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 Modern man is not what he was years ago. Technology has changed the very way of life of the modern man. The lifestyle is completely opposed to what it was before and the connection between nature and man is diminishing with time. Although man is adapting to the changes yet health is today one of the major concerns of this age. Osho says, “All the jobs that the city provides are unhealthy, because people are sitting the whole day in chairs. Man is not made for that; his body is made for at least eight hours' physical labor. Basically he was a hunter, running after wild and fast animals. And that was his food. He managed for thousands of years, and naturally he had a certain health that modern man cannot afford. If you don't use a certain part of your body, that part slowly becomes useless; then you cannot use it.”
Man can be divided, into three parts: the body, the mind, the soul. If all the three are perfectly in tune and there is a well-being in all the three, it becomes one well-being of the total organism from the physical, psychological, to the spiritual. Then it is holistic health.
Osho says,“The whole of your being has to be healthy. There are people with healthy bodies like Muhammad Ali, but these people don't have any sense of something beyond mind. They have trained their bodies; their bodies are perfect animals. Their minds are not so evolved. No Bertrand Russell will be ready for boxing; the whole idea is ugly, it is barbarous. Their bodies are in health, and strong, but just like animals. Their minds are very retarded; otherwise they would not be in such an ugly and violent profession.
There is no question of their being meditative or their being in touch with the beyond. The holistic person is whole, undivided, one. His zorba and his buddha have become one.
His hedonism and spiritualism have become one.”
Health is not only a physical phenomenon, that is only one of its dimensions, and one of the most superficial dimensions, because basically the body is going to die, healthy or unhealthy, it is momentary. Real health has to happen somewhere inside, in the individual’s subjectivity, in his/her consciousness, because consciousness knows no birth, no death. It is eternal. To be healthy in consciousness means: first, to be awake; second, to be harmonious; third, to be ecstatic; and fourth, to be compassionate. If these four things are fulfilled, one is inwardly healthy.
“Sannyas can fulfill all these four things. It can make you more aware, because all the meditation techniques are methods to make you more aware, devices to pull you out of your metaphysical sleep. And dancing, singing, rejoicing, can make you more harmonious. There is a moment when the dancer disappears and only the dance remains. In that rare space one feels harmony. When the singer is completely forgotten and only the song remains, when there is no center functioning and only the song remains, when there is no center functioning as I -- the I is absolutely absent -- and you are in a flow, that flowing consciousness is harmonious.
And to be awake and harmonious creates the possibility for ecstasy to happen. Ecstasy means the ultimate joy, inexpressible; no words are adequate to say anything about it. And when one has attained to ecstasy, when one has known the ultimate peak of joy, compassion comes as a consequence. When you have that joy, you like to share it; you cannot avoid sharing, sharing is inevitable. It is a logical consequence of having. It starts overflowing; you need not do anything. It starts happening of its own accord.
These four are the four pillars of inner health. Attain to it. It is our birthright; we just have to claim it.”
OSHO
This issue of the online magazine explores the theme of holistic health. Suffering is symbolic. It does not have causes, but only one cause. Howsoever different the suffering, the cause is always the same. The cause is that the hidden harmony between the human mind and the cosmic existence is lost. Whenever the hidden harmony is broken, suffering arises. The suffering that is all around is only symbolic of the broken harmony. Even physiological suffering is symbolic. It means that the harmony in the body is broken. In the same way, mental suffering means that the harmony in the mind is broken. Wherever harmony is broken, there is suffering.
Suffering means broken harmony and bliss means harmony regained. 'Health' means harmony.
- Editor
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