Health- Make it Count

When I opened the glass door to the balcony this morning I felt the energy of the new morning hit me like a wave on the sea shore. The energy of the Sun energizing the lives- eagles, birds, stray dogs, the bamboos, large trees, people taking a walk, energizing the very air I breathe and the very energy that I can touch, inhale, see, hear and feel. The Earth, slumber of the night wakes up to the morning Sun, a love story that spans the whole of our existence. Sun the provider of the energy propels our daily lives and we work and exist in a perpetual serendipity – such a beauty and a mystery called Life.


No wonder Sun has been the centre of many of our ancient religions and eulogies are endless and I am not competent enough to say more. But whatever said and done Sun is still the manifestation of Energy, without getting into scientific terminology that we associate all and sundry that would take away the intimacy we share with the meaning of that Star in our daily lives. We just know we don’t need say more. The energy chooses to travel for 8 minutes from its source energizing the earth with its climate and life on it. This energy pervades everything, bedrock of any action or inaction, animate or in-animate, our very lives. The bedrock of the millions of years of evolution of all of us. Philosophy, Science, Religion all have wanted to pin this very energy down giving it dimensions, shapes, models ultimately evolving into super human manifestations the so called God. No matter how hard, or painstaking effort went into the designs of this all-mighty, all that was eventually left behind are towers of Babel, lives ostracized, crucified, wars, bloodshed, books fomenting revolutions. Whether the designs affirm the almighty or denies it, no matter what has been done it has only added to the mischief.

All said our daily existence is not a theory. We may not know our body, our brains, and not knowing how to figure it out. Invariably we expect somebody else to do it for us, we fear straying away, making a mistake, afraid, scared and all the while we are running out of options, the world continues to change tick-tock, tick-tock… As Pink Floyd’s Time goes

“…And then one day you find
Ten Year’s have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun”

Our ambitions, dreams, expectations, peer pressures, politics, and complexes and with all these we are to walk. All this is paid for by our health. Health, a word that talks of about the well being of our body. Health, the provider for the entire endeavor we are to embark upon, whether we really know or do not know the reason behind them is immaterial. Health- The manifestation of the energy that this beautiful being seems to represent. The bedrock of this health is the balance that body and mind has in a mysterious way to channel the energy to invest in things we do. We are not sensitive about the impact some thought, habit has on our health and are sensitive to some others. We may or may not be fully prepared to some things before it hits us hard. We remember such experiences and end up becoming wiser if we learn. What seems true today need not be so tomorrow. Our perception changes with experience, it is more dynamic than we would normally admit. It can pick up any stray thought and affirm it for both good and bad. Thermodynamics would refer to this as entropy or as Aristotle maintained pure reason is a fallacy. So then we wonder what is to be done.

For 60 plus years J.Krishnamurti had a very simple message- Question, question everything. It makes so much sense because questioning is a means with which we explore the world- ourselves and that around us. We may have to be ready to take our definite ideas to dumps and acquire new ones or go back to the dump revisit the ideas that were thrown. Better to be humble for the simple reason that Ego comes in the way of learning. In the end we don't know. It is not our choice to make of what is to happen. We are sailors on the sail boat waiting for the right wind to take us forward- our job is to get the boat ready and wait. Our beliefs in the grand scheme of things may mean nothing- Questioning our thoughts, our beliefs everything, no exceptions, even questioning the act of questioning. Only after carefully sifting through the silt on the river bed would we chance upon that nugget worth more than gold.

We need to get this equipment the body and the mind in pristine order in order to navigate our lives. The body questions its constitution through exercise and the mind questions its assumptions through observation. In this exercise and observation the body stumbles upon wisdom that makes living worthwhile. There is no one way to do but somehow geniuses are born to demonstrate it to us that there is really many ways, techniques, or make us question our own ways or perhaps a way of no-way. Perhaps this is the course correction that the entire human organism constituting every individual mysteriously takes in order to make sure that the entire species is on the path of sustenance- cycle of balanced birth and death, making sure that the species does not die out or some such theory. Though fantastic it after all is a mere interpretation. We take seconds to swath through millions of years of existence; we are bound to go wrong. The body and the mind must unite becoming one before we get to see a more accurate picture. As the Musketeers would call "All for one and one for all".

All said and done the Sun rises every day; the life wakes up every day, does its day's work and goes to sleep. In so doing the various species live and by design or accident cooperate or at least it, seem to. Humans are albeit connected but somehow the prevailing perceptions have taken us away from the grand balance. Until we course correct and get to where we should be the pursuit will be on, if we disregard this movement evolution catches up on us. The body cannot hog the carbs and dwell in inactivity for soon the mind gets heads straight to bad habits, negative attitudes, depression and the body en route to manifest symptoms of the so called lifestyle diseases. The fall is precipitous each bad habit, physical or mental affirms itself more and more and we pay the price with our health. It not only affects the individual but all those near and dear. Our health is like a spinning top, the spin will sustain the balance until the momentum wanes, wobbling starts and then sudden abrupt end. One doesn't have to start on the road to enlightenment for world peace. The charity can begin at home where the chores have to be done without getting bogged down. One can begin with simple problems before going for the question of all questions. But first the health, without which everything else is naught.

We have not made things any easier for us. There are opinions, perceptions and stereotypes that we need to break free from- 6-8 pack abs, zero figure, health products, latest and greatest training regimes (we don’t get tired of them, do we?). Although sometimes even a mindless action movie can throw nuggets of wisdom

"Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups"
              - Under Siege Part 2: Dark Territory

We have to fight out lethargy, inaction and host of other problems, it can be excruciatingly frustrating. Even all the motivating stories of our heroes may not be helping. It is a challenge that takes courage, sincerity and resolve to confront our fears and hang ups. One may not have answers, religions may be of no help only thing perhaps one would do is to wager for hope. Only thing that will perhaps cushion the blows would be one's health as Lao Tse in his life’s work Dao De Jing put

"...The wise therefore rule by emptying
hearts and stuffing bellies, by
weakening ambitions and
strengthening bones."

And when we do surmount the difficulties there can only be relief and the sense gratefulness of taking care of one's self holistically. By whatever means, we need the very energy that we choose to eulogize or otherwise. From where, how, how come, that is only a way to paralyzing one's intellect. In the meanwhile let me enjoy the morning just for what it is.



-Kaustav