Mystic Mantra: The four pillars of health

Volumes have been written on illnesses, but there is no book on health, for health is a mystery. Whether health is primarily physical or spiritual is a debatable question. The Sanskrit word for health is swastha, meaning centered in oneself. What is commonly known as disease is actually the body’s effort to protect itself against any kind of invasion.

Physicians struggle to cure the symptoms of diseases that emerge in the body, but their causes remain unknown. The World Health Organisation has defined health as “complete physical, mental and social well being and not just absence of disease or infirmity”.

It is a broader view where health does not just mean physical fitness of an individual, but also social, emotional and spiritual well being. The ancient wisdom of Ayurveda also resonates with this approach for it professes that the responsibility of a doctor is also to help preserve the health of human beings.Considering this wider definition of health, it can be said that today very few people can be called really “healthy”. There is a sense of of restlessness among people today. And they seem ill at ease. Osho says, the problems of the modern times, whether corruption and greed, or a perishing environment, terrorism or terminal disease — all of these stem from a feeling of uprootedness. Old values are crumbling and a new system is not yet born. Modern man is like a dying tree, he needs nourishment from inside and that nourishment can only be spiritual. Health implies a balance of life energies within man. Real health is generated somewhere deep inside us at various levels of being, in our subjectivity, which then percolates to the physical surface as a “glow” or a sense of well being.

Answering a question from a meditator, Osho once mentioned the four pillars of health: first, to be aware and alert; second, to be harmonious with oneself; third, to be ecstatic and fourth, to be compassionate. If these four aspects are developed and strengthened, you are creating the soil for health. These are like fortresses that do not allow negative elements to attack you. The next question naturally would be: how does one cultivate them? These qualities are inherently interdependent. All meditation techniques are methods that make you more aware.

If you add celebration — dancing and singing — to it, you can be more harmonious with your energies. Awareness and harmony create the grounds for ecstasy. As a consequence of having attained ecstasy and known the luminous peak of joy we see the emergence of compassion. This fabric of inner health will enable the immune system to fight any kind of destructive virus and preserve the mysterious phenomenon called health.

Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.