HEALTH IS WEALTH “Dharmartha-kama-mokshanam arogyam moolamuttamam; rogastasya-apahartarah sreyaso jivitasya cha.” --Charaka
Samhita (
Health is the best cause of virtue, wealth, desire and emancipation and is the blessedness of life. Diseases are the destroyers of health, prosp- erity and life.) Day dawns after sunrise, but life lilts from Brahma-muhurta (God’s own time), glorifying the beauty of God’s creation. Dhyana, Japa and Tapa along with the enchantment of “Ohm” purify the physical and astral body. Then 2-3 hours of vigorous Yoga, Asana and Pranayama for a healthier body and stronger mind. A brisk and energetic walk in the cool breeze and warmth of sun for the attainment of peace and tranquility throughout the day. It is not how the day used to begin for Patanjali or Charaka, but the humble beginning of an twenty-first century urban in his forties. Doesn’t this picturize a growing concern towards health! Switch on any channel in the morning and you will find people doing various physical exercises. Be it the charge-sheet against Swami Ramdev of mingling bones in his ayurvedic medicines or the finding of pesticide in soft-drinks, Health is the headline everywhere. Health is the basement for doing any activities. Man needs good health to satiate his greed and desires. Qualification and knowledge lose their importance in front of a fragile body. Mind and body are bed-fellows. According to Juvenal- “A sound mind in a sound body is a thing to pray for.” Gandhi, God-father of the nation, used to walk 20 miles a day. On the eve of Dandi Yatra,Gandhi was 61 years old and was the oldest person in the group. Hadn’t he taken care of his health, Freedom would have been a distant reality. So Emerson’s remark” Health is Wealth” is apt. Here a ultimate question arises, what is health? Is it simply lack of illness or a clean chit for staying healthy all our life! It is more than just staying healthy. Health is a transparent medium between mind and soul. It is an ambassador of physical world to Spirituality and a coordinator between life and peace. Coming back from the world of Spirituality and rushing through the doors of twenty-first century, health is a mechanic’s tool to earn wealth. To keep it functioning and fashioned, care must be taken. Here comes the usefulness of a disciplined life.” Taking care of health when sickness comes” approach must be discarded. Thomas Fuller has rightly said-“Health is not valued till sickness comes.” However, in today’s high-profile and high-strain jobs, capacity to cope with difficult situations, keeping nerves under control and persistency to perform for 22 hours determine an employee’s continuity in a particular company. Work load, unhealthy diet, inadequate
exercise has really made man robotized. So it’s no surprising that new diseases are beginning their era,be it life-style disorders or computer related injuries(CRI),growing trend of neck and back pain among youth or ever-enlarging-horizon of cancer and AIDS. Scientists have proved that most diseases grow from the seed of stress, and till date there is no specific medicure for stress.If 15 minutes of yogic exercise,be it the pranayama of Swami Ramadev or sudarshana kriya and isha yoga of Sri Sri Ravishankar, can relieve us from the saitan of stress ,then it’s surely not a misuse of time rather towards better time management. The most common excuse one comes across for not exercising regularly is the paucity of time, which isn’t always true. If Anil Ambani can find time, why can’t we? It will be wise here to take a brief glance of Anil Amabani’s daily morning schedule. Anil is an early bird. The day begins with his now-famous jogging and 30-minute workout in the gym. Meditation and yoga then fine-tune his mind. A short visit to the temple in the house completes his morning routine..We also claim to have the world’s best medical care facilities and talk of medical tourism but more than 75% of people aren’t accessed to these facilities but we stillhave the Noors of Pakistan coming to Narayana Hrudayalaya of Bangalore for getting heart transplant. However, a doctor being the most-sought and steep rise of private hospitals, we believe the conditions will soon improve. “If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; If health is lost, something is lost; If character is lost, everything is lost.” Modifying this quotation in the context of twenty-first century will neither be a dishonor to Fuller nor hamper people’s stereotypes cramming. “If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; If character is lost, something is lost; If health is lost, everything is lost.” Is character relevant today? Had it been, India wouldn’t have stood 88th in the list of ‘least corrupted countries’ and Gandhi would have become the most popular person in the country, neither Bill Gates nor Swami Ramdev, the health Guru. But those days of dark clouds are disappearing as India is marching towards becoming a super economic power along with a high-grade hub for health and spirituality. However, our motto should be-“Let Health create Wealth” Health is wealth, money isn’t real wealth; Don’t collect only wealth; it might spoil your health; Don’t spoil your health, by thinking about wealth; Always have good health, which is the real wealth.”