HEALTH IS WEALTH

“Dharmartha-kama-mokshanam arogyam moolamuttamam;

rogastasya-apahartarah sreyaso jivitasya cha.”

--Charaka Samhita

(Health is the best cause of virtue, wealth, desire and emancipation and

is the blessedness of life. Diseases are the destroyers of health, prosp-

erity and life.)

Day dawns after sunrise, but life lilts from Brahma-muhurta

(God’s own time), glorifying the beauty of God’s creation. Dhyana, Japa and

Tapa along with the enchantment of “Ohm” purify the physical and astral

body. Then 2-3 hours of vigorous Yoga, Asana and Pranayama for a

healthier body and stronger mind. A brisk and energetic walk in the cool

breeze and warmth of sun for the attainment of peace and tranquility

throughout the day.

It is not how the day used to begin for Patanjali or Charaka, but the humble

beginning of a twenty-first century urban in his forties.

Doesn’t this picturize a growing concern towards health! Switch on

any channel in the morning and you will find people doing various physical

exercises. Be it the charge-sheet against Swami Ramdev of mingling bones

in his ayurvedic medicines or the finding of pesticide in soft-drinks, Health is

the headline everywhere.

Health is the basement for doing any activities. Man needs good

health to satiate his greed and desires. Qualification and knowledge lose

their importance in front of a fragile body. Mind and body are bed-fellows.
 According to Juvenal-

“A sound mind in a sound body is a thing to pray for.”

Gandhi, God-father of the nation, used to walk 20 miles a day. On the eve of

Dandi Yatra,Gandhi was 61 years old and was the oldest person in the group.

Hadn’t he taken care of his health, Freedom would have been a distant

reality. So Emerson’s remark” Health is Wealth” is apt.

Here an ultimate question arises, what is health? Is it simply

lack of illness or a clean chit for staying healthy all our life! It is more than

just staying healthy. Health is a transparent medium between mind and soul.

It is an ambassador of physical world to Spirituality and a coordinator

between life and peace.

Coming back from the world of Spirituality and rushing through the

doors of twenty-first century, health is a mechanic’s tool to earn wealth. To

keep it functioning and fashioned, care must be taken. Here comes the

usefulness of a disciplined life.” Taking care of health when sickness

comes” approach must be discarded. Thomas Fuller has rightly said-“Health

is not valued till sickness comes.”

However, in today’s high-profile and high-strain jobs, capacity to

cope with difficult situations, keeping nerves under control and persistency

to perform for 22 hours determine an employee’s continuity in a particular

company. Work load, unhealthy diet, inadequate exercise has really made

man robotized. So it’s no surprising that new diseases are beginning their

era,be it life-style disorders or computer related injuries(CRI),growing trend

of neck and back pain among youth or ever-enlarging-horizon of cancer and

AIDS.

Scientists have proved that most diseases grow from the seed of

stress, and till date there is no specific medicure for stress.If 15 minutes of

yogic exercise,be it the pranayama of Swami Ramadev or sudarshana kriya

and isha yoga of Sri Sri Ravishankar, can relieve us from the saitan of

stress ,then it’s surely not a misuse of time rather towards better time

management. The most common excuse one comes across for not

exercising regularly is the paucity of time, which isn’t always true. If Anil

Ambani can find time, why can’t we? It will be wise here to take a brief glance

of Anil Amabani’s daily morning schedule.

Anil is an early bird. The day begins with his now-famous jogging

and 30-minute workout in the gym. Meditation and yoga then fine-tune his

mind. A short visit to the temple in the house completes his morning routine.

INDIA—HER HEALTH AND HEALTH-CARE –

An average poor household spends nearly 50% of its lifetime

income on health care. In fact, health care expenditure is the second largest

cause for rural indebtedness in India.

WHO recommends that a nation needs to spend nearly 5-6% of its

GDP on health systems. But in India it is abysmally standing at 0.9%.We also

claim to have the world’s best medical care facilities and talk of medical

tourism but more than 75% of people aren’t accessed to these facilities but

we still have the Noors of Pakistan coming to Narayana Hrudayalaya of

Bangalore for getting heart transplant. However, a doctor being the most-

sought and steep rise of private hospitals, we believe the conditions will

soon improve.

“If wealth is lost, nothing is lost;

If health is lost, something is lost;

If character is lost, everything is lost.”

Modifying this quotation in the context of twenty-first century will neither be

a dishonor to Fuller nor hamper people’s stereotypes cramming.

“If wealth is lost, nothing is lost;

If character is lost, something is lost;

If health is lost, everything is lost.”

Is character relevant today? Had it been, India wouldn’t have stood 88th in

the list of ‘least corrupted countries’ and Gandhi would have become the

most popular person in the country, neither Bill Gates nor Swami Ramdev,

the health Guru. But those days of dark clouds are disappearing as India is

marching towards becoming a super economic power along with a high-

grade hub for health and spirituality.

However, our motto should be-“Let Health create Wealth”

Health is wealth, money isn’t real wealth;

Don’t collect only wealth; it might spoil your health;

Don’t spoil your health, by thinking about wealth;

Always have good health, which is the real wealth.”