life is bliss… it is joy…it is ecstasy! The rishis have declared just this.

When we experience the bliss of the present moment we feel such a deep contentment…such a deep fulfillment…such a deep satisfaction, that not only do we prevent diseases from happening, but also the basic disease of the feeling that ‘we are the body’ is cured. There are two kinds of diseases in us: one is sickness related to the body and the other is the sickness related to the idea ‘I am the Body’. Sickness relating to the body can be cured and prevented by meditation.

Dr. Muralikrishna from Oklahoma, whom I know personally and who has done research on the mind, has in his report called ‘Mind-Matter’, given many scientific proofs as to how wrong thinking and wrong mental set ups can disturb one’s health. In moments of anger, violence, and vengeance we have a 220% greater chance of a heart attack!

The mind has so much power over the body. If we look deeply there are no two separate entities called mind and body. There is only one entity called mindbody. One end of our being is mind and the other is body. What we experience is the mind, what we express is the body. Expression of the mind is body and experience of the body is mind. Be very clear that it is the same thing… outer end is body, inner end is mind; they are not two separate identities at all!

When we understand how to handle our mind, it can do wonders on our body and our health; to cure and prevent diseases, including the ultimate disease, the idea that ‘I am the Body’.

Once we start feeling ‘I am the Body’… we start feeling the boundary and very simply this feeling the boundary is nothing but sickness. When we forget the boundary, we are in health. When we are in total health, we seem to be flying. In Zen Buddhism, it is said that when somebody walks he cannot be Buddha as Buddha floats. Understand that it is not physical flying…it is the being which floats. When we are really healthy, in bliss and in ecstasy, we do not walk…we float because our being is so light, like a flower!

Normally all communities, societies and governments work to cure the people but do not work to prevent the diseases. What is totally missed by them is the fact that meditation will prevent and destroy the very root of diseases. There is another fact to be noted which is that people want sick people so that they can serve. I used to ask voluntary organizations why they could not invest in preventing diseases to which they replied they would have no more business if they did! They wanted people to fall sick so that they could serve and cure.

Meditation is a wonderful technique to prevent illnesses because it never allows suppression or repression in our system. Meditation continuously rejuvenates and cleanses our whole being. Why spend so much money on this when it can be done with a little investment of time for yourself?

Do give that much importance and time to yourself…take up a little bit of meditation…some technique as a part of your life, not only to cure but also to prevent the illnesses and reach the state of eternal bliss…Nithya Ananda.

Q: What do you mean by bliss?

A: Bliss! I can describe in two ways; one is, not feeling caged or bound, ‘Swatantra’…this means freedom. The second is feeling blessed to have this body. You have a deep feeling that the Divine has blessed you…that the existence has blessed you… that your very life is a blessing…this state of feeling is bliss.

A small story:

A young man…poor and unemployed went to church and prayed to God, ‘O God! Please have mercy on me; help me…somehow give me 100 dollars. I will be able to manage for a week. I shall then get a job and repay you’.

The Priest, who was passing by, heard this prayer and felt sympathy for the man. He placed 50 dollars in an envelope and gave it to the man, saying that this was a gift sent by God to be given to him. The man rushed home, opened the cover and saw the money. He then prayed to God, ‘O God! Next time you send me money, please send it directly; the priest has taken half of what you sent as his commission!’

Notice that this man is looking at what is missing, not what is given! He feels life is a suffering even when he gains. He is not able to enjoy life even when he gets something. When this attitude is set mentally within you, whatever you gain makes you feel the same way as this man.

A person came to me and said, ‘Master, you say that life is bliss…but I have lost my diamond ring! What do you have to say to my suffering?’ I replied, ‘Fool, feel happy that you have not lost your finger! Enjoy…feel the joy…the bliss of being alive. Can you earn your life, even a single breath as you do money and material things?’

Life is a pure gift from existence. You must feel blessed for having this body and life. First feel that you are not bound or caged…feel a tremendous freedom…inner freedom. Next, feel blessed for having this life itself.

These two put together and something more, is what I call bliss. In Sanskrit there is a word called ‘ananda’. I broke it and gave you the meaning. ‘Aa’ means a feeling of blessedness, ‘ashirvada’ and ‘nanda’ means a feeling of freedom…unboundedness. By your very nature, you are in bliss. That is why you work for it. If you get a headache, you try your best to come out of it. Why? You know that this is not your nature therefore you take a tablet, tie your head tight, apply balm….do all sorts of things just to be rid of it. Your nature is headacheless-ness. If your very nature were to be with headache, would you try to get rid of it? You would not even be aware of a headacheless state. You would simply be in it. You now work intensely to come out of the headache by taking medicines, by resting; because that is not your nature and you want to go back to your true state.

In the same way you know for sure in your heart of hearts that bliss is your nature. You work for it…strive for it. Whether you search for it through the outer world of money and material benefits or through meditation…it is still the search for bliss. Search for money is also nothing but search for bliss. You want to expand your boundary because you have more choice. That is the reason for your desire of wanting more money…because you have more freedom to choose, your boundary is big. Money as well as meditation…both are nothing but paths to bliss.

If you strive for money you work through the outer world, and when you work through meditation, you strive through the inner world. Both are techniques to achieve bliss. But the trouble with money is that you get a choice of sufferings instead of the bliss you seek, whereas meditation puts you in choicelessness, which is the ultimate bliss!

Q: Can you explain the difference between pleasure and bliss?

A: Pleasure is that which rests between two pains. Bliss, when it is marked and limited between two pains is pleasure. The gap between two wars can never be called peace; it is merely a truce where in preparation for other wars are made. Similarly, the gap between two pains can not be bliss…it is merely pleasure.

To put it more clearly…bliss is eternal, but a small portion of it is pleasure. Bliss experienced for a very short time is pleasure. When you try to hold bliss, it slips away from you; this is pleasure. Anything which is experienced for a short time is pleasure. Be clear…part time bliss is pleasure whereas full time pleasure is bliss…nothing more…nothing less!

Q: Is this why we greet people as ‘It is a pleasure to meet you’!

A: (Master laughs)…See, bliss itself is choicelessness. People around me are greedy for the state I am in! It is not that they do not know of my problems. I have enough of them. Just yesterday somebody asked me after seeing the way we work, ‘Are you a spiritual master or a CEO? How do still live in such a continuously joyous state?’

I answer…it happens because I do not have a choice. Choicelessness is bliss. When people choose bliss consciously they suffer. When you choose choicelessness, you are trapped. Therefore drop the idea of choosing the idea of choicelessness. Drop even the choice towards choicelessness. You will then see that bliss just happens to you. Bliss is like a breeze...you cannot make it happen...you can only open the door to let it in...you can only make space for it. Drop the choice between choice and choicelessness; then you will see the bliss happening to you. Just open the door and let the breeze in! Be in that state of Eternal Bliss or Nithya Ananda!