“Value Education for

Consciousness Transformation”

- Jeevan Vidya, ‘Coexistence’

Workshop

Faclitator: Shriram Narasimhan

zshriram@gmail.com

Based on the Coexistential Philosophy (Madhyasth Darshan) by A.Nagraj -

www.jvidya.com
 Module 2:
Understanding the Human Being

Chapter 7:
Order with the body

Lecture 31: Understanding health

Understanding Health
• In our quest to better understand the human being (ourselves), we
had discovered that we can understand ourselves as a
coexistence of a Conscious Self and the Physical-chemical Body.
• We invested quite some effort in the previous chapter
apprehending the activities in the Self and how they operate.
• We shall now take our story a step further and understand the
principle points in maintaining coexistence and order of the Self
with the Body.
• Don’t worry, we won’t be turning this into a class on human
anatomy!
Understanding Health
• All of us were born as babies! We had tiny hands, feet and eyes,
and possibly weighed around 3 kilos.
• As time passed we started consuming solids. More time has
passed.
• We have eaten, drunk water and breathed in a lot of air.
• Today we have grown up, & have much bigger bodies (greater
than 3 kilos for sure, if you are reading this book!).
• Have you wondered how this happened? All that food was used by
the body for its growth.
Understanding Health
• The tiny feet have become big, the tiny hands have become long
and strong.
• Think about it in this way now:
• Did you decide your own height?
• Did you decide the shape and size of your nose?
• When you were young, did you control the length of the hand, and
do you control it now?
• In fact, did ‘you’ decide to become into an adult?
• The answer is no! All this: is ‘happening by itself’, almost
‘automatically’. We are only playing a minimal role in it.
Understanding Health
• You only have to pay attention to it yourself and you will notice that
the body has a ‘system’ of its own, and it is regulating itself.
• We can start seeing that the body is a wonderful mechanism that
is self-organized and self-regulated.
• On further observation, we can see that the body is also very well
designed. Notice how smoothly the skin heals itself when cut.
• There could even have been a ‘design error’- if the hands had only
four fingers instead of 5! - You wouldn’t be able to do half the
things you currently do, including easily typing a book like this! Or,
let’ say we had 5 fingers, but all of them were of equal length – it
would still be very hard to function the way we are used to today.
Understanding Health
• The knees bend just the right amount, the fingers have joints at
the proper places, the neck turns just right, the ears pick up
sounds, the eyes, a wondrous construction, that mirror the
external world into us.... we cannot but help notice that the design
of the body is near perfect!
• Every human baby is born with this beautiful, near perfect creation
and the best part is, it’s for free! Its free in that, we humans do not
have to do anything to have our own near perfect bodies.
Understanding Health
• Our bodies consist of billions of cells all cooperating in collective
organization. In the normal state, the body self regulates.
• We breathe air, it goes into the lungs, where oxygen is taken up by
the blood in the capillaries and the blood releases the carbon
dioxide it has brought from all parts of the Body and this is
expelled back into the air.
• The food we eat gets broken down by various enzymes, starting
from the mouth all the way to the stomach & gut.
Understanding Health
• The Body thus gets energy from this food and this is used for the
various actions of the body and its growth.
• All this is happening continuously, everyday, by itself, irrespective
of whether we pay attention to it or not!
• It thus becomes clear that the body is a wonderful, carefully
designed and self-organized mechanism.
I take care of the Body
• When the body is not in its normal state, we say it is unhealthy.
This could be on account of:
• Damage to the protective organ (skin) or structural frame (skeletal)
like cutting a finger, or fracturing your leg
• Damage/disturbance in the internal organs: Like problems in the
stomach, heart, kidney, blood vessels, digestive or urinary
systems etc.
I take care of the Body
• What is our relationship with the body then? We saw in the
previous chapter that the human being is as a co-existence of
‘Self’ and Body, and there is exchange of information between
‘Self’ and the Body.
• In this chapter we shall explore the responsibilities of ‘Self’
towards the body.
I take care of the Body
• Question: When you eat a gulabjamun, what do you get?
• Answer: I get the taste.
• Question: What does the Body get?
• Answer: The body gets ‘the material that is in the gulabjamun’ i.e. the
body gets nutrition – the fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals,
etc.
• Question: Are ‘you’ aware of these nutrients in the gulabjamun breaking
down in the body?
• Answer: No, I am only aware of the taste and the feeling of fullness after
eating.
• Question: Can the Body decide how much to eat?
• Answer: No.
I take care of the Body
• The body cannot decide how much to eat. It is ‘I’ (Self) that
decides how much to eat. When the stomach is full, or if the food
has turned bad, there is information from the Body to ‘Me’ about
the same, but it is ultimately ‘I’ that decide how much and what to
eat. (there is a physical limit to how much food can be put into the
human stomach though, although, people taking part in food
challenges (for respect!) regularly seem to cross these limits)
• Question: Since the human being is a co-existence of ‘Self’ and
Body, who will take care of the Body?
• Answer: ‘I’ (Self) will.
I take care of the Body
• We have already seen that the need of the Self is happiness,
peace, contentment, etc and this is fulfilled via understanding
coexistence in all 4 aspects of our living. In the previous chapter,
we explored into the activities in the Self.
• We shall now we see how we can be harmonious with the Body.
From the earlier discussion, it now becomes clear that ‘Self’ has
the responsibility towards taking care of the Body, and this means:
• Nourishing the body and allowing it to maintain its state of health
or self organization
• Assist the Body when its natural state of organization is disturbed
i.e. there is damage/disruption to the external or internal organs
I take care of the Body
• When the Self takes the responsibility for nourishment, protection
and proper utilization of the Body, this feeling is called ‘discipline’.
This feeling of 'discipline', can be translated as ‘regulation’ or
‘sanyam’.
• This ‘discipline’ flows naturally and does not have to be imposed.
There is no feeling of control but a feeling of understanding that is
regulating the way we use our bodies.
• Thus Sanyam is not a feeling of control but a feeling of self-
regulation in the Self according to the needs of the body.
I take care of the Body
Defining health
• “Health can be defined as a state in which all the organs in
the body are in organization and the Body is able to act
according to the ‘Self’ (jeevan)
• For example: We may choose to walk from one place to another.
• If the Body is not able to carry this out, we can say that the body is
unhealthy.
‘Sanyam’ in the Self
• As a result of this feeling of discipline (sanyam), the Self takes care of the
Body and the Body exists in a state of 'health'.
• The feeling of discipline (sanyam) is based on the following understanding:
• I am in coexistence with the Body. I use the body as an instrument.
• Happiness is a need of (my) Self. Food, Shelter, Clothing are the needs of
the Body.
• Happiness is a state of (my) Self and not of the Body and is a state achieved
through understanding and living in relationship with humane feelings.
• Through the right amount of food, shelter and clothing, the body can stay in a
state of health.
• The ‘state of health’ is a natural and effortless state in the body.
‘Sanyam’ in the Self
• Thus, the responsibility of the ‘Self’ is to ensure continuation of
health of the Body via:
• Nourishment
• Protection
• Proper utilization of the Body.
• For the above, we need:
• Food, Clothing, Shelter – appropriate eating and living, with
exercise (vyayama)
• Assist the body when there is a disruption in its state of order. This
is ensured via medicines (aushadhi)
Auto-regulation in the Body
• When we pay some attention to our own bodies, we can see that it
is a wonderful, self-regulated mechanism in which various organs
and functions are harmoniously interconnected.
• So, we don’t need to do much to ensure the health of the body.
• For ex: ‘you’ don’t have to regulate your heart rate, or the
functioning of the lungs , you don’t have to instruct the kidney to
secrete urine, or the gall bladder to do its job, to the pancreas to
secrete insulin, or for the saliva to stay in your mouth.
Auto-regulation in the Body
• If you make a detailed list of everything that happens in the body, it
would be seemingly impossible for us to keep track of all of it –
leave alone instruct the body on what to do!
• Indeed, the set of activities or instructions that the Body performs
every day will run into thousands of pages.
• But, all this takes place on its own – day in, and day out, from the
time we are born to the time we pass away – for every person on
this planet, rich or poor, Asian or American – all of us have
uniformly auto-regulated bodies!
Auto-regulation in the Body
• While all this is happening in the Body, ‘we’ are busy in ourselves
– in the activities in the Self.
• We are busy in imaging, evaluating, thinking, tasting, choosing &
planning. We are mostly hardly even aware of what is happening
in the Body, except when it signals hunger, excretion, pain or
some ailment.
• The body ‘recognizes’ how to stay healthy. In fact, we don’t have
to train the body on how to function! The body is created as a
result of natural processes and all we need to do is understand it
and how it functions and respond to it accordingly.
Auto-regulation in the Body
• We, can thus only understand what is already happening in the
body, recognize and respond to it.
• You don’t decide, can’t change a single internal system in your
own body.
• The ‘functioning’ of your Body is completely autonomous of your
own wishes!
• Thus, all that one has to do is understand the needs of the body
for nourishment, protection and proper utilization, and ensure its
fulfilment in these respects.
Maintaining Health - Sanyam
• ‘We’ keep getting cues from the Body– about the needs for
nutrition and hydration. Sometimes, you may feel like having
something sweet, sometimes, salty, at times spicy food, at times
less and at times more.
• The situation and balance in the Body also changes according to
the seasons, and so do its needs.
• It is important to recognize all this.
• Healthy and nutritious food tastes nice as well! So it’s not that we
have to give up good tasting food, but we understand its purpose
& quantity and also enjoy the pleasure or satisfaction from the
same.
Maintaining Health - Food
• Unadulterated, traditional, fresh, home cooked food, without
pesticides/fertilizers (organic), eating only when hungry (3 to 4
times a day – sticking to a good routine) are sensible habits to
follow.
• This means, we don’t end up eating every time we see something
‘eatable’! We stop eating, leaving some place for air and liquids,
and don’t fill ourselves to the ‘brim’.
• This is because, although there may be more ‘room’ for pleasure
or happiness in the Self (given its continuous need), the Body and
the stomach is limited by design and so is the amount of food we
can put in it!
Maintaining Health - Food
• We also need to make some broad assessment of what
vegetables/items grow in which season.
• These are the best to eat, since they grow easily and their
properties are easily digestible by the body. I
• n the cities, we have started getting almost all vegetables all year
round, with the result that we do not know what we should be
eating when.
Maintaining Health – Daily Routine
• Our bodies are a product of nature. It is best to stick to the natural
cycle of day & night (see the birds) as much as possible.
• Sleeping not long after the birds, and waking a little after them is
thus natural consul to follow.
• In other words, when it comes to the Body, its use and
maintenance need to follow the natural laws of the Body, and not
the whims and fancies of the ‘Self’.
• ‘You’ may feel like watching a movie or playing a game late into
the night, but that is not good for the Body – which is governed by
bio-physical-chemical laws.
Maintaining Health – Daily Routine
• A proper daily routine – what time we sleep, wake up, the times in
which we have food, clean the bowels, etc. thus becomes
important.
• Pay attention to your body and start understanding it – take cues
from nature.
• As in the case of food, falling back on what humans have
traditionally done is a sensible idea, since this has ensured
survival of the human body for many thousands of years.
• What worked then, should largely work now.
Maintaining Health – Daily Routine
• All that said, the human body is also a very robust construction.
• A little bit of variation here and there to fulfil the needs of the Self,
or of culture, etc. are easily absorbed by the body.
• Sustained abuse, is not.
Maintaining Health – Exercise
• We find that our need and ability to do physical work has steadily
reduced in modern times.
• In fact, ‘educated society’ looks ‘down’ upon it today, as ‘menial
work’. We have notions such as only ‘Only illiterate or uneducated
people toil’.
• Whereas, if you ensure that your body does physical labour, it
means that you are recognizing the importance of exercise and
hence can be called ‘educated’!
Maintaining Health – Exercise
• Having done away with physical labour, we are now try to get fit by
running and skipping in gymnasiums.
• In them, we keep running on stationary ‘exercise cycles’ without
really reaching anywhere! Jokes aside, Even if you are not in a
position to do physical work or labour, or ‘pay’ for a gym, you can
definitely do running, different kinds of exercises & yoga to keep
yourself fit.
• Helping around with various household chores, walking to the
store when possible and farming, gardening, etc. are useful ways
to keep the Body fit.
Maintaining Health – Medicine
• Since we assume ourselves to be the Body and are busy with the
activities/programs of the Self, we don’t pay much attention to
what is happening in our bodies today.
• Small changes such as feeling gaseous, acidic, constipated, being
overweight, small aches & pains etc. are ignored and these go on
to cause larger issues later on.
• It thus becomes important for each one of us to become aware of
our own body and its needs and how common, simple, timely
interventions can be used for simple ailments.
• We need to focus more on staying healthy, than on what to do if
we ‘fall sick’.