Health and Disease
By Karmayogi
Health is very
important for all, but no one thinks of it until he falls ill. When we are ill,
we only think of getting rid of our illness, and do not so much consider
restoring our health. It is a sovereign right of our being healthy and
therefore it never constitutes a problem in our mind until we are forty or
sixty. Nehru had to fill up his nomination form for election to the Lok Sabha. Coming
to the column of profession, he exclaimed, ”Profession, what shall I say,
shall I say Prime Minister?” He knew as long as he was alive he would be the
Prime Minister of this country. During his youth, when he returned from a
public meeting, his family used to call him ”Bharat Ratna”. That was the
origin of the highest award in India. How would Nehru have a goal of becoming
the Prime Minister, as it is there without his asking. Health is such a
prerogative to every man and therefore he never dwells on it.
One who is chronically ill or in old age dwells on health as it is a precious
possession to him. Even when such people, by a fortunate turn of events, enter
a state of health, they forget it. The doctor reads our temperature, blood
pressure, sugar level, studies the symptoms of the disease we report and
diagnoses it before prescription. The mother at home knows the health of her
children by the ringing tone of voice, the shine of the skin, the sparkle in
the eyes, the firmness of the step, by the cheerfulness they exude. It is
certainly a better scale. A parent took his three-year old child to a doctor
when she fell down from a running cycle. The doctor treated her bruises. The
parent was waiting for the doctor to ask him to get an X-ray of the legs as the
child was limping. The doctor put the child on the table, let her stand without
support for a few minutes. The child cheerfully answered the doctor’s
questions. ‘There is no fracture,’ said the wise doctor.
Health is a greater measure in treating a disease then the partial symptoms by
which young doctors rush a patient into surgery or treatment. The origin of
health is highly laudable values, more than good nutritious food. Food is a
physical part, one part of the four – mental, vital, physical, and spiritual. The
values one upholds govern his whole being. Right values lead a man to avoid
unhealthy food. Cows have a natural sense of eating. When they are wild, they
avoid poisonous weeds. When domesticated, they believe the master so much that
they eat poisonous grass the master feeds them. Health is a priceless
possession not only in advanced age but at all stages of growth, and to be
centred in the Spirit is the surest way of enjoying the greatest health.