Meditation does prepare us in a smart way.
But meditating on a problem can destabilize oneself.
Meditating on a good thing is different, but meditating on a problem will only make it worse.
What are your thoughts on the relation of Karma to disease?
Many people think that “I have gotten Cancer because I did something bad, it is a Karma
I think against that. I mean not against that, but I do not think that it is the reason.
At this point, you have a disease in your body and we are going to figure out the best way to come out of it.
But how would you explain that to people who are suffering from disease,
who accept that “This is my Karma so I must suffer.”
Well, what would you say, where millions of Jews were killed in the Hitler camp?
Was it the Karma of every single human being who was exposed to that torture?
I would like to bring this to your attention so that you can tell all your patients.
In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful terminology, ‘Swasthya’
Generally, it is taken as ‘Health’.
True in one sense, when you consider health
an overall phenomenon of harmony between body, mind, and soul.
When the mind is compromised, it is one sort of trait.
When the body is compromised, because it is not healing for whatever reasons,
it has its own traits.
But both, especially the bodily ones,
to a large extent, remove it through the modern medications that we are having;
mental thing, it is a challenge.
The root behind the mental problems is, as you say, Karma
But then, many other things also play a part in this whole equation.
It is not individual Karma from the past.
I have the ability to change my destiny,
though
my destiny today is governed, let us say,
sixty percent
by my karmas or by my Samskaras
But I still have
a greater amount of freedom to change my destiny as well, you see.
If I am allergic to a certain food,
is it because of my karma Perhaps.
Even if it is, what are you going to do about it?
There are ways and means as to how to improve
our reaction
to the food that we take,
behavior that we have.
One behavioral thing that impacts a disease,
which immediately shows up
people having Psoriasis; while they are depressed,
when they are angry
when they are irritable, it flares up.
You know, this skin disease, Psoriasis. It flares up because of such changes at the mental level.
In turn,
Psoriasis and lung diseases are also correlated.
I have seen over the years of observing myself,
when I am angry, when I am irritated, when I am grateful, when I am in an extreme state of meditation,
when I am so absorbed
and when you observe the breathing pattern, at all these times, it is so beautiful,
you can mark the differences. When you are angry you can see that your breath has gone haywire.
Per contra, when you are in an extreme state of meditativeness, it is different.
When you are in such a state all the time,
imagine what happens to this breathing problem?
What happens to Psoriasis? They will subside very fast.
Allergic reaction to external things subsides very quickly. There are many good studies done recently.
Papers are not published as such, because the research is still going on. But we have found so far
that Heartfulness meditation with Transmission has reduced,
greatly, over forty percent
the extent to which one would have nausea after chemo.
Nausea, vomiting is the number one complaint after chemo.
But if a person is exposed to Heartfulness Relaxation, Meditation and Transmission,
it changes everything. Meditation does prepare us in a smart way.
But meditating on a problem
can destabilize oneself.
Meditating on a good thing is different, but meditating on a problem will only make it worse.
Nutrition. You know, people get on diets. There are fad diets, there are fad exercise programs.
Everything is extreme in today’s world. You know, ‘Ketogenic Diets’ and all these things.
People have moved away from simplicity.
I always compare, I always look at the life of farmers.
I look at farmers working in the fields. I have spoken to so many of them.
The women are slender, tall, healthy, and robust, except for the ones who are sick, of course.
The men are ripped.
They do not go to gyms, they do not drink protein shakes, their food is minimal, carb-based.
What grows, they eat.
I mean that is Nature showing you, you do not need to read a magazine written by a doctor
or a nutritionist saying that,’This protein will build your body.’ It is clear.
It is a product sale or you are enhancing a diet.
So there are fads that exist in the world. I am noticing that spirituality today is also becoming a fad in a way.
The people are making it a fad, it is not a fad.
So people jump from one chanting class to another, one meditation class to another.
And yet they seem more unsettled than ever before.
So, what I see is that what they have learned in their meditation, they have failed to apply.
They do not learn to apply it.
So, I have learned to meditate this morning today and my intention for the day is not to react but to respond,
it is great. It is an intention. But the moment I get into a situation, I am reacting. I am not responding.
So I feel that people have a ‘To do list’ and ‘Meditation done, exercise done,
organic shopping done’- they are just following a list.
But they are not applying, they are not able to apply it.
Now, people who are sick, they get the opportunity to apply, because they realise that, “Okay,
my Chemo cycle is coming up, I am going to visualize and I am going to meditate and do it differently today”.
How do you see us bridging this gap and getting people to start applying as a routine, as a discipline?
Is there a technique that, you know, we can get people to really apply
so that they get a true benefit of this in their lifetime?
When you desire the most, it runs away.
You try your best, ‘Oh, I want to sleep, I want to sleep,’ it does not happen.
People who meditate also, they say, “Oh, today I am going to go off.”
The moment I close my eyes, I must
be at a super, super, ‘Super-Consciousness’ state of Samadhi.’ It does not happen.
The more you chase, the faster it runs away from you.
You have to relax all your efforts first.
The second thing is: Do you have interest?
This is even more crucial than the first one.
If you have the interest, then you do not need to use the will power.
You do not have to struggle; you do not have to put on an alarm clock.
Interest creates everything. But the problem starts when I do not like to meditate.
“I am interested in my health.
But I do not like to meditate. What do I do?”
“I am interested in my health, but I will not take Chemo.”
“I am interested in my health, but I will not go and see this doctor.”
“I am interested in my health, but I will not take these foods. I am happy with whatever I am eating.”
Well, if you have this attitude, not even God can help you.