The word “health” comes from the root word “whole”. What we call “feeling healthy” is a sense of wholeness within. If we are free of diseases medically, that is not health. If we feel complete in our body, mind and spirit, that is when we are really healthy. There are any number of people who are medically healthy, but not healthy in the real sense because they do not experience a sense of wellness within themselves.
If one has to experience this sense of wholeness and oneness, it is important that one’s body, mind and, above all, one’s energy function with a certain level of intensity. Physically, as per medical terms, one may be healthy, but energies may be lethargic. One does not know why things don’t happen in life the way they should, both inside and outside. This is simply because one is not taking care of the wellbeing of one’s energy.
Every physical or psychological situation that you go through in life has an energy basis which manifests as a chemical basis. In a way, modern allopathic medicines have become just chemistry. For every problem that arises in your body, you take some medicine, a chemical, and come to some kind of balance. If you use one chemical to bring down one aspect or enhance another, there is also a side effect. For this side effect, there is an antidote. For the antidote there is another antidote. It is an endless chain. Whatever is happening at the chemistry level in your body is controlled by the way your energies function. Because a man has an excess of acids within, you put some alkaline medicine into him. But why does he have excessive acids? Because of the way his mind, his body and his energy functions.
In yoga, when we say health, we don’t look at the body or the mind, we only look at the energy — the way it is. If your energy body is in proper balance and full flow, your physical body and mental body will be in perfect health. There is no question about it. Keeping the energy body in full flow is not about doing any kind of healing or things like that. It is about going to the foundations of your energy system and activating it in a proper way, building a foundational yogic practice that establishes your energy in such a way that your body and mind are naturally fine.
When it comes to health, no human being gets to live in perfect conditions. The pressures of life, the food that we eat, the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, all these can affect us in many ways. But if the energy in our system is properly cultivated and kept active, these things will not have much of an effect.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, an internationally renowned spiritual leader, is a visionary, humanitarian, author, poet and speaker. He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org
