True Health

True Health does not mean mere existence, nor the clinging of life to the body. Keeping out of the hospital for a number of years does not necessarily mean health either. To be able to resist disease, to bear strain and enjoy mental vitality, to feel the body as a luxury, as a bird feels when shooting through the air, and as a normal child does that is health.

Proficient students of yoga can have that lively feeling of youth everyday. Health and strength are not synonymous terms; a person may have cultivated great strength in his limbs or in certain muscles by working out with machines, but he still may not have good health. It is altogether a mistaken idea to suppose that physical exercise should have as its sole object the attainment of strength.

There are other tissues and organs in the human system besides the muscular. The healthy action of the lungs and the stomach is far more important than great strength in the arms, legs or back. What is so desirable in body culture is the harmonious development of power over the voluntary action of muscles and the involuntary processes of the heart, lungs, stomach and other organs, as well as the important glands in the body. This is what gives true health, and it is the scientific principle underlying yoga.

When life force energy in your “brain battery” (medulla oblongata, pineal gland and in the gray matter of your brain) and in the nervous system is used up, how are you going to renew it? Of course, nature does it automatically when you sleep, but ordinarily we use up much more of it in our waking hours than we store up while sleeping. Hence, we get run down in body and mind at an early age.

This system of Hatha yoga teaches us how to help nature generate and store up more of the life current than we use up, and it also teaches us how to send it down to all the tissues in the body, promoting their health through contact with inner cosmic energy. We must note here a few facts: mental unwillingness to work is always followed by a lack of body energy. Similarly, willingness to become active is always accompanied by a fresh supply of energy. From these facts we can conclude that there is a subtle relationship between energy and will power. Without willingness, we cannot make any motor movement, nor even think for before we think we must will ourselves to think. Therefore, all energy which runs the body depends on the development of will. And the development of bodily tissues depends on increasing the energy by will.

The ancient yogis and mystics claimed that the body is a reservoir of infinite strength and life energy which can be commanded for practically unlimited use by the power of the conscious will. They also believed that the psycho-physical technique of yoga exercise can enable the proficient student to consciously connect the specific life current existing in the medulla oblongata with the conscious cosmic life energy that surrounds and permeates the body, thus insuring a continuos supply.

Will is the prime mover of all energies, which keeps the 27,000 billion, intelligent living cells of the body supplied with vitality. The power of will is the main spring of life which controls the physical state of the bodily cells, and tissue. The right use of yoga resurrects and forms billions of new cells and fresh faculties, all through the exercises of will and desire.

This yoga system supplements and compliments other systems of exercise. It does not employ outward or mechanical means, but works through a man’s ordinary will power. The circulation, respiration, digestion and all other involuntary processes of the body can be harmonized and invigorated and the mind clarified through the proper use of yoga exercises. The results from the right and correct use of these yoga exercises are so fascinating and exhilarating as to inspire and sustain in the student the unflagging enthusiasm in his progress.

The Hatha yoga system of exercise avoids the bad effects of most systems, such as exhaustion of the heart and other organs, or failure to give an all round workout and development. Do you want strength? Do you want health? Your answer, usually, is “I want both.” But having a care; too much attention given to the getting of strength will make you miss real health; for it is possible to simply overwork your heart, lungs and other vital organs and weaken them, just as a motor can be overworked. Not everyone wants to be a world champion in wrestling or win other contests of strength, but everyone desires health and efficiency. The right practice of yoga exercise will help to give wonderful vigor, a feeling of freshness in every tissue and more than sufficient strength. When exercises are done with concentration on muscular development, one kind of tissue, the muscular, is developed at the cost of others. But, by energy control, all the tissues whether muscular, osseous, organic or nerve tissues are strengthened harmoniously.

For a while, the attention of the world was given to calisthenics; then great interest was shown in muscular development of “muscle dancing” aerobics, etc. Now comes the system of yoga exercises, based on energy control or will development. The truly scientific, rounded system of bodily health and strength.

These yoga asanas, or postures, have been specifically conceived and worked out in the ancient past, to awaken the life energy and stimulate the nerve centers of energy. Anything that increases the influx of energy and helps the induction of energy from the brain to the six plexus of nerve energy in the spine, on to the billions of electrical nerve cells, as these Hatha yoga exercises do, is based on true scientific principles whose worth will become increasingly apparent to humanity.

Asana, or correct posture is one of the first steps to God-consciousness, because it tunes the body-mind radio to receive the high voltage of cosmic energy and divine enlightenment. Tremendous muscular development is not the objective of the yoga exercises taught here in these series rather does the student of this ancient art aspire to the development of a slim, well-balanced and healthy body. To achieve this aim the student requires perseverance, ability to concentrate and above all, a willingness to adopt healthy and regular habits of life. In contrast to systems of violent exercises, where the great consumption of energy, the proper practice of yoga asanas or postures does not entail any loss of energy hence longevity is increase. To develop muscle, one must go through hard and strenuous exercise and though these may produce quick results, they may also tend to shorten life. It is not wise to try to develop the body by violent muscle-building exercise, special diet and so forth, without at the same time fostering the growth of vital forces. If the body is developed without increasing its vitality, it will soon be weakened by the strain of running a bigger machine than its organs and functions are equal to. Such strain merely hastens senility and decay. However, it is never too late to begin the practice of this yoga system, for it helps to rebuild the body, to re-energize the mind, to revive lost youth, beauty and strength, to make youth last longer and to repair the damage silently done by wrong methods of living and by disobedience of nature’s simple laws.

Body and mind are so closely related that if one is healthy, the other must also be so. The old Persian saying [healthy mind is in the healthy body]. yoga means “equilibrium” or “union” equilibrium of all our forces, or union of the human soul with the spirit of God and the union of the bodily energy with its source of cosmic energy. The yoga asanas or exercises greatly facilitate this union for they aid the student in perfecting the vehicle through which the spirit can express itself.

Just as the place to be visited generally determines one’s dress, so it is necessary for the soul to be clothed in a harmonious and well-formed body, to facilitate the realization and recognition of the unity which through unknown to most individuals, exists between the human and the Divine. By practicing yoga asanas or postures, one’s power of concentration is greatly improved. The internal mechanism of the body is rested, the breath is quieted, and the lungs receive less venous blood for purification. By stopping the decay in the tissue, the heart’s work of pumping blood is lessened. Yoga asanas energize the nerves, help the right function of the important glands, flush the circulatory system, and carry out food to the muscles, thereby raising the vitality and ensuring long life.

The pressure exerted on the ductless glands by many of the yoga exercises helps to employ their youth-retaining fluid into the blood stream and ward off old age. Yoga asanas may seem strenuous at first, but actually they are not so bestowing a sense of restfulness, rather than fatigue. Constant practice and perseverance however, are required to perfect the asanas. By mastering them, students will be rewarded by abundant health and long life, as proven by the great yogis and masters of India and by the mystics.

Worry and anxiety are responsible for both physic and mental diseases, hastening decay and ultimate destruction of the body. The practice of these yoga exercises greatly reduces physical and mental tensions and inharmonious. Brief mention should be made of the inner life force or latent power within every human being. When awakened, this life force or shakti bestows on humanity many special powers and energizes all the tissue of the body. Through it, the individual’s intelligence is enhanced, his judgment is improved and one acquires a previously unknown peace of mind. The human mind can be compared to a body of water which when disturbed cannot reflect the objects which surround it, but which, when quiet, reflects them all. When the mind is disturbed, clear thinking is impossible and judgment becomes distorted. On the other hand, when the mind is calm, under control and undisturbed by agitated thoughts, the individual concerned greatly benefits.

As control of life force enables the individual to master the mind, the importance of awakening this shakti (power) will be readily understood. The practice of certain asanas gradually awakens this power, and is therefore the foundation of all yoga training. Therein lies the exceptional value of these exercises.

The student should start by practicing a few exercises and then gradually work up to the more difficult ones. It is better to gradually increase the duration of the practice of each exercise, rather than to try to practice a large number of them in one brief period of time. These asanas drive away lethargy and gloom and help to replace them with energy and vitality, thus making the body a fit temple of God. As every other department of life, perfection in the practice of these yoga asanas can be achieved only through earnest perseverance.

I offer to every student of life the key to the kingdom of health and true happiness, which is our birthright. Good health is the greatest asset humans have our most valuable possession. With it we find joy in the breeze and blue sky, in all nature and in every phase of life, spiritual or material.

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